Sunday, 23 August 2015

“Do You Have a Fixed or Growth Mindset?” ―Professor M.S.Rao











“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” ―Benjamin Franklin


During my leadership development programs, people often question why only a few succeed while the majority remains as ordinary or failures. There are many responses to this question. One of the responses is about understanding the difference between fixed mindset and growth mindset. People who succeed are the ones with a growth mindset while the people who remain ordinary are the ones with a fixed mindset and the people who fail are the ones with a declined mindset.  

Fixed mindset is about people thinking what they can do. They often think that they cannot grow beyond that. They get complacent with their success. They also remain happy when people around them praise about their success. In contrast, people with growth mindset, they learn, unlearn and relearn. They continuously learn and grow. They are undeterred by failures. They explore and experiment constantly by taking risks. They regularly take feedback to grow. Feedback is food for them.


Elephant and Mental Limitations ― A Short Story

 Here goes the story of an elephant. A baby elephant was tied with a metal chain. It tried many times to unchain but failed miserably. After repeated unsuccessful endeavors, it came to conclusion that it was not capable of breaking the chains. Later the baby elephant was tied with a thin rope where it can easily unchain with little effort. The baby elephant did not attempt to break the rope because it felt that it was beyond its capacity. It grew old but never attempted to break the rope. These are all mental limitations people have. When people fail repeatedly they develop mental limitations and conclude that they will not be able to achieve success in life. The message from this story is people with a fixed mindset have mental limitations while the people with a growth mindset attempt new things and explore new areas repeatedly to grow in their lives.


Grit Paves the way for a Growth Mindset

People with growth mindset possess grit. Grit is stamina. It is to work with passion and perseverance to strive for long-term goals. It is the ability to see the silver lining over the dark cloud. It is no way connected with talent. It varies with age, experience and observation. It is culture specific. It depends on personality, attitude and behavior of the people. Research shows that people succeed despite not being good at intelligence quotient and emotional quotient because they possess grit quotient. People with grit are undeterred by failures and setbacks. Hence, grit paves the way for cultivating growth mindset. To conclude, cultivate growth mindset to unlock your potential to become an extraordinary achiever.


"Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one's potential." ―Bruce Lee



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Life is great!

Professor M.S.Rao, India
Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants India
Listed in Marquis Who's Who in the World in 2013
Vision 2030 Webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBCO-gWmTRk
Twitter: @professormsrao  
21 Success Sutras for Leaders: Top 10 Leadership Books of the Year (San Diego University) Amazon URL: http://www.amazon.com/21-Success-Sutras-Leaders-ebook/dp/B00AK98ELI




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