This week in my high school advisory class we discussed growth mindset and why it matters. Based on the research of Carol Dweck, a growth mindset is believing in your ability to learn and grow. In contrast, a fixed mindset believes that your ability is set—you are either naturally good at something or you’re not and that’s just the way it is. As you can imagine this mindset has a tremendous impact on learning. It can either lay a solid foundation for positive change or it can limit development. This perspective not only influences one’s skills or achievements, but also their behavior, character, relationships, and well being. A growth mindset also impacts circumstances, even ones that are beyond your control, by helping you respond effectively. Let’s briefly look at some key factors that can help you develop a growth mindset.
Changing Your Mind Makes Some Difference
Trevor Ragan of The Learner Lab breaks down the growth mindset into having a proper belief and a proper focus. You need to believe that you can learn, grow, and influence change rather than giving in to the defeated notion that nothing can improve. Also you need to focus on the process of getting better rather than dwelling on performance failures or looking bad to others. Ragan asserts that you can begin to change your thinking by viewing effort, challenges, mistakes, and feedback in a positive light. See effort as useful. Embrace challenges as an opportunity to grow. Learn from mistakes. Accept and use feedback as a stepping stone for improvement.
Trusting God Makes All the Difference
Ragan presents solid, practical advice. You will experience success implementing what he has outlined. However, as a follower of Jesus, I am convinced that you can be even more successful in bringing about change. Your most powerful transformation takes place when you submit to God changing you from the inside out. He created you, he knows you even better than yourself. He loves you. He can make your life infinitely better than anything you can achieve on your own. Let him. Confess your wrongdoing to him and receive his forgiveness. Trust him to renew your mind and empower you to think and to live rightly. Specifically here are some thoughts on approaching your belief, focus, efforts, challenges, mistakes, and feedback with a godly growth mindset.
Belief What you believe impacts your values which in turn affects your actions and your growth. Know that God is powerful and loving (Romans 8:35-39). “It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). God has your best interest in mind. He wants you to be with him, to be like him, and to do what he does. Jesus, God the Son, makes that possible because he died and rose again to save you (2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 6:23-24). Anyone who trusts in him can experience new, abundant life growing with God now and forever (John 3:36).
Focus Apart from God your focus is typically wrapped up in yourself—how you look, how others look at you, how you feel, and how to find pleasure. In short, how to fulfill yourself. But God is calling you to look beyond yourself. Your greatest growth and greatest adventure is not in fulfilling yourself, but denying yourself and letting God fill you with himself. By loving God first and then others your life expands to encompass unsurpassed blessing and opportunities that you will never experience by focusing on yourself.
Efforts The Bible teaches that Jesus is the author and perfecter of your faith. You can do nothing truly significant on your own, but only by relying on him like a branch must abide in the vine to grow (Hebrews 12:2, John 15:1-8). So learn what Jesus taught, follow his example, and rely on his grace and power at work in you and through you to do so (Ephesians 2:8-10). Reading about Jesus in the book of John in the Bible is a good place to start. For relying on God’s effort more than your own see my recent blog note, “293 Rest Assured.”
Challenges In this fallen world of broken people you will face challenges, but view them as opportunities to grow. Even amidst difficulty you can have a deep, underlying joy in Jesus because he has overcome any challenge you will face and he will see you through it. Trials can draw you closer to God, refine your character, enlighten you, train you, and strengthen you (James 1:2-4; Romans 5:1-5). They also enable you to empathize with and comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:4). God promises to bring all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
Mistakes Don’t beat yourself up over past mistakes. Satan tries to use guilt and shame from your shortcomings to drive you away from God. Instead utilize mistakes to draw closer to God. Give them to him and let him redeem them by teaching you from them. With God’s help try to right any wrongs and live at peace with others as much as it depends on you (Romans 12:14-17). Seek their interests before your own (Philippians 2:3-4). Know that with God you can change. Nothing is impossible with him (Luke 1:37; Philippians 4:13). When you sin, confess it and know that he is faithful to cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Then joyfully move forward seeking to please God and glorify him because you love him.
Feedback God does not leave you alone to figure out how to live and thrive. To those who trust him he gives his Spirit to comfort, counsel, train and empower them (John 14:26, 15:26, 16:5-15). Respond to his Spirit by being faithful, available, and teachable. God brings down the proud, but exalts the humble (Matthew 23:12; James 4:4-10). Pray with a listening heart. Heed God’s direction then do the next right thing he shows you.
Conclusion
With the right mindset you can change and grow. God loves you and wants the best for you which is himself. Submit to him and his plan for your life. He has given his son, Jesus, to make that possible (John 3:16-21). “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2). Place your faith in God and experience the difference only he offers—a new, abundant, everlasting life.