Liberate Your Power: Creating a Growth Mindset
- Headmistress Jill Miller
- Jun 28
- 6 min read
This is the fifth and final installment of the Liberate Your Power series. You can catch Liberate Your Power: Building Confidence here, Liberate Your Power: Building Belief here, Liberate Your Power: Finding the Courage here, and Liberate Your Power: Overcoming Obstacles here.
Liberate Your Power is part of the Power series of classes I offer, along with Embrace Your Power and Speak Your Power. I'm sharing the content of this class in a series of blog posts. I'm including the pages in the workbook to give you a place to follow along and do the exercises from class.
Creating a Growth Mindset
Nothing can change when we have a fixed mindset.
In a fixed mindset, there’s a belief that intelligence, talents, and personality are fixed traits that cannot be developed. That we’re born with a certain level of ability or special skills and can’t improve them over time.
Thinking that improvements are unattainable and growth is impossible, we get stuck in helpless hopelessness.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can liberate our power by taking on a growth mindset.
With a growth mindset –
Challenges are viewed as opportunities to grow.
Failures are seen as valuable learning experiences.
Feedback is embraced as a tool for improvement.
Taking on this way of thinking strengthens our resilience, makes us more adaptable when we have to roll with the punches, and shifts our focus from the outcome to the process of learning.
Having a growth mindset builds confidence and belief in ourselves. We can view mistakes as a chance to learn, rather than failures. It makes it more likely to stick with challenges, learn new things, and achieve our goals. When we keep learning and try until we get it right, our confidence and capabilities skyrocket.
Having a growth mindset gives you the courage to overcome obstacles with the strength and belief that we can work through tough times and improve our situation.
Embracing this outlook will tone down feelings of helplessness and anxiety, while nurturing emotional well-being and hope. It gives us the tools to adapt to life's challenges so that we’re capable of bouncing back when life gets hard.
Steps to Develop a Growth Mindset
Recognize the power of belief. - Understand that your abilities and intelligence are not set in stone but can grow with effort and persistence.
Many of the ideas about what we can’t do come from self-limiting beliefs, judgements about us that we think are true, that restrict us in some way
They are the stories that we tell ourselves that hold us back.
Discover how to challenge and rewrite your self-limiting beliefs in the Liberate Your Power: Building Confidence article here.
Embrace challenges. - See challenges as opportunities to grow, not as threats to your abilities.
In the article Liberate Your Power: Building Belief, I suggested creating little experiments to learn to trust yourself. In the Liberate Your Power: Overcoming Obstacles article, I give ideas for low-risk experiments to help you overcome the fear of failure by actually practicing failure.
Working on these experiments will safely push you out of your comfort zone, building resilience and teaching you to adapt more easily to unexpected events.
Learn from criticism and feedback. - Treat constructive feedback as an opportunity to improve, rather than a personal attack or failure.
When we’re being wise, we can gain important information by listening objectively to others’ opinions, whether we agree with them or not. This is an important way we learn, so try to stay open to the information instead of getting defensive.
Always remember that when the feedback is given, it’s one person’s opinion and doesn’t mean they’re right or wrong. You decide what feedback is valuable to you and let the rest go.
You don’t even need to argue about whose opinion is right. When it comes to you and your business, the only opinion that truly matters is your decision.
Celebrate effort, not just outcome. - Value the journey as much as the destination.
Focus on the techniques you master and the new things you’ve learned rather than the final outcome. Acknowledge and reward times you are persistent, like completing something that challenged you, even if the result isn’t flawless. This reinforces the importance of effort and learning over quick wins.
Reframe failures as learning opportunities - Instead of seeing failures as proof of your limitations, view them as stepping stones to success.
Shift your focus from what went wrong to how you can take what you learned to try again. Whether it’s creating a miracle cure for an incurable disease, learning to play a musical instrument, or even having a successful business, success rarely happens on the first attempt. Adapting strategies from what was learned from what didn’t work gets us closer to the answer we’re looking for. But not if we give up.
As the frustrated scientists trying to recreate a magical car in the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sang, “From the ashes of disaster come the roses of success.”
Cultivate a love for learning - Stay curious by exploring topics outside your usual interests.
Make learning a habit by setting aside time to read, take classes, or try hands-on projects. The more you expand your knowledge, the more adaptable and innovative you become.
Practice self-awareness and manage self-talk. - Pay attention to moments when your self-talk is particularly nasty and use transformational vocabulary to change what you’re saying to yourself.
The words we choose to use have a biochemical effect on the body. The minute you use a word like “outraged,” you’re going to produce a very different biochemical effect than if you say, “I’m frustrated.” Changing the words we habitually use to describe our emotions changes our feelings and the quality of our lives. Learn more about how this works in the Liberate Your Power: Finding The Courage article here.
Surround yourself with growth-oriented people. - Spend time with people who inspire and challenge you to grow.
Engage with people who celebrate learning and persistence and try to avoid doomsayers and those who reinforce fixed-mindset beliefs.
Set goals and focus on progress. - Break your goals into small, manageable steps, and celebrate each milestone.
Regularly check in with yourself on how far you’ve come toward making small steps toward your bigger goals. Not only will this keep you motivated, it will also reinforce your belief in continuous improvement.
Be patient and persistent. - Growth takes time, and progress isn’t always a straight line.
Remind yourself that progress takes time, and small steps forward are still steps in the right direction. Be patient with yourself when things feel slow or setbacks happen, as they are bound to do anytime you’re reaching for the stars. Commit to the long-term journey of self-improvement, knowing that every effort contributes to your growth.
Burnout or Lack of Soul-Care - Taking care of our mental and physical health is crucial for maintaining a growth mindset.
When energy and motivation are low, it can be difficult to act in ways that support our growth.
Establish soul-care routines that include getting enough rest, exercise, and mindfulness or grounding practices that keep you rooted in the present moment. Understanding and addressing these obstacles can help nurture and sustain a growth mindset over the long term.
Embracing a growth mindset is one of the most empowering choices you can make for yourself. It invites you to see challenges as opportunities, transform setbacks into learning experiences, and view your potential as limitless. But remember, growth doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a journey that demands patience, persistence, and self-compassion.
As you work on shifting your mindset, remember to be kind to yourself! Take time to celebrate small victories, learn from any missteps, and trust in this wonderful process of change.
Growth isn’t about being perfect; it’s all about making progress. Each effort you make to embrace challenges, seek out feedback, and keep pushing through obstacles brings you closer to the amazing life you’re capable of creating.
Take a deep breath, commit to the journey, and know that you hold the power to shape your own path.
With time and dedication, the seeds of a growth mindset you plant today will bloom into resilience, adaptability, and fulfillment. The future is yours to create —one step, one lesson, and one triumph at a time.
Want to earn your badge for this class? Don't forget to turn in your workbook pages by emailing me at Jill@FinishingSchoolForModernWomen.com.
Here's the workbook for the entire series.
Did you know I've published a book? Learn more about it here!
Because We’re Never Finished
The Finishing School for Modern Women, located in Wichita, Kansas, offers classes to help women find their authentic selves, not because we need finishing, but because we’re never finished. We bring together women of all ages to learn from experts and each other how to claim our power in business, finance, communication, and life.
To learn more about what we do:
https://www.finishingschoolformodernwomen.com for our classes and free social membership.
Contact Us
Phone: 316-841-8927 Email: jill@finishingschoolformodernwomen.com
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