The new year is often a time for re-evaluating where we are at and establishing goals for the year ahead. No matter how big or small your goals might be, your mindset has a big impact on whether you are likely to achieve them or not.

What is a growth mindset?

Simply put, if you have a growth mindset, you believe that your skills, talents and intelligence can be worked on and improved over time. On the other hand, someone with a fixed mindset believes that things like intelligence can’t be changed over time – they might believe that if they’re not good at doing something now, they’ll never be good at it. Some common behaviours of these mindsets are:

A growth mindset is important for achieving goals. If you experience any setbacks, you can grow and learn from these and try again, rather than seeing them as a failure and abandoning your goal altogether.

How can I shift my mindset?

Is it possible to change your mindset to a growth mindset? The short answer is yes! An important aspect of this is practicing growth mindset self-talk. If you catch yourself being closed-minded about your progress, acknowledge this and swap it for something more positive. For example:

1. This task is really hard because I’m still developing my skills in this area.
2. When I am struggling, it means I am learning, not that I am a failure.
3. I don’t need to be perfect, I just need to focus on improving.
4. It’s okay to make mistakes – what can I learn from what went wrong this time and improve for next time?

You can also take yourself out of your comfort zone and choose options that will encourage your learning and growth, seek constructive criticism and apply any feedback to help you improve and don’t forget – accept that failure is a normal stop on the road to success so try to embrace and learn from it!