Our view profoundly affects the way we lead life.
The beliefs we hold about ourselves guide and permeate nearly every part of our lives. Our beliefs influence our thoughts which limit our potential or enable our success.
Our thoughts often mark the difference between excellence and mediocrity. Our thoughts influence our self-awareness, our self-esteem, our creativity, our ability to face challenges, our resilience to setbacks, our levels of depression, and our tendency to stereotype, among other things.
In life, our challenges become more demanding over the years rather than less. The hallmark of the growth mindset is the passion for sticking with it, especially when things are not going well. According to Dr. Carol S. Dweck author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success and one of the world’s leading researchers in the fields of personality, social psychology, and developmental psychology, having a fixed mindset creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over – criticism is seen as an attack on your character, and to be avoided. Having a growth mindset encourages learning and effort. If you truly believe you can improve at something, you will be much more driven to learn and practice. Criticism is seen as valuable feedback and openly embraced.
A change of mind is always possible, and welcome. Rigid thinking benefits no one, least of all yourself. With a fixed mindset you view your talents and abilities as… well, fixed. In other words, you are who you are. You think that your intelligence and talents are fixed, and your fate is to go through life avoiding challenge and failure. A growth mindset, on the other hand, is one in which you see yourself as fluid, a work in progress. Your fate is one of growth and opportunity.
Which mindset do you possess? It’s not too late to change your mind. Mindsets are not set at any time, says Dr. Dweck. You can learn to use a growth mindset to achieve success and happiness.
If you would like to increase your success and feelings of fulfillment, adapt a flexible mindset and change your thoughts. We are what we think. We can control our emotions by what we choose to think. All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, we make our world.
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