Why Success Starts with a Growth Mindset

Your definition of success may be different than someone else’s, and it isn’t graded on a curve. That said, it probably comes down to something that falls into one of these four buckets: being more, doing more, having more, or contributing more.

Whatever your definition, the gap between where you are now and where you want to be starts with being more. To cross the chasm, you first have to become more.

If you want to do more, you first need to be more. You need to develop yourself personally and professionally. You have to grow in the areas in your life that aren’t where they need to be for you to have the level of success you want. The more you build your capacity to generate the results you need, the sooner you will have those results. You have to chip away all the parts of you that aren’t your best self to reveal what is inside.

For a lot of people, success is measured on a financial scorecard. When you do more, you will have more. A lot of people have negative feelings about money as a measure of success, believing that there are more important things. And there are more important things, like your health, and the health and happiness of the people you love. That said, financial success is important. When you have more money, you have more choices, and you have greater security. This allows you act without fear, and that allows for a very different level of success.

Even on a very different scorecard, being more allows you to do more. Financial success provides greater opportunities to spend time with the people who matter most and share experiences with them. You also have to be the kind of person who makes time for their people.

If you have become more, done more, and have more, you can contribute more. You can give more of your time to the people and causes that mean the most to you. You can give back by paying forward for someone else. No matter where you are right now, you can make a difference. Success allows you to scale up that difference.

Whatever success means to you, and whatever it is that you want, it starts with the growth mindset, the idea that you can become more than you are now.