My dear Friends,

For decades scientists have tried to find out what traits good leaders need to have to succeed.

One trait that stands out is that successful people can adapt to changes quickly and make decisions accordingly. They have a growth mindset as their most important trait.

To have successful strategies for our future well-being means making a decision if and when necessary.

Sadly, we are not really programmed to embrace changes because, for most humans, maintaining the status quo is synonymous with being in the comfort zone and feeling secure.

Why is it so important to have a growth mindset to secure our future-wellbeing?

The Meaning

We all have beliefs about our abilities and talents. These beliefs form our mindset and impact everything from relationships to academic success. Developing the right kind of mindset means the difference between hiding from life’s challenges and handling them with confidence.

Studies show the mindset associated with a full, happy life is called a growth mindset. Many studies done over the last decades showed that people with a growth mindset faced obstacles with curiosity and excitement rather than fear or avoidance.

People with a growth mindset only see qualities like intelligence and talents as starting points. They see the brain as a muscle that gets stronger with practice; those with a growth mindset persist despite obstacles. They welcome feedback as a vehicle for self-growth.

People with growth mindsets:

Being Successful

Do you know what the number one predictor of whether a business will scale into success or not is? Maybe the market conditions? Owning knowledge, talent or experience? The capital someone manages to raise? Or high-profile investors? 

The answer: none of these.

In reality, even when conditions look promising, scaling a business will be an agonizing crawl to success if the entrepreneur lacks one critical ingredient — a growth mindset. 

Someone successful believes success comes from the consistent effort of working through challenges.

People with a growth mindset tend to focus more on the process rather than just the outcome.

The Fixed Mindset

For example, executives who lead their companies with a fixed mindset will create a culture of fear.

Whenever problems come up — which they inevitably do — leaders with a fixed mindset immediately interpret the situation as a failure and look for someone to blame. 

The leader may even let go or replace the person blamed. This is because they don’t believe a person can improve their skills to solve the problem. Sometimes you’ll also see the leader stepping in to fix the problem themselves because they don’t trust anyone else.

The above analogy does not only apply to business owners but to anybody with a fixed mindset. People with a fixed mindset get tangled up in stressful conditions that diminish their potential to be successful in whatever sector- from relationships to personal finance.

About Gender

Carol Dweck, the professor who first studied the phenomenon of growth and fixed mindsets, came up with the theory that women are more prone than men to have a fixed mindset.

However, new studies run contrary to some cornerstones of the mindset field: that females, especially smarter females, tend to believe their intelligence levels are static and that differences in childhood praise given to boys and girls can heavily influence a person’s later beliefs about their own intelligence.

The studies found almost no relationship between gender and intelligence “mindset,” which refers to a person’s beliefs about his or her own intellectual potential.

“If you want to be financially free, you need to become a different person than you are today and let go of whatever has held you back in the past.” 

Robert Kiyosaki, US Business Man aund Author

Close Relation

At one time or another, women find themselves looking to redefine themselves. The reasons are as diverse as we are. Some worry about their financial future, while others need a new purpose. Some need a challenge, yet others want to live a more self-determined life. There could also be outside factors, like a divorce, being widowed, a sick spouse, an empty nest, or job/business issues.

So, a woman could decide to get more involved in managing her assets, start a small business, go into politics, go back to university or start a new life in another country. Possibilities are endless, and the sky is the limit. Really?

Now, someone with a growth mindset would embark on one of the above-mentioned ventures because they know they can always “learn things” regardless of their age, strengths, or weaknesses.

However, women with a fixed mindset would rather only dream of the change in their life but would never take steps to actually do something. They rather come up with all sorts of explanations:

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

T.s.Eliot, American- English Poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic, editor, and Nobel PriZe winner, 1888-1965

Law of Attraction

Without a doubt, our mindset and mental well-being can significantly impact our relationship with our personal finances.

With very few exceptions, success, money and financial freedom won’t just arrive on our doorsteps simply because we ‘will’ it or dream it.

The recent explosion in courses and coaches focused on money manifestation should make us raise an eyebrow.

