A success mindset is a way of thinking about yourself and about life’s challenges.
Instead of fearing failure, someone with a success mindset embraces difficulties and sees challenges as an opportunity to learn, grow and succeed.
The important thing to know about a success mindset is that it is something that can be developed and strengthened.
If you are not in the habit of thinking like a successful person, this is something you can work on.
Here are 11 ways you can develop a success mindset.
11 Ways To Develop A Success Mindset
1. First establish a growth mindset
Carol Dweck, in her famous book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” identified the differences between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.
A fixed mindset is that belief that your skills, intelligence and talents are fixed and are unable to grow, while a growth mindset understands that these things can be developed and improved over time.
In order to have a success mindset, your first need to have a growth mindset and understand that the way you are is not set in stone.
If you will it, you can change.
2. Acknowledge Your Flaws
Adopting a success mindset does not mean you need to be a perfectionist.
You will still have flaws.
You should examine these, accept these and work on them.
But once you accept your flaws, they need not be an excuse to hold you back.
We all have flaws and everybody is capable of succeeding despite their flaws.
3. Embrace Challenges
In order to achieve success you must embrace challenges. Without a challenge you cannot grow.
A success mindset seeks stimulating challenges and sees them as a learning opportunity.
You don’t let the fear of failure prevent you from taking on the challenge.
You take it on, give it your best shot and hopefully you succeed. If you failure, you dust yourself off and learn from your experience.
4. Set Goals
Goal setting is an important part of developing a success mindset.
It forces you to think of the future and all the endless opportunities in front of you.
It forces you to prioritise what it is you want to achieve and it forces you to break that vision down into tangible steps.
Setting goals means dreaming big and envisaging your future success.
5. Take Action
Success isn’t achieved without action.
Action is necessary to take steps towards your goals.
With small actions and small successes you reinforce the validity of your success mindset and get in the habit of winning.
You can develop your success mindset by tasting success and then setting bigger challenges.
6. Believe In Yourself
Someone with a success mindset isn’t always going to succeed in everything that they do.
But they have high self-esteem and the possibility of failure doesn’t deter them from trying. It doesn’t dent their success mindset if they fail.
If you have a realistic goal all you need to do is believe in yourself that you can achieve it.
That doesn’t mean you will, but that belief will give you the best shot and increase your chances. It will give you motivation, stickability and resilience.
Once you start believing in yourself your successes will increase.
Affirmations can help with this.
7. Overcome Insecurities
We all have doubts, fears and insecurities. We wouldn’t be human otherwise.
But someone with a success mindset does not let those stop them.
They confront their insecurities, deal with them as best they can and then get on with the important job of setting audacious goals and taking steps to achieve them.
8. Trust The Process
A success mindset does not guarantee that success will come quickly.
But those with a success mindset will trust the process and they will keep working even when things are looking a bit grim. They don’t give up when the going gets tough.
9. Have A Positive Attitude
A success mindset requires a positive and magnanimous attitude to all of life’s challenges.
You don’t have to have mastered the success mindset to start reframing your mindset to something more positive.
See the opportunity in everything, see your own potential and enjoy all the ups and downs that life throws at you.
10. Rethink Failure
Fear of failure is a massive handbrake on developing a success mindset. When you are afraid to fail you will be timid in all your efforts, if you ever give anything a go at all.
When you embrace failure, you don’t mind giving it your all, whatever the outcome might be.
Failure is an opportunity to learn.
11. Be Open To Learning and Criticism
Successful people always want to get better.
That means opening yourself up to failure, new learning, constructive criticism and feedback.
Someone with a success mindset embraces these things as part of the process of discovering yourself and discovering your abilities.
Conclusion
Learning how to develop a success mindset is itself a process that can take some time.
But you don’t have to perfect it all at once.
You can start making small changes to reframe your thinking as you adjust to always expecting the best out of yourself and every situation.
Sources:
Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House, 2006.
