Why you should accept a challenge to change your mindset for growth and success
When we are faced with challenges, they can make or break us. Success means you are capable and outstanding but failure can leave you broken, beaten down and lacking belief in yourself. Challenges in life offer great hope but also great pain and your mindset can determine your reaction to them. In the same way, challenges can be the key to changing your mindset for success.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links that I earn a commission from at no cost to you
What does it mean to embrace challenges?
The definition of embracing a challenge is ‘to accept (an opportunity or challenge) willingly or eagerly and to take up (a new idea)’. Perhaps the definition is obvious but I wanted to be clear about what we are talking about here. Embracing challenges are times where you say yes to hardship and opportunities, welcoming them into your life.
Willing is another keyword in this definition. Being forced into situations that you want to avoid can leave you feeling resentful of others and feeling limited. As a previous people pleaser, I know how it feels doing things for others with the pressure of succeeding for them. This doesn’t encourage positive relationships or put you in the right mindset for overcoming challenges. Making it more difficult to succeed and enjoy the process of a challenge.
Many of the challenges you want to accept are to improve your life and become closer to achieving your goals. In addition, when you are ready and willing to accept challenges, new opportunities can reveal themselves and become clear.
Embracing challenges is also about being prepared for failures. Unfortunately, you might not succeed on your first try every time and there is the potential for disappointment. However, failure is not final and instead, presents us with the opportunity to grow, learn and try again.
Fear of failure can stop you from accepting challenges and keep you from achieving your goals. This is a common limiting belief that many people hold on to and let rule their life. Therefore, accepting a challenge requires you to let go of your fear of failure and pursue your dreams, no matter the result.
Challenges themselves push you in many ways. Demanding that you come up with new ways of working, forcing you out of your comfort zone, and creating unique experiences for you. All of this helps to transform your mindset for growth, resilience and strength.
How to embrace challenges to change your mindset
Now that you know that it takes willingness and openness to accept a challenge, how can you use this to change your mindset? Below are 5 tips to embracing more challenges in life and how they can change your mindset for the better.
Develop a growth mindset
Challenges can crop up at any time but your mindset can determine how you react to them. A fixed mindset thinks you are limited, incapable of change and will most likely fail. Whereas, a growth mindset views a challenge as an opportunity to grow, learn, and become better.
Not only can accepting challenges push you in new ways to create a more resilient mindset, but preparing from them also requires a new mindset too. Building a growth mindset will allow you to overcome a fear of failure and eagerly accept a challenge. Helping you to realise that every challenge you accept is an opportunity for growth. Even if you are faced with a failure, a growth mindset understands that you are not there yet and are on your journey to success.
In Carol Dweck’s research of school children, she found that students with a fixed mindset run from error and challenge. Whereas students with a growth mindset understand that their abilities can be developed and cultivated and had much higher brain activity. Get her amazing book here!
Therefore, instead of running from the challenges life presents to you and feeling like you have to prove yourself. You can create a growth mindset to willingly and eagerly take up the challenge, grow and embrace change.
Get creative
Accepting challenges can take your imagination and creativity to calculate a way to overcome them. Not all challenges are simple or straightforward and have the potential to fail.
A growth mindset teaches us to try again and realise that failure doesn’t define us but offers another opportunity to learn from the challenge. This mindset encourages you to try again but your creativity can be what leads you to success. Helping you to come up with new, innovative and experimental ideas to overcome the challenge.
Brainstorm ideas that you can try to solve the problem. Enlisting your creativity can expand your mind to the possibilities that surround you. Rather than taking the usual path, why not carve out your own?
In addition, this activity can make your mind more flexible in order to overcome the challenge. Allowing you to see new paths to reach your goals. Sometimes we can become fixated on the necessary steps to achieve our goals however, this closes you off to new opportunities that may not be part of the plan. Therefore, your creativity opens you to new ideas and new ways to achieve your goals, perhaps even more efficient ways.
Evaluate the challenge in relation to your goals
You can accept any challenge or opportunity that comes your way. However, being torn in many directions at once can leave you feeling burnt out and not making the progress you want. Often, it is not the best idea to say “yes” to everything and, instead, knowing when to say “no”
I mentioned earlier that I used to be a people pleaser. This led me to say “yes” to everything and I wasn’t able to keep up my end of the bargain most of the time and I was the one losing out. Being pulled in so many different directions for others, I had no boundaries and I was the one suffering.
In my opinion, this is not what it means to embrace challenges and I wasn’t making the progress I desired. As a result, I created those boundaries and I say ‘no’ more often. Allowing me to work towards my goals.
You can achieve a better balance by evaluating the challenges and opportunities given to you in relation to your goals. How will this help me become closer to achieving my goal? What will I learn from this challenge? Does this opportunity carve out a new, better path to my goals?
With this context, it will become easier to ‘yes’ to the right things and ‘no’ to the wrong things. Allowing you to maintain the energy and motivation you need to achieve your goals. As well as ensuring you are making progress for yourself.
Get used to being uncomfortable
Carol Dweck also discovered in her growth mindset research, that operating just outside of your comfort zone is the key to improving your performance. Challenges encourage a lot of change and can force you out of your comfort zone to try new things. But this is a very uncomfortable feeling and creates a mindset challenge.
Being uncomfortable can cause you to indulge in bad habits and even give up on succeeding in your challenge. It can be difficult to continue when our brains are trying to protect us from the unknown and potential for pain.
Therefore, it is important to get used to being uncomfortable. This is the place where you can make the most progress and have the opportunity to succeed. If you give in the pleasure of the comfort zone, you may find yourself stuck and unable to move on towards your goals. Resisting the urge helps you create a resilient and stronger growth mindset for future challenges.
Condition new beliefs
When you accept challenges and explore outside of your comfort zone, limiting beliefs can rear their ugly heads. Trying to convince you that you are not capable of succeeding and are limited. However, throughout your journey, you can replace these limiting beliefs with empowering ones.
In addition, challenges can be the experience you need to condition these new beliefs into your mindset. Limiting beliefs become stronger over time as you experience more instances where they feel true. Therefore, you need to do the same for your empowering beliefs so that they become strong and true.
Firstly, embrace some challenges in life and observe the negative self-talk and limiting beliefs that crop up. You can use my other guides to help you identify your limiting beliefs. Replace them with beliefs that empower you to succeed and orientate your mindset to growth.
Secondly, create and seek out opportunities or experiences that will reinforce the new beliefs. As you succeed or fail and try again, you disprove your limiting beliefs and strengthen the new ones. Therefore, allowing you to accept challenges to change your mindset and encourage self-belief and improved confidence.
How will your mindset change?
Embracing challenges has many benefits for your mindset. From preparing a growth mindset in order to accept the challenge, to creating a resilient mindset outside of the comfort zone and building an empowering mindset with your beliefs. Challenges help you become the best version of yourself with your mindset and move you towards your goals.
Getting creative with problem-solving, evaluating opportunities in relation to your goals, and getting used to being uncomfortable all help you accept more challenges. The more practice you have at this, the easier it becomes to find and embrace new opportunities in life. Over time, your growth mindset and empowering beliefs will support you through any challenge that life throws at you.
Therefore, accepting challenges is a skill that will last a lifetime. Helping you to achieve your goals and become your best self every day. What helping challenges are you welcoming into your life? Let me know in the comments!
Pin this for later!
