Are you ready to change your life? Does the thought of taking a huge risk, or failing to succeed stop you from trying? Well, you are not alone. However, if you are ready to take the leap, then you are going to want to build a growth mindset.

A growth mindset is a powerful tool. Your mindset will set you up for success. Understanding the need for challenge, consistency, learning, and supporting those around you is the only way.

First, you must start with how you view yourself. If you do not believe in yourself, how will others? Ultimately, the lack of belief will cause you to quit the second times get challenging.

Without immediate results it is easy to give up. However, the possession of a strong growth mindset will allow you to look past the present failures. The only focus you will have is to reach your end goals, and build your desired future.

This new mindset will put you in the right mental state, for exponential growth. Expanding your context, so that all the new content can enter your mind. You will view failures and setbacks differently. As each presents as an opportunity to further develop your skills.

Here are 8 ways to build a growth mindset. Each of these components will change your life, giving you new meaning and fulfillment.

8 Steps to a Growth Mindset

1. Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is recognizing your thoughts, beliefs, talents, and motives. Being highly aware of your strengths and weaknesses is the foundation to reach growth. Growth can only occur when you realize your starting point.

On the other hand, it is important to remain confident. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. However, being able to recognize them is the only way to become better. Self-awareness is all about being honest with yourself. The quest for self-improvement stems from first becoming aware. Ask questions and do not be afraid to fail. In fact, your journey will take time.

You must recognize areas of weakness that are holding you back from achieving your goals. For example, if you have a goal to become a better endurance athlete, but know that your weakness is snacking on junk food, than you have to fix that problem. The recognition is required before any kind of improvement can take place. It is not about putting yourself down. You must recognize areas you need to improve to reach your goals. Sooner or later you must face the problem and figure out a solution. This is the first step towards success.

2. Embrace Challenge

Challenge will build a growth mindset. The feeling of discomfort is natural when you begin to accept more challenge into your life. After all, growth will not start until you leave your comfort zone. As a result, your mind will expand past the norm. You no longer stay within your limits. The expansion causes a shift in your thinking. Although, challenges are intimidating, you begin to search for them. Each challenge is a new opportunity to expand yourself.

Being able to embrace challenges is not an easy task. Naturally, you are wired to avoid discomfort, challenge, and hard situations. However, to grow you must tackle them.

In fact, many begin to ask themselves the “what if” questions. What if I fail, or what if I have no idea what I am doing? Well, at first you should expect to feel lost and uncomfortable. That is totally normal. But that is a part of challenging yourself to start something new. The unknown and difficulty is what leads to fulfillment. Indeed, there will be times of failure, but the only way to succeed is to push past many unsuccessful attempts.

3. View Failure in a Different Manner

Failure is a part of growth. If you are looking for improvement, first you need to accept you will have plenty of failures. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid it. Thus, you need to stop being afraid.

If you never attempt, you will never succeed. Instead of worrying about failing, focus your energy and mindset on being successful. In the times you are not, just learn from the situation and push forward. The worst thing you can do is to avoid challenging situations because you are scared to fail.

Learn from your failures and look forward. Avoid missing out on the next opportunity because you are too stuck on your past failures. During your pursuit to build a growth mindset you may fail countless times, the beauty in success is that you only have to be right once. For every success, there are a large number of fails. As you learn from each failure, you get closer and closer to that one right move.

4. Set a Vision and Define Small Steps

The right path is nearly impossible when lacking an end destination. After all, how can you take small steps toward a future you have not yet defined?

A vision is an end goal. In order to set the path, you need to first know where you want to end up in the future. Next, you are able to set small goals to reach your larger vision. Success is hard to come by without a clear plan. Unfortunately, accomplishments do not just happen by chance.

Defining your vision can be an overwhelming task. Huge goals may seem scary if that is all you can see. However, if you set a bunch of smaller steps, these large goals are much more manageable. Never sell yourself short. You have the power to reach any goal you set for yourself.

As your vision should be big, small and medium size goals are what get you there. For accomplishment, you need to break down your goals. It is crucial for success. Small steps pave the way to your big vision. They provide direction, especially during times of difficulty. Additionally, completing small goals boosts your motivation and confidence throughout the process.

The secret to long-term growth is taking small, consistent actions. Define small, medium, and large goals to create the building blocks to your vision. Think about it this way. If you have no road map, it is going to be very difficult to reach your destination.

