Last week, we discussed the question of having the right attitude for success. We looked at a model that categorises attitude into those people who have fixed mindsets and those that have a growth mindset. We illustrated how those who have the growth mindset have a much better chance for success in life than those with the fixed mindset. This week, we want to look at seven of the measures that you can take to have the growth mindset.
Be positive minded: We usually get what we expect. If you think negatively, you will get more negative results than positive ones. If you think failure, you will fail more times than you will win. Maintaining a positive mindset helps you win. It also helps you to attract other positively-minded people and, therefore, you will find yourself among successful people most of the times.
lBe passionate: Passion is good fuel for success. Passion enables you to plough on even when the going gets tough. You will probably recall that we once discussed how it is important to pursue things that we have passion for so that when we meet challenges, we are able to drive on. If you do something that you do not have passion for, you will easily give up once you meet some huddle along the way. But, with passion, you are likely to plough on. You need to drive agenda for which you have passion. When you have to do things you do not naturally have passion for, you need to teach yourself to first develop the passion.
. Take action: Many people dream dreams. But, only few go on to implement the ideas by taking action. Stand out from the crowd. Take action. Implement your ideas. The good thing is that action is rarely desirable. This means most people will not take action and that already gives you an easy advantage because by simply taking action on your idea, you are already ahead of most people. Do not procrastinate on good ideas; otherwise, you will wake up seeing someone celebrating big success on your idea.
Never give up: It will rarely be easy. Often, you will be tempted to give up. But, do not give up easily. Keep going. Giving up is so easy—anyone can do it. If you want to stand out or to achieve great success in life, you need to hang on and keep trying even when it gets very difficult. No one wins by doing the easy bit which anyone else can do. You win by going for the difficult and challenging tasks. Easy targets make no one stand out.
- Be flexible: Allow change in your life. Allow to be surprised, both positively and negatively. Life cannot simply go by some programmed script. We need to be mentally prepared for surprises. This calls for flexibility. If you are not flexible, you will keep going in one direction even when the scenario or inputs or conditions change. To be successful, you need to be flexible.
- Stretch yourself: The few people that go on take action on their ideas and dreams tend not to take the extra mile. If you go the extra mile, you beat the few that go on to take action. Stretch yourself beyond the reach of all your peers or competitors. You will discover that it is easy to win because most people are satisfied with average action. Stand out by stretching yourself beyond the reach of average or typical competitors.
- Track and monitor: Without some form of direct supervision, your drive for success will fail. You need to put in place mechanism for tracking and monitoring progress you are making. When you measure, you gain a much better chance of success than when you do it without measuring or monitoring at all.
We now know that those with flexible, growth mindsets stand a much better chance to succeed in life. We have also learnt seven of the key measures we need to take in order to develop the flexile growth mindset so that we too can achieve a lot. Good luck!
