I imagine the growth mindset as a magic carpet that will take us anywhere we want to go. This magic carpet is powered by our lessons in life.
So the question becomes, how can we leverage the thing we will surely encounter – failure – to propel us forward?
Check out my three-step process to leverage failure for all it’s worth using a growth mindset:
Step #1 - Become Aware of Your Mindset Around Failure
It’s our nature to want to grow, yet when we courageously open ourselves up to new possibilities the question lurks, what if we let ourselves or others down?
Somewhere along the line maybe we learned to push away our dreams to protect ourselves and avoid the pain of failure and disappointment.
The hitch is that when we get wrapped up in a fixed mindset -- thoughts about who we are and who we aren’t; what we can and what we can’t accomplish -- we not only shut the door on failure but also on one of the best things about life…becoming more than we are now.
It all begins with becoming mindful of your story-line, uncovering your fixed mindset thoughts that wrap you in a cocoon of fear.
Start with self-inquiry and tracking. Everything I’ve ever done to truly create change in my life has included tracking. Tracking my calories, spending, activity level and now my thoughts.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself each day around challenges, mistakes and feedback:
Challenges: What challenges caused me to back down today?
What were my limiting thoughts around this challenge?
How could I frame this challenge as an opportunity?
Mistakes:
What mistake did I make that caused me to get discouraged and/or blame others today?
What were my limiting thoughts around my mistake?
How could I view my mistake as a useful lesson?
Feedback: What feedback caused me to get defensive today?
What were my limiting thoughts around this feedback?
How could I leverage this feedback to improve?
Only when you become consciously aware of your limiting thoughts can you replace them and be free!
Step #2 - Redefine the Word Fail as First Attempts In Learning
I recently decided Instagram would be a great way to connect with you. This decision brought me face to face with my deeply entrenched fixed mindset thought - ‘I’ll never figure out how to use Instagram.’ which paralyzed me from even trying.
So, I brought in the big guns…the power of YET, to see if it could be my ticket around this block.
* I don’t know how to use Instagram - YET!
I knew I needed knowledge that was beyond me, so I sought out help, and lots of it!
My 17-year-old God-daughter, a native Instagrammer, agreed to give me some ‘reverse mentoring’. She showed me lots of fancy options to make snazzy posts and videos! What fabulous filters and boomerangs for starters, and I saw I’d been missing out!
I left our time together with a better understanding of what the app could do. But, honestly I felt less clear and more overwhelmed on how to do it.
But I didn’t give up. Determined to hold on to my growth mindset, I turned to my wonderfully tech savvy and kind co-worker to help me create a video post. In this IG lesson I forgot to save my video six -not exaggerating- times. I was embarrassed, and that’s when I heard myself declare that Instagram must be to blame, not me!
Almost as soon as I said it, I realized I slipped into the blame game, one of the biggest tells of a fixed mindset. We had a good laugh and on my 7th attempt I got it right and felt a surge of elation...as if I had slayed a charging tiger! Take that fixed mindset!
Instagram is still a big challenge for me and I’m grateful because it’s a perfect chance to get out of my comfort zone, utilize my resources and remember that success takes time and effort and requires me to fail again and again… until finally all those failures will add up to success!
This has reminded me that with the right mindset, the point of failure is the lesson and improvement, instead of proof I’m a failure.
The growth mindset makes the difference between my feeling nearly despondent verses excited for my next chance to learn, which will surely include some laughs!
Experiences like this reaffirm that life is brimming with opportunities to become my best self - one failure at a time!
Thanks to a lot of help and determination to learn a little each day, I’m making strides and would love for you to say Hi to me on Instagram @CathieHIPandHappy!
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” - Thomas Edison
Step #3 - Mine your First Attempts In Learning for All They’re Worth
Our next step is to leverage failure by holding our fails up to the light of day by asking these four questions:
1. What caused the F.A.I.L.? (Was it not your passion, was your goal unclear, did you needed additional resources?) 2. What would you do if you had the same chance again 3. How are you a better person because of this experience?
4. How will this F.A.I.L. help you create a brighter future for yourself and others?
What First Attempts In Learning are you using to power your growth?
Kommentare