My personal Growth Plan

Growth Mindset is vital to the success of an individual as it is proven that this mindset will treat failure as a step on the road to success. Conversely, a fixed mindset will cause people to not want to work towards success in anything (Jeffrey, 2020). They will continually believe that success comes to those who are naturally talented; therefore, failure is mentally equated with a lack of talent. It should be noted that growth is not pointlessly trying something that does not work. Growth is about learning from the failure, receiving counsel on the best way to proceed, and then taking those necessary steps forward. A fixed mindset will only value the appearance of natural talent, of being the best of the best (Dweck, 2016). According to Scott Jeffrey, the two mindsets are juxtaposed in the following manner: “In a growth mindset, you believe you can develop any ability through dedication and hard work. Because of this belief, you have a desire to learn. This enables you to embrace challenges and persevere when setbacks invariably arise during the learning process” (Jeffrey, 2020). Those, that truly want to be successful will embrace the growth mindset, which is the mindset of embracing a process of learning. 

Watch a growth mindset teacher correct a fixed mindset student. The teacher learned from his failure and so does the student.

Thankfully, those of us, who were adversely affected by a fixed mindset environment, have the opportunity to change. I have wanted to see healthy change in my life for many years, but I talked myself out of change and maintained the same habits. Truly I believe the insanity of maintaining the same habits is believing that there is no choice. This is why I choose to follow the below listed four steps to change to a Growth Mindset (Jeffrey, 2020).

(Jeffrey, 2020)

        1. Stop allowing free reign to the voices that chide me for supposed past failures. These internal voices have been the chief cause of me remaining in the fixed mindset. This also includes not listening to people who audibly vocalize a fixed mindset, and who do not encourage healthy change.

        2. Embracing the challenge of the growth mindset for me is to seek out choices instead of settling for no choice. This is part of the learning process.

        3. Positive reinforcing words such as, “You did this well…” and “Next time, think about…” will all become normal sentence stems to myself. When receiving feedback or even toxic criticisms, I will take responsibility for areas that need correction and improvement. This practice will promote positive growth in me. I can learn from any situation and anyone.

        4. I will take action by formulating appropriate questions as to how to implement the feedback in action steps.

Carol Dweck writes about the Fixed vs Growth mindset in her book, Mindset. Watch her promote the related concept of yet. “We will get there yet.”

The message of “yet” is best connected through conversation, modeling, and media. As students are my primary audience, my most effective way to communicate the message of “yet” is to stop talking about failure as permanent when giving feedback on projects. My students will be taught to discard the idea of talent and intelligence in favor of determination and hard work. I will also model this for my students by accepting feedback from my colleagues and other leaders; growing from what they tell me. I will also incorporate this on my social media pages and upcoming podcasts.

The sad part of this picture is that the fixed mindset people, who are holding the rope, think they have that person’s best interest in their hearts. That’s what leads to unhealthy mindsets and stagnation. The growth mindset person feels like me over the last few years. I had to persevere in the face of bad circumstances.

The concept of growth mindset is already influencing my approach to life. I have already approached my leaders about different ideas that would involve personal growth on my part. I have stopped defending aspects of my life that were traditional, as though they were sacred.  This course has given me much to think about, and I have decided  my approach is to go all in for a positive growth mindset.

Sources

Dweck, C. (2014, October). Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol

Dweck. Stanford+Connects.

Dweck, C. (2016). Chapter 2: Inside the Mindsets. In Mindset the new

psychology of Success (pp. 15–16). essay, Random House.

Jeffrey, S. (2020, June 23). Change your fixed mindset into a growth

mindset [complete guide]. Scott Jeffrey. Retrieved February 5, 2022,

from https://scottjeffrey.com/change-your-fixed-mindset