A Growth Mindset

Powerfully Choosing to Be Inquisitive

Growth Mindset or being inquisitive has many synergies.  Growth mindset can be defined as believing that your brain can grow and that you can try many new things even as you age.  We define being inquisitive as the capacity to always be learning. Maybe we are learning what to do or what not to do, but, ultimately, we are always being curious.

Let’s take a moment and think about the early years of childhood and how much we are exposed to because our brain is growing leaps and bounds; this continues throughout the schooling years and even further still into our professional careers.  However, learning new things sometimes tapers off when we reach retirement and all of a sudden health declines.  Studies have shown that individuals who continue to stay engaged mentally, learning new things through multiple channel engagements maintain their mental, physical, and even emotional states better.  So how do we continue this growth mindset even into our later years?

Growth mindset is something that my tiny humans have been focusing a lot on in their schools this last semester, and there are so many lessons that apply to all humans, no matter our age.

1. How can we grow our minds?  Mistakes are a great way to grow.  We can learn what to do and, more importantly, what not to do.  I talk a lot about failing fast and failing forward to allow us to learn from our mistakes quickly.
2. Another way to grow our minds is to provide them with multiple opportunities to be exposed to and absorb new and unknown things. With books, lectures, podcasts, and blogs, the sky is the limit in how we expose ourselves to information and consume it. Being open to learning something from any avenue opens us up to opportunities that may not have been considered.
3. Being true to your true authentic self, unapologetically.  As we grow we change.  Change is good.  It’s necessary for growth, but remaining true to your authentic self throughout your change and your growth shows confidence and resilience.  Living life with open hands reminds us that there are seasons of change, and with this surrendered viewpoint,  things and people will flow in and flow out.

I believe the foundation for a growth mindset is motivation.  Motivation to want to do better to want to be better. Motivation to want to grow and, therefore, change.  Motivation to dream big and try new things.  Motivation to be curious and make mistakes.  Motivation to get shit done.

Throughout history we see some of the greatest inventions of our time come out of motivation.  Perhaps motivation to make the world better, motivation to make something easier, or maybe just motivation to be first.  Whatever the seed of motivation, it has been the catalyst for a growth mindset that has led to some of the greatest innovating solutionists moments that we still reap the rewards from today.

Think about your life and where you can apply a growth mindset and you will be amazed at what shit you are able to get done now and into your future.