Effort is one of those things that give meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it.

Carol Dweck

Life is a continuous roller coaster ride. No matter how planned you can be, things just come out of left field. Certainly, the last 2 years are a testimony to this.

Going through great upheaval can give you an opportunity to question your life’s purpose. Sometimes it brings you to a crossroad in your life. You may even feel stuck and stagnant, not being able to move forward.

This is when, doing some deep diving into your current reality and evaluating your purpose and meaning for your future life going forward, can help give you some momentum and direction. It is in being able to cultivate positive habits and embed them in your life that is truly transformative.

At the end of the day, you are the creator of your own life. You have the power to change ingrained and deep-seated habits.

Being open to learning and growth and making even a small change in your attitude and your habits is worth celebrating. Acknowledge your efforts and perseverance and reward yourself with something special that is meaningful to you.

Current research in neuroscience shows that the brain has plasticity and our neural pathways are capable of changing.  Every time we stretch outside of our comfort zone and do and learn new and hard things, the neurons in our brains change and form stronger connections

Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of motivation and is a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and has documented the benefits of adopting a “growth” mindset where we see ourselves and our situation as capable of improving rather than a “fixed” mindset where we are bound and limited by genetics, and circumstances and not able to change.

Our mindset heavily influences what we want out of life and whether we are successful in achieving it. Cultivating more of a growth mindset will help you achieve goals and enhance your life.

People who tend towards a fixed mindset believe that basic qualities like their intelligence, their skills and their talents are fixed traits. They believe that who we are today is essentially who we will be any time in the future.

In contrast, people who lean towards a growth mindset, see personality traits and abilities as malleable. They believe that even basic qualities can be developed through hard work and practice. They are striving to develop their qualities and see the potential for growth as they do this.

People with a growth mindset do not fear failure and understand this is an opportunity to learn and grow and even regard it as an exciting challenge.

We are not one or the other. We all have a little at least a little of thoughts and feeling that come from both mindset perspectives in different situations. You may generally have a growth mindset but in certain circumstances you may be more fixed in your perspective.

Researchers at Berkley have recently completed an impressive set of studies showing a growth mindset is predictive of creativity. When you are not worried about mistakes and you learn from them, taking a longer-term perspective over what you are trying to achieve, fosters innovation and creativity.

Being open to learning and self-growth helps you maximise your ability to success in whatever it is you are working towards.

According to Carol Dweck, believing that your qualities are carved in stone, the fixed mindset, creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over.

In the growth mindset, Carol Dweck states, “The hand you’re dealt is just the starting point for development. This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way- in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments- everyone can change and grow through application and exercise.”

At the end of the day, you’re either growing and learning from your experiences or you’re staying constrained by your limiting beliefs.

To further cultivate a growth mindset, you could reflect on how you see failure and mistakes. A person with a growth mindset views them as challenges and opportunities to learn from their experiences. The saying, failure is the best teacher, applies well here.

Prepare yourself for challenges and be aware there will be some. Every time you get out of your comfort zone and take risks, regard it as a challenge. Be curious about how you are going and why or why not you are succeeding in making those changes.

Change takes hard work and perseverance. It is the getting up after you have fallen that is key here.

Cultivating a growth mindset

By going on a self-coaching journey and articulating your life purpose and having meaningful goals to work towards, you are opting to move in a direction of continuous learning and self-growth.

Making a concerted effort to improve your life circumstances and emotional wellbeing, gives you the momentum to make deep and lasting changes and create a more fulfilling and meaningful life.

Anyone going down the path of coaching themselves definitely has a tendency to a growth mindset and to develop it further. By setting yourself a compelling vision which you are passionate about and goals to work towards, and then taking positive action to achieve those goals, you have the capacity to create change in your life.

In my Life Journal course there are 6 key steps to create a more fulfilling and meaningful life through learning to coach yourself and cultivating a growth mindset. You will learn to use a powerful cyclical model of change that you can continue to use well after you finish the course.

By cultivating a growth mindset, you can develop your skills, talents and qualities through defining your purpose and vision for your life, working hard towards your goals.

The Life Journal online course is a great example of people developing and honing their growth mindset, recognizing the value of challenging themselves and the importance of effort and perseverance.

By setting goals to enhance your life circumstances and your inner wellbeing and then taking effective action, you will learn to make deep and lasting changes in your life.

The Life Journal course will support you in developing personal vision and set goals for a life you love. You will develop and implement a Personal Action Plan with specific actions for each week. You will learn an effective tool for monitoring your progress towards your goals.

You will learn a range of techniques for effectively changing habits and patterns. Throughout the course you will learn tools and techniques to build your mindfulness and self-compassion skills.

 6 key steps in the Life Journal self-coaching course

1. Starting the Journey and Examining Your Current Reality
2. Developing Your Compelling Vision and Personal Action Plan
3. Monitoring Your Actions and Learning the Power of Habits
4. Monitoring Your Actions and Developing Mindfulness Skills
5. Monitoring Your Actions and Being Your Own Best Friend
6. Taking Stock, Evaluating and Starting Again

Along the way, you will increase your self-awareness including the way you interact with people, your ability to be present and how you can contribute, cultivating a resilient, grounded inner self.

The Life journal Course is fully online. It can be taken over a five-week period with an average of four hours study per module or it can be taken over a longer time frame.

Key objectives of the Life Journal course

• Learn a powerful cyclical model for change you can use throughout your life.
• Develop a personal vision and set goals for a life you love
• Develop and implement a personal action plan with specific actions for each week
• Develop a greater self-awareness and growth mindset
• Learn a range of techniques for effectively changing habits and patterns
• Reflect on your experiences in a personal journal
• Build mindfulness and self-compassion skills.

The Life journal course is for everyone from all stages of life because we can all benefit from developing greater self-awareness and develop skills on how to coach ourselves for greater success whether it be in our personal or professional life.

Being curious and committing to lifelong learning as well as knowing that in doing what you love and are passionate about, it is much easier to succeed.

By undertaking the 6 key steps in the Life Journal Course you are honing a greater growth mindset which will support you in achieve your goals and live a more successful and fulfilling life.

Carol Dweck says it well in an interview with Mindfulness in May founder, Elise Bialylew.

“I would just say just keep your minds on the ways in which you would like to grow. The goals you have for your life. What contributions you want to make. Ways in which you want to grow and then go for it.”

We all have the power to embrace a growth mindset and reap the amazing benefits in enhancing our life.