What is a Growth Mindset & 12 Tips to Develop One

When faced with a challenging math problem, one student says “I’m just not good at math” and gives up. Another student says “I haven’t figured this out yet” and keeps trying new approaches until they succeed. The difference? A growth mindset versus a fixed mindset.

Having a growth mindset means believing your abilities can improve through effort and learning. While some people naturally develop a growth mindset early in life, anyone can learn to cultivate this powerful way of thinking. Let’s explore how.

What is a Growth Mindset?

A growth mindset is the belief that your abilities, intelligence, and talents can be developed through effort, learning, and persistence. It’s the understanding that your brain is like a muscle that gets stronger with practice and challenge.

Imagine tending to a garden. Someone with a fixed mindset believes their garden is limited to whatever naturally grows there. But someone with a growth mindset? They know that with the right care, nutrients, and attention, they can cultivate any produce they want.

Examples of Growth vs Fixed Mindset:

Here’s how these two mindsets compare with some examples:

Growth Mindset	Fixed Mindset
“Failures are opportunities to learn”	“Failures define my ability”
“I can improve with practice”	“I’m either good at it or not”
“Challenges help me grow”	“Challenges expose my weaknesses”
“Feedback helps me develop”	“Feedback is criticism”
“Others’ success inspires me”	“Others’ success threatens me”
“My effort determines my ability”	“My abilities are set in stone”

The Science Behind the Growth Mindset

This fundamental difference in thinking was first identified by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, who discovered that our beliefs about learning and intelligence dramatically impact our success. 

Dweck’s research^{1 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1745691618804166} —and that of psychologists who expounded on her theory—consistently point to one finding: those who believe their abilities can be developed (growth mindset) outperform those who believe their abilities are fixed (fixed mindset), be it in school, work, or even when it comes to mental health. 

Now a staple concept in the world of personal development, Dweck’s TED Talk on growth mindset has racked up over 6.2 million views on YouTube! Check it out:

Your Brain On Growth Mindset

Thanks to neuroplasticity (your brain’s ability to form new connections), adopting a growth mindset physically rewires your neural circuits!

When you embrace a growth mindset, these key areas of your brain become more active and connected:

• Your dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (your brain’s “challenge monitor”)
• Your striatum (your motivation center)
• Your hippocampus (your learning and memory hub)

So next time you face a challenge, remember that you’re literally rewiring your brain for success.

Want to rewire your brain to become a social savant? Check out our training program:

12 Science-Backed Tips to Develop a Growth Mindset

Let’s dive into practical, science-backed strategies that can help you cultivate a growth mindset. 

Reframe Your Self-Talk

At its core, a growth mindset reflects how your inner voice speaks to yourself. When you reframe how you talk to yourself, you’re literally rewiring your brain’s response to challenges. 

Instead of saying:

• “I’m not good at this”
• “This is too hard”
• “I keep making mistakes”

Try saying:

• “I’m not good at this yet”
• “This is challenging my abilities”
• “Each mistake teaches me something new”

Action Step: Keep a self-talk journal for one week. Write down your negative self-talk and practice reframing each statement into a growth-minded version.

Be Receptive to Feedback

Feedback helps us grow. So it should come as no surprise that research^{2 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5040906/} shows that individuals with a growth mindset process criticism differently than those with a fixed mindset—right down to the neural level.

When people with a fixed mindset receive feedback, their brains often show a defensive emotional response, like they’re under attack. But those with a growth mindset? Their brains light up in areas associated with problem-solving and learning. It’s like they’re saying, “Awesome, here’s some useful data!”

Here’s how to train your brain to love feedback:

Instead of This	Try This
Taking feedback personally	Viewing feedback as valuable information
Defending or explaining	Asking clarifying questions
Focusing on the emotion	Focusing on the opportunity
Avoiding feedback situations	Actively seeking feedback

Action Step: This week, actively seek feedback on something you’re working on. When you receive it, practice saying “Thank you for helping me grow” instead of immediately defending or explaining. Notice how this small shift changes both your emotional response and the quality of feedback you receive.

Turn Failures Into Data Points

The most successful people actively learn from failure. Treat each setback as a data point in your personal growth experiment. What worked? What didn’t? What will you try differently next time?

Research^{3 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.3609} shows that people who view failures as learning opportunities show increased persistence and better performance on future challenges. They also experience less stress and anxiety when facing new challenges.

Action Step: Actively reflect on your “failures” by documenting:

• What didn’t work
• What you learned
• How you’ll adjust
• Your next action step

Feed Your Brain Challenge Snacks

Just like you wouldn’t try to run a marathon without training, you shouldn’t expect your growth mindset to flourish without regular exercise. The key? Start small.

Try these daily “challenge snacks”:

• Learn one new word in a foreign language
• Take a different route to work
• Try using your non-dominant hand for simple tasks
• Attempt an easy puzzle or riddle
• Have a conversation with someone who disagrees with you

By regularly pushing yourself out of your comfort zone in small ways, you build the mental muscles needed for bigger challenges.

