Your internal dialogue underscores every aspect of your life, including the success of your online business. Your belief systems regarding your abilities and your potential will drive your accomplishments and are a strong predictor of future outcomes.
Your mindset about your business is defined in two ways: growth mindset vs fixed mindset. Which of these you choose to adopt will inevitably impact your online business’s growth or failure?
What is a Growth Mindset?
A growth mindset is held by individuals who believe they can develop their talents. With a growth mindset, you think that you can build skill and knowledge over time by engaging in hard work. These individuals tend to achieve more than individuals with a fixed mindset because they worry less about what they look like and more about spending time and energy on their efforts.
Companies that embrace a growth mindset have employees who feel empowered and dedicated to their work. They are usually companies with large networks of organizational support, intense collaboration amongst employees, and innovation.
Even though the concept of growth mindset has become popular lately, let’s look at some common misconceptions surrounding the growth mindset.
Having a growth mindset is not simply an innate quality already in your nature, such as flexibility, open-mindedness, acceptance, or being an optimist. Every individual inherently possesses a mix of growth and fixed mindsets. You have to work to maintain a growth mindset the majority of the time.
Growth mindsets are not only about praise and reward. Yes, a growth mindset indeed emphasizes effort and hard work. This is because the processes involved with a growth mindset, such as helping others, trying new methods, and taking advantage of setbacks, all lead to more substantial outcomes. The effort is rewarded because it generates the desired outcome.
Adopting a growth mindset in your online business does not mean you will never have another negative outcome. Manageable risk is encouraged, but some risks won’t turn out in your favor. However, if your business is running with a growth mindset, you will take these failures and turn them into important lessons for the future.
What is a Fixed Mindset?
A fixed mindset is a belief that intelligence and talent are fixed entities and cannot be changed regardless of your actions.
Businesses running with a fixed mindset often see high levels of competition between employees, mistakes being hidden due to feelings of failure, and unmotivated workers who feel they can’t reach their goals.
Running your online business with a fixed mindset can hold you back. You may avoid challenges to avoid future failure. The belief that abilities can’t be improved leads to a lack of effort, and when you don’t see setbacks as learning opportunities or a place to improve, it’s easy to give up.
Growth Mindset in Your Online Business
Applying a growth mindset to your online business will impact improving motivation, innovation, and productivity. If you believe that hard work, good ideas, and innovative business strategies will boost your business success, you can supercharge your growth. Here is how you can develop a growth mindset in your online business:
Be Accountable
Be 100% accountable to yourself all the time. Own your mistakes, celebrate your successes.
Don’t Be Envious of Others
If your goal is to be a focused and driven leader, focusing on others rather than yourself distracts you from your primary purpose of building your own business.
Be an Expert
Put the effort in to be the best you can be at what you do. It will help you stand out from the crowd.
Move on From Failures
While you should learn from your mistakes, it’s not helpful to dwell on them. Own up to them, find the lesson, then move on to focus on your growth.
Time and Hard Work
Greatness comes from putting in the hours and giving your all.
Do it for the Right Reasons
Do what you love for who you love. Find the purpose in your work, and it won’t feel like you are working at all.
Don’t Use Money as Your Primary Motivation
While your online business must make money to be successful, using this as your primary motivation will cause your business to suffer. Customers want to be proud of your product or service. Employees have happiness in working for a great company where their work and ideas are valued. Use value creation as a motivator, and the money will follow.
Lose the Perfectionism
There is more value in achieving your outcomes quickly than in making sure they are perfect. For an online business to grow, it needs to maintain momentum, so don’t be afraid to fail and push forward.
Gratitude
Be grateful for the opportunity you have with your online business right now. Gratitude is a core requirement of having a growth mindset. It avoids thinking that things are ‘never good enough.’
Embrace Self-Awareness
If you want to see success, you need to know your purpose. A business growth mindset requires both.
Self Care
Engaging in self-care doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Start by making sure you’re getting enough sleep, taking regular breaks, and eating healthy meals, or trying a meditation app like Calm, Insight Time, Headspace to help you unwind.
FAQ
What Are Some Examples of Being in a Fixed Mindset vs. a Growth Mindset Environment?
‘Feedback is a criticism’ is a fixed mindset. ‘Feedback allows me to learn areas where I need improvement’ is a growth mindset.
‘Why try if I’m just going to fail?’ is a fixed mindset. ‘I might fail, but I also might succeed. I should try this’ is a growth mindset.
‘No matter how much I learn, someone will always be better at it than me’ is a fixed mindset. ‘I want to learn more and expand my repertoire of skills’ is a growth mindset.
What are the Attributes of Someone Who Has a Growth Mindset?
Individuals who adopt a growth mindset over a fixed mindset are more likely to:
- Embrace learning as a lifelong journey
- Believe they can improve their knowledge and level of intelligence
- Put effort into learning new skills
- See failures as temporary setbacks or opportunity for learning
- Embrace challenges
- See the success of others as an inspiration
- Engage feedback into their lives as a learning opportunity
Is it Possible to Change from a Fixed to a Growth Mindset? How Does One Go About the Change?
Yes, it’s possible to change your mindset from a fixed to a growth mindset. The more your practice, the easier it will get. The first step is learning what a growth mindset is and changing your beliefs about how talent and intelligence develop.
Self-awareness is vital in changing your mindset, as you need to identify what areas or situations trigger you to have a fixed mindset. Remember, all of us innately have some combination of fixed and growth mindsets.
To shift to a growth mindset, you need to change your thought patterns where you engage in a fixed mindset. Here are some simple steps to shift your perspective.
Identify Your Inner Fixed Mindset ‘Voice’
Say you’ve encountered a potential opportunity for growth in your online business, but it involves some risk. Your inner voice might say to you, ‘Don’t do it. You’ll fail. Then everyone will think you’re a failure.’ This is your fixed mindset voice. Once you recognize it, you can begin to quash it before it speaks.
You Choose Your Mindset
You can decide how you view challenges, failures, setbacks, and criticism. Choose to view them in a way that promotes growth for yourself and your business.
Install an Inner Growth Mindset ‘Voice’
When your inner fixed mindset voice speaks, replace the statement with one representative of a growth mindset. Talk back to your inner saboteur.
Take Action
If all else fails, go through the motions of what someone with a growth mindset would do in that particular situation. You might surprise yourself, and some positive thoughts will follow.
The Takeaway
Identifying your purpose and believing that you can improve your abilities and skills is the key to developing a growth mindset in our online business.
A business growth mindset is a framework for viewing your business interactions. Adopting this mindset will encourage growth behavior within your organization and build a positive environment for future success.
