Build a Growth Mindset With These 3 Books
Monitor your inner voice and set yourself up for success.
The person you listen to the most in your life is yourself.
No matter how often you surround yourself with people, the voice that’ll speak to you the most is the one inside your head.
And that’s why, self talk matters.
The more you use words like don’t, can’t, hate, tired, unable, etc., the more you’ll feel held back in life. Monitoring your self-talk is an underrated, yet powerful way to achieve success in life.
A growth mindset means you’re willing to keep experimenting, widening your horizons, and hustling so your chances of success increases. If you keep hiding behind your excuses and lamenting over how life’s been unfair, you won’t get anywhere.
Building a growth mindset takes work, but with intentional practice, you can achieve it. In this article, I’m sharing three transformative books that’ll help you monitor your self-talk and become tragedy-proof in life. Read on, for you might find your next favorite read among the books in this list.
1. Mindset By Carol Dweck
Most people stay stuck for years though they have the potential for more, while others achieve great things in a short time. The difference between these two groups is their mindset.
The people in the first group have a fixed mindset. They believe their abilities and talents are limited and can’t be changed. They avoid taking risks, stay in their comfort zone, are conscious of their image, and fear failure.
People in the second group, on the other hand, have a growth mindset. They believe talents can be developed through constant learning. They feel excited to face challenges and learn from their failures. If you want to be a part of the second group then start with reading Mindset By Carol Dweck.
When I first read this book, I became aware of all the thoughts and fears inside me that were blocking my growth. This book helped me evolve my mindset step by step.
My biggest takeaways from this book
The most important mindset shift I experienced was that I started focusing on learning rather than the result. I started appreciating the journey more than the destination and found solace in working harder.
I learned that praising can impact both growth and fixed mindsets differently. Only praising a good result can foster a fixed mindset that attaches self-worth to achievement. Praising efforts and the process of learning can encourage us to try, experiment, and expand our horizons.
Everyone has the power to choose a mindset. It’s a choice you make consciously or subconsciously. Just embracing a few things in your life can help you achieve a growth mindset. From today, start seeing challenges as opportunities for growth rather than fearing them.
Every small effort you make matters. Success doesn’t solely come from innate talent but from the work you put in. Instead of saying “I don’t know this skill”, start saying “I’m yet to master this skill”. Be open to constructive criticism and feedback. It’s not a judgment passed on to you but an opportunity to improve yourself.
My favorite quotes from Mindset By Carol Dweck
“We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.”
“no matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.”
2. The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest
Sometimes life feels like a burden and nothing goes well. Every day, you wake up and do your best, but end up doing the same things, wasting your time and energy. The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest teaches you how to overcome self-sabotaging habits that stop you from becoming your greatest version.
The author’s key idea is that your current situation is often a reflection of your inner conflicts. So, if you want to fix things from the roots, then do some internal healing.
The Mountain is You has greatly impacted my thought process and healing journey. I understood that unless I treated the root cause of my self-sabotaging habits, my life would never change. This book taught me how to take control of my life and respond to challenges. It helped me dive deep inside my mind and understand my core values.
My biggest takeaways from this book
The best thing I learned from this book is to let go of anything that no longer serves me, whether it is
- past traumas,
- toxic connections, or
- limiting beliefs.
Once I started following the exercises in this book, I felt a release of emotional baggage from my shoulders. I learned a lot about myself, my core values, and my thought process. If you want to feel the same transformation, start the change from within and see the power of your mindset shift.
My favorite quotes from The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest
“It is very hard to show up as the person you want to be when you are surrounded by an environment that makes you feel like a person you aren’t.”
“Either way, mental strength is not just hoping that nothing ever goes wrong. It is believing that we have the capacity to handle it if it does.”
“The real glow-up isn’t proving the people from your past wrong. It is finally feeling so content and hopeful about your future that you stop thinking about them entirely.”
3. Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Julie Smith
If you want to change your mindset, start with understanding how your mind works. There’s a constant race to be super productive. Lots of to-do lists and even 24 hours seem less. This hustle can make us anxious out of nowhere. It’s difficult to grow and focus on creative things when you’re in a constant state of wondering what to do next. I was stuck in the same loop until I read Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before by Julie Smith. It helped me regulate my emotions and build a healthy mindset.
Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before wonderfully explains everything you need to know about depression, fear, stress, anxiety, grief, and motivation. Improving mental health is not a one-day process, you have to take baby steps every day. Every negative emotion you feel is the result of some unmet needs. Our job is to identify those needs rather than amplify those negative emotions.
My biggest takeaways from this book
I loved the square breathing technique which has always helped me to calm down when anxiety hits. The biggest lesson from this book for me was to make good-enough decisions to break out of a bad mood spiral. Oftentimes we overanalyze our decisions and feel stuck. Good-enough decisions help us move in the right direction without being a perfectionist.
Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before by Julie Smith, is a great book that helped me understand my mindset and keep my mental health in check. I highly recommend it for anyone dealing with stress and anxiety. The practical tips mentioned in the book can be easily applied in your life and help you build a growth mindset.
My favorite quotes from Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Julie Smith
“Thoughts are not facts. They are a mix of opinions, judgements, stories, memories, theories, interpretations, and predictions about the future.”
“The thing about the human brain is that, when you believe something, the brain will scan the environment for any signs that the belief is true.”
“When we focus on trying to fix the problem, it is easy to underestimate the power of simply being there.”
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