I still remember walking into that 12-month business program and feeling the high vibes, seeing the bright smiles between strangers, notebooks and latops open, and the electricity of people who had signed up as they knew they wanted more from life.

Underneath my enthusiasm was a lot of nerves, the kind that shows up when you know you are standing at the beginning of something that changes you. I had signed up to learn from expert mentors and connect with ambitious entrepreneurs, and because I already knew the founders and trusted the energy behind the program, it felt like a hell ‘YES’.

It was one of those moments where your intuition leans in and whispers, time to get excited, this could open a door.

Then, I was lucky enough to meet and work with Andrew Griffiths, one of the most amazing and highly successful mentors in the program. He taught us how to write and publish a book, and he carried the kind of certainty that makes a dream feel practical.

What excited me was not just his knowledge, yet the story behind it: he was not only a highly successful author, global speaker and mentor but he also worked as a columnist with Inc.com in New York. As I sat there listening to him speak, something shifted. Writing no longer felt like a distant world reserved for other people. It felt like an open door.

Around that same time, writing found me almost by accident. I had started a blog without a grand plan, simply putting words around the things I cared about — self-love, healing, confidence, and becoming kinder to ourselves. I did not know if anyone would find it, let alone read it. I had no idea how people stumbled across my blog.

However, the comments began to appear: thoughtful messages from strangers, people saying my words had helped them feel seen. That surprised me immensely. It also lit a fire inside of me. Suddenly, I was applying to write for online magazines, stepping into a world I had once watched from the outside.

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” – Martin Luther King, Jr
In the middle of all of that possibility, one simple sentence kept rising in my mind: “If he can do it, I can do it too.”

On the surface, it sounds almost too simple however underneath it is one of the most powerful ideas in personal growth and adopting a growth mindset: the belief that ability is not fixed. Your skills can be developed. Amazing things come to fruition when you take a chance, do something you have never done before or talk to someone you have never met!

Confidence can be practised.

Courage can be repeated.

Risks can be taken.

A closed door does not have to mean “not for me”; it can mean “not yet.”

Whether we are talking about publishing, business, study, sport, creativity, leadership, or starting again later in life, the message is the same: someone else’s success becomes our proof of possibility rather than a reason for comparison.

Stanford Psychologist Carol S. Dweck helped popularise the term “Growth mindset” in her 2006 book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. In simple terms, a growth mindset is the belief that our abilities can develop through effort, learning, feedback, and better strategies. As we know success is instant nor does effort alone solve everything. What it does mean is that our current state is not our final state.

This is where language becomes powerful.

The words we use with ourselves can either shut down action or help you to explore the next step.

Our inner world determines our outer world.

· “I’m not good at this” becomes “I’m not good at this yet.”

· “I don’t know how” becomes “I can learn how.”

· “I was rejected” becomes “I received feedback, and I can refine my approach.”

· “They got the opportunity” becomes “Their success shows that the opportunity exists.”

Growth mindset is especially valuable when we face rejection. Rejection is protection.

Rejection feels personal, however it is directional.

It can show us where to strengthen a skill, clarify a message, build a portfolio, practise an interview, rewrite an application, or make another attempt with more precision.

The ultimate goal is not to avoid failure; the goal is to become someone who can learn from it without being defined by it.

If you are standing at the edge of something new: a job, a course, a business idea, a creative project, a difficult conversation, or a personal change.

Ask this question:

Who has done something similar, and what can their journey teach me?

Not so you can compare yourself, but so you can borrow courage from possibility.

The next time you see someone doing something you dream of doing, pause before you say, “I could never.”

Ask the question: “If they can do it, I can do it too’.

If you are an executive ready to build habits that actually move the needle, DM me ‘RESET”.

#ExecutiveCoaching #LeadershipDevelopment #MindsetForExecutives #GrowthMindset #ProfessionalGrowth

Sources
· Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, published by Random House on 28 February 2006. This book helped popularise the growth mindset concept.

· Stanford Teaching Commons, “Growth Mindset and Enhanced Learning,” explains growth mindset as the belief that intelligence can expand and develop, and contrasts it with a fixed mindset.

· Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning, “Growth Mindset,” describes growth mindset as reframing perceived failures as opportunities to learn and grow.