Let’s say you are a kid in a small town. As a kid, you are fascinated by every nook and corner of the town – the towering candy stores, the super busy traffic, and the tall adults that you look up to. Whether you want it or not you are exposed to new experiences and people.

As a teenager, you discover another new side of the town which helps you express your individuality and be a rebel without a cause. Even the places you visited before seem different because of who you are or who you hang out with. It is still new, and you are still exploring.

As an adult the newness starts to fade – the things that fascinated you before seem to be no longer visible. And then you get a job and/or get married and start a family. The daily chores of the job and family slowly begin to replace the need for newness or growth.

The newness is not essential – what is important is the growth that comes with it. If the growth is not happening naturally then what do you do? Look for opportunities that do – so that you continue to grow.

For example, let’s say you have a piano and you play the keys on it, and it produces music – That may work initially, but if you want to produce an excellent song out of it then you have to learn the notes, be more disciplined about it. Similarly, the town provided you the music when you were a kid, but if you want to move to the next level, then you have to do something different.

Why is growth important? I firmly believe that if we are not learning something new or growing, then we are rotting or rusting away.

The growth mindset is present when we are younger because we do not know so many things but as we grow older we seem to get enough knowledge to survive our daily life and for some reason – become satisfied with where we are. Or, in some cases, we are not even aware that our growth has stopped. As a kid, I was curious to know why we see rainbows, as an adult I want the rain to stop so that the traffic can move quicker. Sad!

Then, the question arises – what can we do keep the growth mindset?
1. Learn something new – you don’t have to become an expert in it, but the mere act of learning will spark different neurons in your brains. Seek out new opportunities – go out of your way to invite them into your life.
2. Do something scary – we might learn something but let’s say you know windows 1.1, and now you are learning windows 1.2 – it will benefit but not as much if you start learning Linux.
3. Do something you are not good at – this is good because it keeps you humble and reminds you that you don’t know everything.

Last but not the least – Honor The Struggle as my favorite coach Brendan Burchard says.