How to Develop a Growth Mindset and Become More Resilient
The ability to develop a growth mindset and become more resilient is a core pillar in the journey towards realigning with your authentic self. Having a growth mindset is what will allow you to learn and be open to new ideas. This will help you discover more about who you are and what you really need. But like anything in life, there will be challenges along the path, which is why you need resilience. Your mind will try to keep you in your comfort zone and stick to what’s familiar, even if it’s hurting you, which is why you need to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Defining Growth Mindset and Resilience
Developing a growth mindset means opening your mind to the possibility that you are not stuck the way you are just because that’s who you’ve always been. You can teach yourself to become different, better, more educated, have better emotional control, etc. You can change and develop yourself, and that idea is actually backed by science. When you learn new things, you are strengthening, weakening, or even eliminating certain connections in your brain. This is called neuroplasticity, which is essentially your brain’s natural ability to change and grow. And it doesn’t only occur in childhood, it occurs throughout your whole life. While neuroplasticity and a growth mindset are not the same thing, the concept of neuroplasticity provides the biological foundation for a growth mindset. In other words, if you think you can’t do it, biology says you can.
When you develop a growth mindset, you also become more resilient. You are able to bounce back from challenges with more ease and are more adaptable to change. This is because once you adopt a growth mindset, you have decided that you are changing your life. You are committed to doing what it takes to learn and become better. You will not be discouraged as easily. That being said, you will not be motivated all the time; no one is always motivated 100% of the time. But you will become more committed to yourself and more disciplined. Let’s get into how to do this.
How to Develop a Growth Mindset
Once you realize that you’re not a victim in your life, but rather a creator of it, you’ve already taken the first step. Here are 3 more ways you can change your thinking to develop a growth mindset and become more resilient.
See Challenges as Opportunities
Start to view challenges as opportunities to learn and grow rather than setbacks or reasons why you’ll never change. Life is full of challenges. You can’t avoid them. Once you start seeing them as opportunities to improve yourself rather than becoming exasperated or throwing yourself a pity party every time you encounter one, you will find that they begin to excite you rather than shut you down.
Change Your Vocabulary
Become aware of your vocabulary both out loud and in your head. Your words have a massive effect on your experienced reality. In a way, you can speak your reality into existence. Instead of saying “I can’t do this”, say “I can’t do this yet” or “I am learning how to do this”. In place of thinking to yourself “this is too hard”, try “this is challenging, but I will figure it out”. Instead of believing “I can’t change because I’ve always been this way” or “this is just who I am”, consider changing the language to “I was like this in the past, but I’m working on it”.
By doing this, you are telling your brain that you are not limited to who you have been up to this point. You’re conditioning yourself to believe that you are capable of learning, growing, and developing. By not identifying with a negative feeling about yourself or a past version of who you were, you are getting rid of all your limiting beliefs that are holding you back. You’re creating space to discover and become a new version of you.
Practice Self Love
Practice self love and celebrate your progress. Success isn’t linear and neither is the journey to developing a new mindset. Whenever you find yourself thinking negative thoughts or saying harmful things to yourself, imagine that you are talking to yourself as a child. Would you tell your 5 year old self that they’re a failure and they’ll never succeed at anything just because they made one mistake? Would you tell your 8 year old self that they’re stupid for dreaming of a better life? Or would you tell your 2 year old self that it’s not ok to cry when they’re feeling sad or hurt, and that crying makes them weak? If you wouldn’t say those things to a younger version of you, why is it ok to say them to yourself now?
Remember that part of self love is celebrating your progress and your wins, no matter how small. You started to think “I can’t do-” but you replaced it with “I’m learning how to do this”? That’s a win. You fell off track yesterday but you woke up this morning still committed to yourself? Celebrate that. Most people tend to compare themselves with where they want to be but they forget where they started and how far they’ve already come. If you’re always comparing yourself with where you want to be, you’re never going to be satisfied. Moreover, you won’t be able to stay focused on the present moment, or, as a result, be able to enjoy the journey.
How This Builds Resilience
When you begin to implement these strategies and grow your mindset, you become more resilient. A challenge that may have stopped you before becomes a learning opportunity that you are not only able to work through, but also grow from. You are less likely to give up on your dreams because you’ve built better discipline. When your negative self-talk used to stop you from doing things, it now encourages you to keep going. The stronger your mindset becomes, the more resilient you become.
Final Thoughts
In a world constantly bombarding you with do’s and don’ts, should and should nots, coming home to yourself is a challenging task. But the more open you are to learning and stepping outside your comfort zone, the easier it will be. Some people you know might feel threatened by this new version of you; the one who seeks knowledge and is unapologetically authentic. They may feel as though you’ve left them behind and rather than grow themselves, they want to pull you back down with them. Rather than let that happen, reflect on your growth. Celebrate how far you’ve come, and keep your mind open to going even further.
Authenticity is magnetic. The more you grow and realign with yourself, the more you will see yourself finding the right opportunities. You’ll start meeting the right people and being in the right place at the right time. Your energy will be free to attract what’s right for you rather than being depleted by maintaining an illusion of a life that isn’t true to you.
