When do we get to call ourselves a success? Can a someone be ‘a successful person’ if they have not yet reached their goals? The answer you give depends on your mindset.
The word ‘mindset’ refers to how a person’s particular attitudes toward specific things are likely to be skewed. Using the glass of water analogy, some people view a glass as half empty, seeing the pitfalls and failures as the defining characteristics. Others view the glass as half full, focusing on the bight side while disregarding any short comings. Both these outlooks are fixed, the glass is either a good and rosy or not good enough. A third group of people have learned to see the glass as a moment in time. The glass in progress and has potential to soon become full or empty, or any variation thereof.
Resilient teams understand the journey toward a goal has many steps along the way. Celebrate these achievements. Bolster your motivation with acknowledgment of the tasks check off the to-do list. When set backs happen, acknowledge them too. Each wrong turn is a lesson learned. Take that new knowledge and refocus your aim on the next step.
Cultivating a growth mindset among your team starts with the language you use. Defeatist statements such as, “it is what it is”, reduce motivation and creativity, but problems and set backs don’t need to be ignored either. Focus the words you use to communicate, spoken and written, on finding solutions and moving forward.
What happens once you reach your goal? Is the journey over? Did your team meet a quota milestone? Did you personally reach a professional milestone? A finish line is not a stop sign. Succeeding in reaching a goal does not mean the end of growth. If you follow one piece of advise on how to become more resilient, choose this, “Don’t decide where it ends.”
Credit for this phrase goes to Adriene Mishler from Yoga with Adriene. This concept applies to yoga, and it applies here. It is most easily explained with the analogy of a runner training to reach a set distance. They often succeed and run their race. They decided where it ends and can say they are able to run a 5K, 10K, marathon or whatever the goal. What if they didn’t decide the finish line was the end? How far could they go?
What if we don’t decide the glass is half empty or half full, but a work in progress?
