Achieving Your Career Goals Through a Growth Mindset: A Step-by-Step Guide
If you’re anything like me, I’m guessing you have big dreams you want to make happen in your career?
And while your dreams *may* seem out of reach and impossible right now, the key to making them your reality is by setting really good goals: goals that give your dreams direction and ensure you’re focusing your time and energy on what matters.
These are the kind of goals that stretch you; challenge you to grow; and step into the next version of you; and what I call, growth goals.
What are growth goals?
Growth goals are specific and challenging, while at the same time, focused on self-improvement.
Growth goals are approached by adopting a growth mindset, which is the belief that we can grow and develop our abilities through consistent effort.
This means being willing to learn as you go; being open to practice through continuous improvement (rather than thinking you’ll get it right the first time); and trying new strategies that will help you achieve your outcome.
Above all, adopting a growth mindset is about enjoying the process of becoming the person who persists in the face of challenges and is committed to keep going, no matter what.
Step 1: Define Your Growth Goal
The ideal growth goal will make you feel uncomfortable, yet excited at the same time.
If it freaks you out, but deep down you know this is what you want, and that it’s what you know you’re capable of, then it’s time to own your goal and declare it!
Growth goals are outcome based, i.e based on achieving a specific outcome.
This could be:
Monetary based eg, earning a specific amount in your career or business that will push you out of your comfort zone;
Project based eg. writing your book or completing a major project by a certain deadline.
Growing your network or audience to a certain size eg. reaching 1000 email subscribers.
Step 2: Embrace the Challenge
Growth goals vs. realistic goals.
You may be familiar with the SMART method of setting goals, and while this framework presents some helpful ideas, the premise of setting realistic and achievable goals doesn’t support getting out of your comfort zone and stretching yourself to make things happen.
And without goals that challenge us and force us to step outside our comfort zone, we never find out what we’re capable of.
Think about it this way: if you already know a goal is realistic and achievable, then you already know how you’re going to get there, and achieving this goal will never give you the full satisfaction of accomplishment you desire.
In fact, *realistic* goals limit us from reaching our potential, because they don’t force us to stretch ourselves and expand our vision of what’s possible.
Why impossible goals are a good thing.
Growth goals by nature meant to be challenging, that’s a given. And so, they require us to embrace a new mindset and a new way of being to show up for that goal and make it happen.
Shifting into the growth mindset offers us the opportunity to embrace the belief that our abilities can be developed and changed, we can see our growth goals through an entirely different lens.
Because here’s the thing: the journey of pursuing your wildest dreams is not about whether or not you reach your goals…
It’s about who you become in the process of levelling up, taking courageous action and honouring the commitments to yourself.
Embracing a growth mindset means finding success in learning and improving and enjoying the process, not just achieving the final outcome.
The truth is that if following your dreams and making them a reality was easy then everyone would be doing it.
How many people do you know who put off their dreams for “someday” and that day never arrives? I used to be one of those people!
It takes courage and determination to go for your dreams, setting impossible goals; risking failure and defeat. And when we focus on showing up as the person who stays committed to their goals and persists, even when it’s challenging, that’s when the magic happens!
Why?
Because the reward is oh so sweet when you have proven to yourself that you can achieve the impossible.
Step 3: Consider Setbacks Inevitable.
It can be easy to feel like giving up when we face setbacks. I couldn’t even tell you the amount of times I’ve felt like giving up on my goals when I’ve faced challenges. It can be soul destroying and confidence crushing when it happens, but the truth is that setbacks and challenges on this path are inevitable.
Rather than giving up or accepting defeat, what if you viewed every setback as an opportunity to try a different approach?
While we may think there’s only one way of going about something, in reality there’s multiple ways that can lead you to achieving your goals.
What I’ve found helpful is to do a brain dump of all the various options and paths you can take and then start experimenting to see what works.
The key is being open to all of the possibilities; having the courage to move forward and never giving up.
Effort = results.
Something that has tripped me up numerous times is buying into the belief that natural ability is what will determine the outcome of a goal. Based on this thinking, I used to believe that my multiple failures in business meant that I was simply no good at business, and therefore I should give up.
Since adopting a growth mindset, I’ve been able to see that natural ability is one piece of the puzzle, but it certainly doesn’t determine the outcome! It’s the continuous effort that we commit to putting in that will yield the desired results.
This means that regardless of your natural ability, by putting in continuous effort, showing up when it’s hard, trying new approaches and being persistent in the face of challenges, your potential is limitless will ultimately lead to reaching your goals.
Pretty amazing, right?
Imagine how good it would feel to expand your vision for what’s possible, enjoy the journey along the way, and reach the end of 2024 and be able to look back and be so incredibly proud of how far you have come?
