Your Mindset Matters | by Kadijatu Conteh

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill

Over the past couple of years, I’ve had to learn to reframe the way I think about failure and setbacks and a huge part of that has to do with my mindset and general approach to life. Mindset is everything. It affects your thinking and therefore your actions and behaviours. Learning to adopt a growth mindset has changed how I show up both in my professional and personal life in the best possible way. I believe everyone should strive to have a more growth-oriented mindset. But first, what does the term “growth mindset” even mean?

What is a Growth Mindset?

A person’s mindset is essentially the way they think and the opinions they hold. This is influenced by many factors such as upbringing, culture, experiences, people, and unconscious beliefs to name a few.

The term “Growth Mindset” was first coined by Stanford Psychologist Dr Carol Dweck. In her book ‘Mindset: The New Psychology of Success’ published in 2006, she details the difference she found in attitudes to failure in certain students compared to others in a study she conducted with college students. Some students believed that their abilities, intelligence, and talents were fixed traits; these students were described as having a “fixed mindset”. By contrast, students with a “growth mindset” believed that their abilities, intelligence, and talents were not set in stone and could be developed with effort, learning, and time.

Why Should You Adopt a Growth Mindset?

People with a growth mindset have been consistently found to be more resilient in the face of adversity and are more adaptable to new challenges. Because of their positive attitude towards life, these people tend to bounce back more easily from failure and persevere through their goals. They are also more open to criticism as they want to learn and grow which is a very important trait to have in the workplace.  

For example, I recently started working at the office (very exciting) and one of the things I had to do was learn a new language: PHP. Some of you may know but PHP is hated by a lot of developers. Listening to other people’s opinions about it scared me a little bit but instead of letting this deter me, I saw this as an opportunity to challenge myself to acquire a different programming language and broaden my experience (and I’m happy to say my experience so far has been good).

How You Can Cultivate a Growth Mindset

We all know by now that having the ability to learn and grow is a major part of success in the workplace. There are ways you can start to slowly implement small changes that will help you adopt a more flexible and growth-oriented mindset.. and here’s how…

Firstly, Listen to yourself: Become aware of the things you’re telling yourself. If you keep telling yourself that you can’t do something, you will start to believe it. Making a simple change from “I can’t” to “I haven’t yet” can make a massive difference to the way you approach a problem. One is very definitive, leaving no room for growth whereas the other is future-thinking. I haven’t yet… but there’s a chance that I could. Give yourself that chance to try.

• Embrace challenges: Learn to embrace challenges and see them as an opportunity to improve rather than as obstacles preventing you from achieving your goals. Challenges are there to stretch our abilities and take us out of our comfort zone so that we can grow. 
• Avoid perfectionism: Let go of the illusion of perfectionism which I like to call the “killer of progress”. Perfectionism is often driven by fear of failure and can be detrimental to progress. As someone who deals with this trait, I know it’s much easier said than done. But learning to be okay with “good enough” and accept imperfections will get you closer to a growth mindset. 
• Focus on the process: Following on from my last point, don’t get too caught up on the outcome but rather focus on the learning process. I had to come to terms with this recently during my final bootcamp project where we had to build something using a new language we’d been self-learning. I didn’t complete my project and was very fixated on the fact that I didn’t have a finished project. However, my coach reminded me that the whole point of the project was about our learning journey. The product was just a means to experience that journey. 
• Have a purpose: During Flying Start, at the beginning of Bootcamp, we were asked to set goals for ourselves to help remind us of why we decided to do this in the first place. It can act as your North Star when the going gets tough and keep you motivated. In the workplace, we’re not always going to love what we do but we can remind ourselves of the bigger picture of why we chose this job or this company.
• Ask for help: Don’t be afraid to seek out support when you need it. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness or incompetence. This is a fixed mindset kind of thinking. Knowing when to reach out for support and using the resources available to you shows a proactive approach to problem-solving and will encourage you to foster a growth-oriented mindset.

To conclude, adopting a growth mindset is a great way to help us navigate through challenges and build resilience both in our professional and personal lives. It’s a simple change we can make that can have a profound effect on how we show up in our lives and our work.

I want to end by posing a question to you:  how do you plan to incorporate a more flexible mindset in your own life? For me, it’s by focusing less on the outcome and learning to enjoy the process. I would love to hear your thoughts so feel free to share.
 

Kadijatu is a Software Engineering apprentice at Multiverse based in Bristol, UK, and is writing for The Apprentice Lens. Here's more about her:
'Hi, I'm Kadija. I'm a Software Engineer Apprentice. I’m inspired to write for the Apprentice Lens by my desire to connect with other apprentices and fellow professionals through my writing. I hope to develop my writing skills, overcome my fear of sharing my writing with others, and improve my confidence.'