Cynthia Lee
The Growth Mindset Habit
When deciding what new habit to pursue, it’s easy to look at all the things we shouldn’t do as a place to begin. We want to stop smoking or stress eating. We want to learn how to say ‘no’ or to quit spending so much time on social media.
Have you ever considered the flipside of all that by building a habit that’s positive? What if the habit you formed was one of growth and personal development?
Having a growth mindset positively impacts your life in multiple ways, so it’s a great healthy habit to build into your life. What are the benefits of developing a growth mindset?
1. You keep learning. Learning is important as you not only discover new ways to do things, but by making a practice of constantly learning, you develop new ways of thinking, and new ideas. Learning connects you with more of the world and helps you see things with a deeper significance than you ever thought possible. But more than that, people who stop learning very quickly stagnate. Studies have shown that the practice of learning new things when you are older helps ward off problems related to dementia. In short, learning is good for your brain!
2. You learn perseverance. As we learn new things, we adapt and change how we think. That gives us the ability to see other solutions to problems that would have frustrated us in the past. By challenging yourself to grow, you learn how to push through obstacles and find new paths.
3. You learn how to embrace challenges. Growth can be challenging. But pushing yourself to grow, means you’re also pushing yourself to look at challenges differently. An obstacle now becomes an opportunity to learn something new and to do things in a way you haven’t before.
4. You learn how to embrace failure. When you’re interested in growing as an individual, you start to see failure differently. Everything becomes a potential lesson in a way that you didn’t think would work.
5. You become more open to criticism. By being willing to grow, you start to see that the input of other people has significance. You see their words not so much as something negative, but something you can use to develop as a person and learn something about yourself. You might not always like the lesson, but that’s part of growing too.
By embracing personal growth, you find the best version of yourself. You’re able to become more than you ever thought possible, and then you turn that around by finding out that you can become more still. You’ll find that the furthest edges of yourself are far beyond what you thought you ever could be.
Having Good Habits Helps You in Many Aspects of Your Life
When you develop good habits and keep them, you position yourself to live a better life. Bad habits can get in the way of good ones. For instance, maybe you have been a smoker all your life. If so, you need to consider the health benefits of quitting. It will help you reduce your chances of getting a life-threatening disease, and you will take fewer smoke breaks at work. Nonsmokers do take notice of smokers who take extended and frequent smoke breaks.
You can focus on developing other good habits as well. For instance, get in the habit of thinking positively. When you do this, you affect everyone who comes into contact with you. It will change their opinions about you, or if you are meeting them for the first time, they will want to further the relationship.
Healthy eating will also help you both at your job and at home. You will have fewer incidents of going to the doctor which could lower the cost of healthcare, at least, on a general level. Your family will appreciate not having to spend time in the hospital. People often associate healthy eating with foods that don’t taste good. However, nothing could be further from the truth. There are many great foods that can be substituted for the bad ones. More restaurants are offering up healthier alternatives, as well.
To start forming good habits, you need to determine which ones you want to focus on. Then, learn what it will take to make them a reality. Often, it is the repetition of actions that will do the trick. After a while, your good habits will become part of your routine, and you will feel empty without them.
You will stumble on occasion and break away from your new habits. Don’t let that discourage you. Just take up where you left off. There aren’t too many habits that will fail altogether if you miss a day, here or there.
Another great way to make sure you keep your good habits going is to create a journal. You can refer to your entries in your journal whenever you need reinforcement of your motivations. You can write down what you are feeling and read about those feelings at a later time. You can also use this journal to help others who may be trying to form their own similar good habits.
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