Do you feel like you’ve hit a wall in your personal growth? Do you think you’ve accomplished everything you’re meant to achieve? Chances are the answer is no, and if you answered yes, then it’s time to change your mindset because the most important part of personal development is recognizing that you always have a potential to grow.
The Growth Mindset
If you don’t believe you constantly have room in your life to grow and develop, then you are the victim of a fixed mindset. People with a fixed mindset aren’t focused on self-improvement, and therefore, unsurprisingly, they don’t tend to succeed as often as those with a growth mindset do. According to a number of studies on student achievement, training in how to maintain a positive and growth mindset raised the average GPA’s of 9th graders in one school by 0.10 GPA points, and this is just based on telling someone that having a growth mindset helps!
To achieve and maintain a growth mindset it’s important to recognize that you don’t know everything and that you always have room to improve. Even if you believe you’ve mastered one subject, find ways to expand on your knowledge.
The world is always changing so there are always new things to learn no matter what your area of expertise may be. For example, if you finished a class mastering a new language, maybe it’s time to take a trek to the country where they speak that language to put yourself to the test!
Reasons To Continue To Grow
While mastering an activity may seem like a good end of growth goal, it's actually better to set a goal to constantly continue to learn about something. This is because when we believe that we have no more room to grow, we often become complacent and we lose the happy feelings associated with continual achievement. Not only that but continuing to grow provides us with a healthy dose of self-confidence as we persistently learn new things.
Constantly setting new or progressive goals keeps us on our toes and takes us out of our comfort zone. It makes us more self-aware which will help us recognize any additional areas in our lives which could use some additional improvement. Thinking that you’ve learned everything will only lead to feelings of emptiness and boredom, so don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t still have room to grow!
Reaching For More
If you’ve decided that you want to reap the benefits of a growth mindset, then you’re already halfway there! The next thing you need to do is look at your life and find areas in which you may need to improve. You don’t just have to think of it as improvement, rather think of it as something you may want to revisit or refresh. For example, if you learned a language to fluency in high school, maybe it’s time you revisit your knowledge and try reading a book or watching a tv show in that language. You’ll be surprised by what you can learn!
Besides just deciding what you want to improve upon and how also make sure you write your goals down. If you write down progressive goals without a clear end in mind (such as “practice Spanish every day”) make sure you provide frequent updates for yourself or perhaps list milestones such as “practice Spanish every day for one year” and then after the one year, up it to two years, and so on. This will help keep you driven and on track even when your goals may seem endless.
As you constantly place yourself in a mindset ready for personal growth, you’ll be surprised by what you discover and astounded by what you achieve. And pretty soon you’ll find yourself on the road to leading a more successful and fulfilling life.
Until next time, many blessings and much peace!