5. Focus on Learning

It is impossible to be good and understand everything. But those who want to become better know the importance of asking questions and taking the time to learn from others. The worst thing you can do is act as though you know everything. Every person, opportunity, and new situation presents a great time to learn.

You have to be a life-long learner. The day you stop learning is the day you stop growing. Learning is the foundation to build a growth mindset. Without learning, you are not growing.

The best way to build your growth mindset is to read, listen to podcasts, and meet in person with like-minded individuals. A life-changing habit is to make this a part of your daily routine. If you study and learn from others, you will likely be able to not only learn from their successes, but also avoid their mistakes. Additionally, you realize every successful person had a similar fear when they started out.

Naturally, you will always want to stay within an area of familiarity. However, this is what kills growth. Growth cannot occur without jumping into new situations. The only way to grow is to learn.

6. Find Your Inner Curiosity

Always be in search of more. Being curious allows for you to expand your context, as you are always looking for new and different perspectives. When you are curious, it changes the way you approach personal connections, new experiences, and your overall vision in life.

The desire to expand your context is the first part to becoming a life-long learner. You must be open to new possibilities. With this in mind, you are able to allow information challenging your initial beliefs into your mind. All these ideas are opportunities for growth. You will be left behind if you do not stay open and flexible to new ideas. As a matter of fact, being closed off with destroy the possibility of growth.

After all, always be open to challenging your beliefs. Curiosity is an incredible trait. Every situation should be seen from multiple angles. The curiosity to look at the world from a different perspective is just one of the many ways to build a growth mindset.

7. Be Authentic

A growth mindset is all about being real. Showcase your true self to the world. In fact, the ability to show others who you are is the best way to build trust, leading to authentic relationships.

Others deeply value your openness and honestly. Building trust with those in your life is a huge component to creating success. After all, pretending to be someone you are not will halt your efforts to build a growth mindset. Even if you reach success, it will be at the expense of many other areas of your life.

Success will only be temporary. You never want to lose the person you want to become in the process of searching for success. Success is meaningless if you do not grow into the person you want to become.

So, stay authentic. Show who you really are, so you can connect with those around you. People will respect it. You will build better relationships, and create way more success in the long run. If you are serious about creating a growth mindset, then never pretend to be something you are not.

8. Celebrate the Accomplishments of Others

When you reach a growth mindset, competition inspires you to become an improved version of yourself. One may think competition is only about being better than everyone else. However, competition is more about striving to excel when you have a growth mindset. Surrounding yourself with others that challenge you will lead to more overall growth.

Celebrating the success of others is part of a growth mindset. You enjoy to see others improve themselves. It comes down to being happy with your life. When you are focused on improving, rather than comparing yourself, you stop focusing on the unhealthy part of competition.

A fixed mindset relies on comparison. When you compare yourself to others, you start to make excuses why they are more successful, instead of celebrating their success and learning from them. This is detrimental to growth. Just like yourself, they are working hard. Be there to support one another. People appreciate others who support them and will be much more likely to support you back.

In fact, celebrating the wins of others will lead to an overall higher level of growth. A shift in thinking causes you to stop comparing and to start using your time more wisely. This leads to more growth for everyone. A growth mindset is about supporting growth for everyone around you. Always celebrate the accomplishments of others.

Creating a New Life of Adventure

For success, it is crucial to be able to analyze which areas of your life need improvement. This is the first step to taking action. If you are unable to truthfully assess your talent, you will never be able to take the steps necessary for growth. Sometimes it is hard to do yourself, so ask others in your life for their opinion to get some different perspectives. Fulfillment comes from continuous personal growth. The ability to adopt a new mindset, allows for you to think differently and expand the possibilities present in your life.

A major step in transforming yourself as an adventure athlete is to start thinking in a new manner. A growth mindset will lead to enhanced performance in all areas of your life: goal setting, meditation, nutrition, strength training, yoga, or planning for an adventure. The growth mindset sets you up to be successful.

After building a new and improved growth mindset, you must fill yourself with the motivation necessary to continuously seek improvement. An adventurous life is about constantly learning, taking risks, and seeking to expand your reality. Check out my post 7 Tips to Increase Motivation to help you with staying on track. Additionally, check out this post to level up your mindset.