Mindset. The Basics You Should Know.

Hey lovely folks! Today I want to share my experiences about developing a mindset, that actually helps you to be successful in your own means. Because I think understanding the different ways our brain is shaped, is the very basis to work on yourself and find more happiness in life.

Mindset Definition

I guess that nowadays nearly everyone once ran into that buzzword “Mindset”. The originator of the word was Carol Dweck. She is a researcher in the field of human motivation and explores the differences, why some people succeed and why some people don´t. She is a professor at Stanford University and the author of Mindset. Her work is highly influencing educators and business leaders in the whole world.

Generally spoken, Mindset means nothing else than your own truth. It is what you believe in, your attitude towards you and your life, the way you deal with challenging situations, your philosophy you live after, the values you have.

Everyone has his or her individual mindset, shaped by the experiences one made. The individual mindset of someone steers the perception he or she has. And the interesting part of this is, that based on one´s mindset, information can be processed or accessed easier, if they comply with the mindset. So the mindset is the ulterior foundation of someones evaluations, expectations and judges. So the view of yourself can literally determine everything!

The Two Mindsets By Carol Dweck

In her research Carol Dweck found that there are two typical archetypes of mindsets. People with a “Fixed Mindset” believe that their abilities are unchangeable. Those people will want to prove themselves correct over and over, rather than learning from their mistakes.

In contrast, having a “Growth Mindset” means your belief in being able to accomplish everything. Those people thrive on challenges and don´t see failures as an evidence for unintelligence, but as a chance for growth and stretching of existing abilities.

What type of Mindset you have, manifests already from a very early age. It determines your behavior, your relationship to success and failure in both professional and personal contexts. And most importantly: The type of Mindset determines as well your capacity for happiness.

So what if you knew that the mindset you have can be developed or hacked? Most people wish to have a “Growth Mindset”, but yet most stick with a “Fixed Mindset”.

Identify Your Type Of Mindset

On her website, Carol Dweck offers a little test to check, what type of mindset you have. It asks the same questions I would probably have written here, so if you are really interested to know, what type of Mindset you have, use the following link:

Do your own Mindset test

Mindset Development

So you probably found out that you don´t have a “Growth Mindset”. Thinking like that brings a lot of limitations with. And it harms to unveil your full potential. By stating “the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life” Dweck totally hits it.

I have a few strategies for you, that can help developing a “Growth Mindset”. That may help to be more successful and happy. But let me warn you! If you really want to change your mindset, it will be an uncomfortable, challenging journey with a lot of lows. This will not come overnight. I needed more than 7 years to fix my own attitude from a depressed and unlucky guy to a life-loving and challenge-thriving one, always on the search for getting beyond my horizon again and again, personally and professionally.

#1 View Failure In A Different Light

Everyone fails. In the job, in love, in friendship, everywhere. And yes failure can be tough. Try to focus more on the way and the process than the result itself. In order to achieve something you have to put effort in, sometimes leaving your comfort zone and run the extra mile. So if you fail it only means, that you have not put enough effort in. Run the extra mile at least one more time than you fail! Learn from your failure, see it as an extra motivation to do better the next time. Don´t waste too much time overthinking why and how it was possible to fail. Most of the time you won´t find an satisfying answer. Instead focus your energy on the next try.

#2 Work On Your Self-Awareness

You need to become highly aware of your strengths and gifts. If you don´t believe much enough in you to overcome obstacles or challenges, it might be because you are not fully aware of what a gift you are to the world. I highly recommend to ask for what people appreciate you and what abilities they admire. Ask your best friends, your family, your colleagues and bosses. They can give you different views on yourself and this helps you to develop more self-confidence.

#3 Embrace Your Curiosity And Learn

I see every encounter, every conversation and every situation as an opportunity to learn. No matter how small and less important it may seem, be curious, ask more questions, talk with your heart. We can always learn something new. And it is important to grow. I personally developed a habit out of it: Everytime I have an encounter or conversation I directly reflect the moment and ask myself, what I have learned from that. If I can´t find something, it means I need to ask more and go deeper. And believe me – if you ask something too personal, people will love to give you the answer. I made the experience, that people love to tell you more if you ask with kindness. Wanna start a conversation out of nowhere that can lead into a strong connection, try this question: “Tell me the best three things that happened to you this year so far?”. The answers you get could be mind-blowing 🙂

#4 Go For Challenges

Currently you might have blocking behaviors to challenges, you might think you are not capable of and probably the common reaction is a very strong “No”. What you should do instead is whenever this strong “No” manifests in your brain, don´t repeat the “No” but instead transform it into “Next Opportunity”. Say it loud three times. Make it your habit every time you got to know a new challenge and be persistent with it. You will see the results pretty fast (couple of weeks). If it has become your habit and automatically manifests in your brain, you are where you want to be.

#5 Celebrate Others

Life is no competition. As long as you treat it like that, you will have always problems to get the appreciation of others. And appreciation of others is a key for your own success. Be happy for everyone who succeed with something, tell them and celebrate them. People notice that and appreciation and celebration will come back to you faster than you think.

#6 Own Your New Attitude

Once you are on the way developing a “Growth Mindset” or already developed it, own it! Acknowledge yourself as someone who possesses a growth mentality and be proud to let it guide your life.

An Amazing Ted Talk By Carol Dweck

If you are interested to read more about Mindsets and how to effectively change it, I can only recommend you to read Carol Dweck´s book:


I guarantee you that I do not get payed for promoting this. I really believe in her research and becoming aware of those different mindset types and finding ways to develop them, was a key for me. Hope you can learn as much from it as I did.

What Mindset type are you? And what experiences have you made with this? Let´s discuss in the comments 🙂

Leave a Reply
