Springing into March

A focus on the blog this month within my work everyday is our:

Growth Mindset

The concept comes from Carol Dweck’s research and work. ‘In a growth mindset challenges are exciting rather than threatening’.

Carol’s work is very powerful and insightful. My curiosity around this and indeed our mindset started when I first studied psychology and in my early teaching days and continues to be something I draw upon most days whilst practicing flexibility and adaptability.

Let’s now turn our attention to how we can embrace the principles of a growth mindset in our day-to-day life:

• Embrace challenges as opportunities: for your own growth and learning.
• The power of Yet: the difference between ‘I can’t do this’ and ‘I can’t do this yet’. We might not necessarily have the skill or knowledge right now but with time and effort you will get there. I have found by incorporating this in our daily language and thought processes it’s transformative and focuses on progress over perfection.
• Vincent Van Gogh showing the value of stepping out of one’s comfort zone and the power of yet! “I am always doing what I cannot do yet in order to learn how to do it.”
• Celebrate effort: shifting that focus from the end results to appreciate the efforts of you and others regardless of the outcome.
• Embrace imperfection – taking the learning mistakes are a natural part of our learning process. They are wonderful opportunities to learn and grow.
• Seek constructive feedback – seeking feedback and viewing it as a tool for growth and being open to perspectives that might be different to your own.
• Practice flexibility and adaptability daily – being willing to change your approach if things don’t seem to be working.
• Cultivate curiosity – one of my favourites and as Brené Brown says ‘our superpower’ I echo that! Being open to new experiences learning and knowledge. The idea of being a lifelong learner.
• Our goals – set these as growth orientated to focus on improvement and learning. Celebrate the steps as part of the journey.
• Lastly practice mindful self-compassion – treating yourself with the same kindness concern and support you would show a good friend. It provides that space to engage in self-improvement from a place of self-care rather than self-criticism. By sharing this compassion we create a supportive kinder and empathetic environment for all.

I very much connect with Kristen Neff’s work and trainings here and this quote from Kristen is a great reminder:

“Self-compassion is simply giving the same kindness to ourselves that we would give to others.”

And from me:

‘Our journey of learning is a continuous opportunity of self-discovery awareness connection and so much more’ - Helen

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