How to Cultivate a Growth-Mindset in Your Writing

Your mindset is powerful.

And whether you have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset can influence your success in writing.

According to Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, people with a fixed mindset believe that their qualities are carved in stone. On the other hand, people with a growth mindset believe that their qualities can be cultivated through effort, strategy, and support.

How does this apply to your writing?

If you have a fixed mindset, you might be telling yourself limiting beliefs that hold you back from success with your writing. For example, you might think that you're not a good writer or that writing is hard.

However, if you have a growth mindset, you might be telling yourself empowering beliefs that support your success with writing. For example, you might think that you're working on improving your writing skills or that writing comes with challenges that you can overcome.

Do you find that you have a fixed mindset when it comes to your writing?

If so, there's good news: mindsets can be changed. So whenever you have a fixed-mindset thought about your writing, trade it for a growth-mindset thought.

Here are a few examples:

Fixed-mindset thought: "I'm not a good writer."
Growth-mindset thought: "I'm not a good writer yet."

Fixed-mindset thought: "Why is writing so hard?"
Growth-mindset thought: "How can I make writing easier?"

Fixed-mindset thought: "Why do I keep making mistakes?"
Growth-mindset thought: "What can I learn from this?"

Fixed-mindset thought: "Why did my paper get rejected?"
Growth-mindset thought: "How do the reviewers’ comments help me improve the paper?"

Fixed-mindset thought: "Why wasn’t my proposal funded?"
Growth-mindset thought: "What advice did the reviewers share that can enhance the project?"

You might think that these simple changes won’t make a difference in your thinking. But words have tremendous power that can influence your mindset.