How do you embrace a growth mindset in order to develop yourself?
It's so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind. Over the last year, I felt like I lost months of time where I did good work each day but I wasn't growing. I wasn't pushing myself or our business forward.
What are some ways you make sure that you're always developing yourself? How do you catch yourself? Are you taking courses? Meeting with a coach? Reading constantly? Have a support group around you? Journaling?
I'd love to learn how others are doing it :)
Here we go:
I think the most important is: have strong goals and reflect on what you're doing periodically, to adjust your attitude to your goals.
That’s awesome! Sounds like you have a great system going.
I’m curious to know more about how you reflect on your goals and what you’re doing. What does your process look like there?
Well, I'm a developer and I'm use to work iteratively: I take one little step at a time, make it a habit, and then a take another little step. Overtime it creates something which answers your own specific interests / needs.
Makes sense. Thanks for taking the time to respond to all of these.
🙋 I wrote about this as part of a larger article. Check out the "Traits of a self-learner" chapter here: https://zest.is/blog/modern-professionals-roadmap/
As I was researching, I realized that I tend toward a fixed mindset. So, I'm trying to reform. Becoming comfortable and even embracing failure as an opportunity to learn is something I need to do. That characteristic kind of goes hand-in-hand with developing a willingness to accept uncertainty.
Self-awareness has been my starting point. When I begin to think "no" I need to ask myself why.
Wow what an awesome resource. Not all the way through it yet but some great stuff in there. Thanks for sharing.
I know for me I know things like accepting failure and having a greater self-awareness is good but I struggle with actually doing those things. I want to get better at actually stopping myself and asking why. Talking about it vs. doing it has been my struggle :(
The buzzwords for making those kinds of mental changes are mindfulness and cognitive behavior therapy. Basically, I have a habit of immediately saying "no" to change or challenge. So, I need to interrupt the habit cycle in order to break that habit. What I find is that I often still say "no" immediately but I can change my attitude if I revisit the question later. So, I might think "no" right away but still give myself permission to reconsider.
I have found that I sometimes double-down on a bad idea simply because that's what I've always done or I already made the decision and don't want to back out. I think we tend to be more sensitive to our own inconsistencies than others are. So I may think that others will notice if I've changed my mind but the reality is that they don't care. LOL And, being willing to reconsider can actually earn you respect as someone who is thoughtful and flexible.
I'm definitely still a work in progress on this issue though. :)
We are all works in progress :) I appreciate you sharing all of this.
That's great that you have that self-awareness though. Questioning if you're only doing something because it's a habit or because you don't want to "be inconsistent" is tough. That mindfulness is something I struggle with too.
You're spot on about people respecting you more when you change your mind or are flexible to other ideas. There's a great article on the Farnam Street Blog about open-mindedness. I try to read it once a month as a reminder: https://fs.blog/2017/09/open-closed-minded/. It's more so related to being open to other people's ideas, but I think it can also relate to listening to yourself.
I love Farnam Street. I need to follow your lead and set up reminders to re-read some of the content there.