For anyone who hasn’t heard of this yet, in a nutshell, money manifestation is the idea that getting your hands on more money or anything else you desire is all in your mind.  Its advocates argue that financial success is determined by a positive belief system and that those extra zeros will ping magically into your bank account through sheer will alone.

Firstly, I need to put the record straight here; nothing could be further from the truth.

Well, someone with a growth mindset believes in learning something, overcoming hurdles, and mastering a challenge. Not wishing for something to happen without actually doing something for it- remember, nothing comes for free.

Manifestations need to be assigned to the fixed mindset. For many who adopt manifestations or the law of attraction, the explanation is a merger of quantum physics and spirituality, with seemingly miraculous results.

Sadly, miracles rarely happen, if at all. Not accepting that success can only be reached by becoming active, learning something new, and accepting that mistakes and overcoming hurdles are part of the process is intrinsic to a fixed mindset.

The ‘Money‘ Mindset

We have established if you have a fixed mindset, you believe what you are is determined early in life. You believe who you are is predetermined and unchangeable.

We have also established that these types of beliefs stop you in your tracks. They prevent you from taking that next step. A rather defeatist perspective. It makes you into someone who expects the worse and accepts failure as a default. An attitude that helps you to fail before you even start.

A person with a fixed mindset doesn’t acknowledge that skills can be learned. For example, “I can not make sense of the financial markets ” ignores the fact that the financial whizzkids among us have taken classes, trained with mentors, and made a fair share of mistakes. So, of course, that person is better at investing than the person who believes they can’t improve and therefore doesn’t try.

Fatal Impact

A fixed mindset can prevent you from building wealth and securing your future well-being because successful financial strategies must allow room for change if necessary.

Without developing a growth mindset, you might be left without funds after a divorce or in old age. You could end up in debt because of your tendency to overspend. The sad price for a fixed mindset – your plans for the future are in shambles, and you struggling to make ends meet. I‘d rather develop a growth mindset; thank you!

Here is a very important note, none of the just mentioned life situations is really caused by being bad with numbers but are behavioural issues. So the “I was never good with numbers” excuse has to be rendered irrelevant.

Financial Well-being

For those who are not natural finance aficionados or investors, having a growth mindset is the primary key to starting the journey to becoming educated about finances and changing default behaviour.

We need to adapt to new situations equally fast in a fast-changing world. So, having a growth mindset comes in handy. Whether you manage a family, make a relationship work, run a business or make investment decisions.

Even if you have little knowledge about investing, and yes, even if you claim to be bad at numbers, if you start to develop a growth mindset and have confidence in your ability to learn anything, you have every ability to secure your future well-being.

You will decide to read voraciously, listen to podcasts, seek out mentors, join a peer group, or hire a coach- but most importantly, you will enjoy making progress and learning from failure.

Tips for change

Someone with a growth mindset may believe to be “bad” at something but is convinced to become good at it through study and practice.

If you determine your default mindset has the characteristics of a fixed mindset rather than a growth mindset, keep the following three points in mind. You’ll see opportunities to challenge your current way of thinking and begin experiencing growth.

However, remember that personal or financial changes do not happen overnight. The journey to financial independence can be a long one. If you feel you aren’t getting the results you should be, consider reaching out to a coach. They can help you to unlock your growth mindset.

Extras

Do this mindset test over the next week or so:

Take note of how you are reacting to the world around you. Consider that you may harbour some scripts that represent a fixed mindset. Challenge yourself to consider optimistic and productive ways to respond instead.

Next, try a free webinar offering knowledge or a skill that may help you achieve a challenging goal. Or join a community of peers and commit to attending and participating in discussions.

As an added benefit, you may learn about something far more important than financial freedom – the freedom to define who you are!

Take-Away

Successful people can adapt to changes quickly and make decisions accordingly. Having a growth mindset is their most important trait.

Someone with a growth mindset will readily embark on a new venture because they know they can always “learn things” regardless of their age, strengths, or weaknesses.

Not accepting that success can only be reached by becoming active, learning something new, and accepting that mistakes and overcoming hurdles are part of the process is intrinsic to the fixed mindset.

You aren’t doomed to repeat the limiting behaviours of your family or social bubble. Who you are tomorrow doesn’t have to be the person you are today.