Having a growth mindset is about believing that you can improve. Believing that you can work on the parts of you you are not entirely satisfied with. That negative feedback can be turned into an opportunity to become a better version of yourself. Recognizing the myriad of growth opportunities we get everyday is the first step, as life is constantly providing feedback, through our interactions with others and through our personal sensations, emotions and feelings.

Reading: 5 mistakes companies make about growth mindset (HBR)

we define a growth mindset as both the belief that skills and abilities can be improved and that developing your skills and abilities is the purpose of the work you do.

We should not fall into the everything is possible trap, but recognize there is always room for improvements as long as we are ready to invest our time and energy. We hear slogans and idioms like Just do it, The sky is the limit, nothing is impossible to name a few, and we praise people who are pushing the limits. It seems to me that we sometimes fail to recognize that limit is a plural concept. We all have a wide variety of limits, could they be physical, intellectual, economical, cultural, social, environmental, … Some are factual (I will never beat Usain Bolt’s 9.58s world record because my physical abilities does not allow me to), some are conventional (Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins) and some are mental constructs (my fear of rejection). I understand growth mindset as the ability to decipher mental constructs, so that they don’t stand in your way when you work towards your goals. I believe growth also comes from understanding, accepting, sometimes challenging but in the end composing with factual and conventional limitations, in order to set realistic, desirable and empathetic goals for yourself and others.

Growth is not depending on motivation, as motivation comes and goes. It depends on discipline. Discipline is what makes you do what you should be doing when the motivation is gone.