How Growth Mindset helps us as designers and ways to develop it

A few years back I got a chance to read this famous book called MINDSET by Carol S Dweck. This book had a great impact on me and I tried to learn more about this topic by following articles, talks and blogs. Sharing my insights and learnings from what I have learnt about how a growth mindset helps us as designers and ways to develop it.

MINDSET

Mindset is the core belief of who we are as a professional and as a person. It is made up of deeper values that we hold about ourselves and our work. Our mindset is rooted in our experiences, education, and culture from which we form thoughts that establish beliefs and attitudes. These thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes in turn form our life experiences.

FIXED MINDSET

Fixed mindset is when we believe that our qualities are inborn and cannot be improved.This leads to certain self limiting beliefs that stop us from learning new skills. Fixed mindset makes us think that if we fail then our failure will reveal our shortcomings and people might not think about us the same way as they thought earlier. Due to this we never try out new things.

Self Limiting Beliefs

Self-limiting beliefs are beliefs which put us down and stop us from trying out opportunities and acquire new skills in life.

1. I Don’t Have Time

This belief is something that we all have which keeps us stuck for years. We keep on prioritizing the tasks which are not important and keep telling ourselves that we do not have time.

2. I Can’t

This is one of the most limiting beliefs because we have already told ourselves that we can't which stops us from even starting anything.

3. I Can’t Because I Am Not…

This belief adds a statement about yourself to the belief I can't hence give it more power, your identity, and who you believe you are. It is one most limiting belief as it is linked to one's identity.

4. I Am Not Good Enough

This belief is self-limiting because it stops us from starting anything due to our inner voice which tells us that we should not or can't do it. Due to this, we miss out on opportunities, that help us to reach our potential.

5. I Will Be Judged

We often do not try new things because we are afraid that they may reveal our shortcomings due to which other people will judge us. We do not realize that everyone is concerned about themselves and they may not be thinking about us at all. Usually, we ourselves judge and put our own selves down.

6. I Am Not as Good as Them

This is a self-limiting belief based on the comparison. This belief stems when we compare ourselves with others. This has become more prevalent after the advent of social media.

It makes us think that we do not have what it takes to succeed.

7. I Have Failed

We all have failed or not accomplished things at some point in our lives. Clinging to this belief makes us believe that our failure is final therefore we doing things that may lead us to feel that way about yourself in the future.

GROWTH MINDSET

A growth mindset is when we believe that we have qualities that can be developed at any stage of our life. People with a growth mindset enjoy the process as much as the results. This creates a passion for life long learning. It allows us to create opportunities as then we are not afraid of failure. Instead of seeing any setback as a failure, we think of it as a learning. Also if were have a growth mindset then we do not fix ourselves to the outcome of any task. This means that we fail at something then that outcome is not us but the task we have done. This is very liberating because it helps us to focus on the task and not the outcome of the task.

How the growth mindset helps us professionally?

As designers, we work collectively in multiple teams and different stakeholders. A growth mindset helps us in the following ways:

1. It helps us to be adaptive

If we have a growth mindset then we are open to tweaking the processes after analyzing them. It helps us to transform our approach which is most suitable for a project. Having a growth mindset allows us to be innovative in our approach.

2. It helps us to work collectively in teams

As designers, we work collectively with multiple stakeholders and teams. If we have a growth mindset then it allows us to be open to other's feedback and not take it personally.

3. It helps us to be assertive

Designers with a growth mindset take responsibility for projects. It helps us to share our opinion actively and engage in open discussions. It helps us in seeing challenging situations as opportunities to learn new things.

4. It helps us in building creative confidence

Creative confidence is very important in asserting the design decisions confidently to the teams we associate within our projects. If we can project our ideas confidently then the team is more likely to listen to the suggestions we make.

5. It helps us to listen actively

If we have a growth mindset then it helps us listen actively to other people. This is very important as designers since we have to understand the end-users' expectations, pain points in our projects. Also, it helps us in communicating effectively in our teams.

6. It helps us to empathize

Empathy is a very important skill for designers. We follow empathy in the Design Thinking methods used in designing the products. If we have a growth mindset then it helps us to empathize, understand, and communicate effectively with our users, stakeholders, and team members.

How to Build a Growth Mindset

We can build a growth mindset at any point of life in the following ways:

1. Remember past successes and accomplishments

We always keep thinking about our mistakes and failures and keep feeling bad about them.

We often forget that we also have succeeded and have overcome difficult situations. We tend to focus on our shortcomings rather than our achievements. It is important to remember our accomplishments as it will help to create new compelling belief. A belief in our skills and abilities. This belief leads to action and action leads to growth.

2. Have a Beginners' mind

What is a beginners' mind? It is about not having expectations and preconceived notions about something and looking at things with an open mind, like a beginner. That is a beginner’s mind. Adopting a beginner's mind encourages learning. We should always think that we can learn something new at any point in time. Adopting the attitude of a child, looking at the world around us with awe and wonder, ask questions, and listening to the answers encourage growth.

3. Make small changes

Most of us look at the outcome and forget that a journey starts with the first step. When we make small changes in our lives, we slowly start to believe in our ability to take action. The point is to do small actions that you can slowly increase over time. When you do this, you start to realize that you are capable and you begin to bolster your self-confidence. The worst thing to do is to take no action at all.

4. Build momentum

When we act and take small steps, we start to build momentum. We know intuitively that once we start moving, our momentum makes it easier to keep going forward. This is why it is so important to take action, no matter how seemingly small.

6. Make consistent effort

Consistent effort is the key to develop a skill. It is an important focus on the areas of improvement and develops them with focus repeatedly. This accumulation of small successes due to this consistent effort leads us to our final goals. Deliberate practice is required to improve at anything.

7. Embrace discomfort

Human nature is such that we tend to favor comfort over discomfort. We are constantly trying to make our lives more comfortable while we shun discomfort like the plague. But it is important to remember that being uncomfortable is often evidence that we are making progress. When we embrace discomfort and remember that it is for a good cause, we develop more confidence in our ability to handle it. We can learn new and difficult things only if we push out of our comfort zone.

8. Celebrate accomplishments

When we take small steps and accomplish small wins, it is equally important to celebrate them. Listing the small victories makes us feel good about ourselves. Making a list of our success in a journal is a very powerful habit that helps us to gain confidence.

Conclusion

We need to remember that we all are on different learning journeys. For us to become more successful we should be open to lifelong learning. Instead of focusing on the outcome focus on the process to acquire new skills. Just having a growth mindset is not sufficient, one needs to put deliberate effort to reach our goals. This belief and confidence will lead us to be better designers.