Pro Tip: Set a daily reminder to do one tiny challenging thing. Make it so small it seems almost silly to resist.

Master the Art of Process Praise

The way we praise others (and ourselves) can either encourage a growth mindset or reinforce a fixed one. Studies show that praising effort and strategy (“process praise”) is more effective than praising natural ability (“person praise”).

Instead of This	Try This
“You’re so smart!”	“You worked really hard to figure that out!”
“You’re a natural!”	“Your practice is really paying off!”
“You’re gifted at this!”	“I love how you tried different strategies”

Action Step: For one week, catch yourself using person praise and consciously switch to process praise. Notice how it affects both you and others.

Create Your Growth Zone Map

Understanding where you’re comfortable versus where you’re growing is crucial for developing a growth mindset. Here’s how to map it out:

🟢 Comfort Zone: Things you can do easily 

🟡 Growth Zone: Where learning happens (slightly uncomfortable but manageable)

🔴 Panic Zone: Too challenging to learn effectively

Try to spend most of your time in the yellow zone—just beyond your comfort zone but not so far that you’re overwhelmed.

Pro Tip: Choose one activity from your comfort zone each week and find a way to make it slightly more challenging.

Collect Mental Models

Think of mental models as different lenses for viewing problems. The more models you have, the more ways you can approach challenges. Here are some powerful ones:

• First Principles Thinking: Break problems down to their fundamental truths
• Inversion: Solve problems backward
• Second-Order Thinking: Consider the consequences of the consequences
• Systems Thinking: Look at how things influence each other

Having varied perspectives can be particularly useful in team-based problem solving at work, where research^{4 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00187267241247962} shows that diverse mental models are associated with team success.

Action Step: Next time you face a challenge, consciously try viewing it through at least three different mental models.

Build Your Growth Support System

Ever notice how marathon runners train in groups, writers join workshops, and artists gather in collectives? There’s a reason the world’s highest achievers rarely go it alone—our capacity for growth expands dramatically when we surround ourselves with the right people.

Create your growth ecosystem:

• Find a “growth buddy” for accountability
• Join a learning community
• Follow growth-minded people on social media
• Share your learning journey with others
• Seek out mentors who embody a growth mindset

Pro Tip: Create a growth circle of 3-5 people who meet monthly to share learning experiences and challenges.

Practice Strategic Reflection

Reflection is the art of actively processing experiences to extract lessons and plan improvements. Recent research shows that people who engage in structured reflection learn significantly more from their experiences than those who don’t.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself everyday to practice reflection:

1. What did I learn today?
2. What challenged me?
3. What could I have done differently?
4. What will I try tomorrow?

Action Step: Set aside 5 minutes at the end of each day for structured reflection using these prompts.

Set Up Learning Triggers

A learning trigger is an environmental cue that automatically puts you in a growth mindset state. Think of it like a mental on-switch for learning mode.

Examples of effective triggers:

• A specific playlist for learning time
• A designated growth space in your home
• A pre-learning ritual (like making a particular tea)
• A physical object that represents growth to you
• A specific time of day dedicated to learning

To be consistent, consider using the same trigger every time you want to engage in deliberate learning.

Pro Tip: Create a learning starter kit with 3-4 items that signal it’s time to grow.

Develop Intrinsic Motivation

Our motivation to do things can be broken into two categories: intrinsic (motivation that comes from within) and extrinsic (motivation that comes from external rewards). 

Research shows that intrinsic motivation activates specific regions of your brain that are linked to personal agency and reward processing. When you learn to focus on internal rewards rather than external ones, you naturally start viewing challenges as opportunities for growth rather than threats to your abilities.

Here’s how to tap into your natural motivation:

• Choose tasks that spark your curiosity rather than those that just promise external rewards
• Focus on personal improvement rather than competitive outcomes
• Give yourself autonomy in how you approach challenges
• Look for the inherent value in what you’re learning, not just its practical benefits
• Create opportunities for choice in your learning process

Pro Tip: Next time you’re struggling to stay motivated, stop and ask yourself: “What genuinely interests me about this challenge?” Sometimes reframing the task around your natural curiosities can transform it from an obligation into an opportunity for growth.

Design Your Growth Experiments

Turn your learning into a series of small, controlled experiments. This approach makes growth more manageable and helps you learn more effectively from both successes and failures.

Here’s a framework for growth experiments:

1. Hypothesis: What do you think will help you improve?
2. Test: Try it for a specific time period
3. Measure: Track your results
4. Analyze: What worked? What didn’t?
5. Adjust: Modify your approach based on findings

Pro Tip: Run at least one growth experiment each month. Keep the scope small and the timeframe short.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Growth Mindset

Unleash Your Growth Mindset

Developing a growth mindset transforms every challenge into an opportunity and every setback into a stepping stone. When you understand how your brain responds to challenges, embrace feedback, and cultivate intrinsic motivation, you create a powerful foundation for continuous learning and achievement.Ready to put your growth mindset into action? Start by creating a “learning bucket list” with our guide: How to Make a Learning Bucket List!