The term ‘growth mindset’ gets thrown around a lot, especially in the wellness and productivity communities. But what does it actually mean? And how can it improve our wellbeing with a chronic illness?
Developing a growth mindset when you have a chronic illness is a really good way of looking after your wellbeing. Heck, even if you don’t have a chronic illness, it’s essential for wellbeing.
So often you can feel stuck, fixed in one mindset. However, with a growth mindset, anything is possible. And luckily it is something we can all develop.
The mind is an amazing thing. Even though naturally, the majority of us are born to see the worst in things we can train our brains to be more optimistic.
What is a growth mindset?
The theory of growth mindset was developed by Physiologist Carol Dweck. In her research, she identified that we have two core mindsets; the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.
A fixed mindset sees intelligence as static. This can lead to avoiding challenge, giving up easily, avoiding constructive criticism and feeling like you can’t improve much.
In complete contrast, the growth mindset has a desire to learn and improve. This mindset persists in the face of setbacks, relishes in challenges and learns from feedback.
When it comes to mindset, Carol Dweck has written;
“In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort.
[…]
“In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”
Carol Dweck, 2015
Our mindset is something which we actually have control over. There’s so much uncertainty in life, and so much out of our control, but we can control how we grow, develop and react to situations.
Which is why developing and nurturing our mindset is fundamental to our wellbeing.
How does growth mindset affect chronic illnesses?
Growth mindset is important for us all because it helps us reach our full potential, feel good and overcome obstacles.
So, how does that relate to life with a chronic illness?
Well, chronic illnesses throw a lot of obstacles in our way. It can also feel like it limits us, or change the paths we’re on. A growth mindset embraces that, goes with the flow and adapts.
A big mental obstacle we face when being diagnosed with incurable, life long health conditions is just that. They’re life long and incurable.
Something which can take a long time on our journey to acceptance is to realise that you can still live well with a chronic illness. That’s all part of growth mindset.
If you tell yourself that you’re never going to get better, feel good and nothing will help then you’re probably going to be stuck feeling pretty shit. Whereas if you embrace that some things will make you feel better, and you have some control over it, you’re more likely to feel good.
With that, I don’t mean you’re going to cure yourself. But you’ll start to feel better in yourself, become more optimistic and may even have some more good days.
This is why developing and nurturing your mindset is so important with a chronic illness. Because it can really start to open doors and possibilities to you.
7 benefits of developing and nurturing your mindset
There are so many benefits to developing a growth mindset, and here are 7 you might be interested in…
It makes you more flexible
I don’t mean physically flexible, but a growth mindset develops a more flexible attitude.You’re more open to adapting, and change doesn’t scare you as much. Instead you embrace the challenge and find a new way of approaching the situation.
Problem solving & Growth mindset
Developing your mindset means you believe in yourself more. Which means that, when you’re faced with a problem, you have an inner belief that you can solve it. That inner belief that you know you can do it, means you actually do do it.
Gives you more of a drive
When you believe you can achieve things with hard work and perseverance, it gives you a real drive to do it and pursue your dreams.
How often do you find someone telling you you can’t do things, only to go and achieve that thing purely because you were told you can’t? That’s growth mindset!
Nourishes your intellectual wellbeing
Our intellectual wellbeing is one of our 6 pillars of wellbeing. It’s all about expanding our mindset and using our brains a bit. So developing and nurturing our growth mindset is going to improve one of the key wellbeing pillars and make us feel good inside and out.
Become more open
A growth mindset makes us more open because we’re not afraid to fail, or to celebrate our successes. As we develop, we become more comfortable in ourselves which makes us feel more confident and open too.
Develops a more optimistic mindset
As our mindset grows, so does our optimism. We start to see the positives in situations, looking for the silver lining and knowing that things aren’t static and that’s okay.
Creates opportunities
When your mindset is growing, you start to become more aware of opportunities available to you. And you believe that you can achieve those opportunities as well. our subconscious starts to notice opportunities which you may not have seen before.
How to develop a growth mindset
Just by reading this post, you’re already delving into developing your growth mindset as you’re open to the idea.
Changing and developing our mindset comes from our beliefs. And there are a number of ways we can start to nurture our mindset…
Embrace failure
So often we fear failure. However, to grow your mindset, embrace failure and look for the positives. Look at what you can learn from the failure and embrace it.
If you do everything perfectly every time, you never learn why is worked, and why it didn’t. So embrace failure and learn from it.
Keep learning to nurture growth mindset
A key element of nurturing a growth mindset is to keep learning. Whether that’s been open to learning from new experiences, people and ‘failures’ or learning a new skill. When we ‘fail’ we’re actually learning so it’s a double whammy of growth! What are you passionate about? What do you want to know more about? Keep an open mind, read, watch documentaries and be open to new perspectives.
ask Questions
I used to be terrified of asking questions at school. I was scared at being laughed at for asking a ‘stupid’ question. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realised there are no stupid questions. And there’s no shame in not knowing something.
Learn from the people around you, ask as many questions as you can and don’t be afraid of not knowing.
This is something I’ve really embraced with my health. I’m always asking questions and researching my health and what I can do to help myself. By doing this, I’ve become so knowledgable about my own health which helps a lot.
Get Feedback to develop a growth mindset
If you’re just plodding along, doing your thing but not getting any feedback, you’ll stunt your personal growth. It plays into failure, learning and asking questions.
Change your narrative
This is so important, especially when you have a chronic illness. Remember, you’re more than your health. So your narrative doesn’t have to be defined by it. Who are you apart from your health? What are your core values? What is your personal why?
We all have our limiting beliefs. We all have our own struggles. Don’t be scared by them, embrace them. Work out what they are and then reframe them into a positive affirmation or intention.
Value the process over the end result
Whether we’re talking about a project, goal or life itself, we need to value and enjoy the process. So often you find yourself looking at the end result, or telling yourself things will be good when X happens.
But then you’re just wishing your life away. Find value in the here and now. Enjoy and embrace the challenges which you’re facing. Remember that everything changes and that’s okay.
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