Growth mindset is a powerful tool implemented by successful people. Use these positive growth mindset classroom quotes as an excellent way to demonstrate to children the concept and benefits of adopting a growth mindset.
Perfect For the Classroom – Positive Growth Mindset Quotes
Now more than ever a can-do attitude is vital – not only for our children, but for us too. As I write, we’re in the depths of a global disaster which is impacting us in every imaginable way and making it all too easy to slide into a negative state of mind. But, with mindfulness, despair can be avoided.
Here are 33 inspirational quotes to promote growth mindset, resilience, and positivity.
What is Growth Mindset?
Growth mindset is a term coined by Carol Dweck and refers to the attitudes people have about learning, abilities, and performance.
Growth mindset describes the belief that with effort, dedication, and a commitment to learning from mistakes, we can and will improve our aptitude. This is a hugely beneficial approach in all things, because it motivates us to strive for success – and that it’s possible to attain if we’re willing to work for it.
What is Fixed Mindset?
A fixed mindset on the other hand is the belief that we’re born with innate talents and abilities, and if something is hard or beyond our current skillset, we may as well give up. Contrary to growth mindset, a fixed mindset sets us up for failure.
This is perspective does a disservice to those who live by its limiting principles.
Thankfully, it’s entirely possible to teach and learn a growth mindset – and it’s also possible to facilitate mindset changes in children who don’t currently embrace this positive attitude.
How Do You Inspire a Growth Mindset?
Cultivating a growth mindset in children is one of the most valuable lessons we can pass on. It gives them the only tool they truly need to be able to pursue their own ambitions, whatever they may be:
The confidence to try, the faith that even a mistake is progress, and the conviction that the process is worthwhile because every attempt is a step closer to accomplishment.
But how do you foster a growth mindset? Here are some growth mindset strategies you can employ to help child or class to develop this powerful outlook…
1. Model healthy attitudes
First and foremost, actions speak louder than words. We play an important role in our kids’ and students’ learning process, and if we want them to buy into an idea, then they have to see that we buy into it ourselves. Practicing what we preach is the most influential way to teach any lesson.
Modelling a positive attitude around perseverance, resilience, and determination is powerful.
So, tell them about your greatest mistake. Let them see you make mistakes – take them on the chin, be honest about them. Show enthusiasm for the information you gain from getting something wrong, and how it can help you to learn, improve, and do better.
Also be sure to let your children see the previous and ongoing efforts you put into being at the top of your game, for whatever you take a keen interest in and pursue. Whether it be a subject you’ve studied and continue to learn about, a sport you practice, or a skill you’re honing.
Talk about the failures you’ve had along the way to getting where you are, and the persistence you’ve demonstrated in order to excel.
Modelling a positive attitude around perseverance, resilience, and determination is powerful way to embed the idea of growth mindset.
2. Praise effort
‘I can’t…’ becomes ‘I can’t… yet’. And it makes all the difference.
Try to avoid praising achievements, and instead focus on the work it took to succeed. This is a great way to encourage children to apply themselves.
And, when you do offer praise, get specific! Instead of ‘great’ or ‘nice work’, try ‘I love how you used that colour to emphasise the shadow’. Or ‘you worked hard till you found the right solution, well done!’ – because noticing perseverance is important too.
3. The power of ‘yet’
Nobody can do everything, and certainly not without studying, training, or practicing. A really powerful way of tweaking a fixed mindset in kids is to append ‘yet’ on the end of any negative self-talk:
‘I can’t…’ becomes ‘I can’t… yet‘. And it makes all the difference.
4. Embrace challenges
Encouraging challenges and a healthy curiosity is an excellent way to get children to trying, exploring, and learning. And when the task at hand is taxing, it demands brainstorming to come up with good strategies for success. Some will work, others won’t – and that’s okay.
It’s about nurturing determination and an appetite for adapting to the situation.
5. Provide permission to fail
Sometimes explicit permission to get things wrong is helpful. It gives kids the courage to take risks whilst experimenting with problem solving.
6. Promote resilience
Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we’re just unable to accomplish the goal we set out to achieve. It’s incredibly demoralising – and haven’t we all experience that?
These are critical opportunities to build resilience and foster that all important perseverance.
At such pivotal moments, try focusing on your child’s hard work and talk about what they’re able to learn to help them with their next attempt.
If on the other hand, a result comes easy to your child, it’s equally vital to avoid placing too much emphasis on their success – a sense of achievement should be derived from effort and performance rather than solely from the end result.
7. Empower them
A great reminder for children is that just like a muscle, brains can get stronger.
Telling children this and ensuring it’s something they believe is hugely influential in terms of how they perceive their capabilities and the control they have over them.
Language is so powerful; used carefully it can sow the seeds for healthy attitudes towards challenges, mistakes, and opportunities for learning.
Here are some of my favorite growth mindset quotes, perfect for the classroom…
53 Best Growth Mindset Quotes For the Classroom
Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.
Henry Ford
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Winston Churchill
All things are difficult before they are easy.
Thomas Fuller
Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
Michael Jordan
If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
Vincent Van Gogh
We can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough.
Helen Keller
Identify your problems, but give your power and energy to solutions.
Tony Robbins
Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance.
Samuel Johnson
Don’t tell me how talented you are. Tell me how hard you work.
Artur Rubinstein
The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.
Harry Golden
A challenge only becomes an obstacle when you bow to it.
Ray Davis
It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.
Albert Einstein
The path to success is to take massive, determined action.
Tony Robbins
Ask ˜How will they learn best? not ˜Can they learn?
Jaime Escalante
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas Edison
Effort is grossly underrated.
Gary Vaynerchuk
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
Voltaire
A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.
Vernon Howard
Quotes About Growth Mindset to Inspire Purpose
Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do.
Oprah Winfrey
Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.
Gordon B. Hinckley
Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the high road to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.
Margaret Thatcher
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So sail away from the safe harbor. Explore, Dream, Discover.
Mark Twain
Dreams don’t work unless you do.
John C. Maxwell
Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.
Thomas Watson
A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.
Elbert Hubbard
It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
Confucius
Motivational Quotes to Inspire Positive Thinking
Success is not an accident, success is a choice.
Stephen Curry
Success doesn’t come to you, you go to it.
Marva Collins
The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the most of yourself.
Wallace Wattles
Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of being.
John Wooden
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.
Steve Jobs
Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
Joshua J. Marine
If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.
Michelangelo
I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’
Muhammad Ali
Positive Classroom Growth Mindset Quotes For Kids
All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.
Walt Disney
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
Martin Luther King
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
Nelson Mandela
Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
Thomas Edison
One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.
Malala Yousafzai
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
Albert Einstein
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
Mahatma Gandhi
Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’m possible!’
Audrey Hepburn
Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed no hope at all.
Dale Carnegie
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
E.E. Cummings
Don’t worry about failure. Worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.
Sherman Finesilver
You have to apply yourself each day to becoming a little better. By becoming a little better each and every day, over a period of time, you will become a lot better.
John Wooden
You’re in charge of your mind. You can help it grow by using it in the right way.
Carol Dweck
Believe you can….and you are halfway there!
Theodore Roosevelt
A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
John A. Shedd
If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.
Frank A. Clark
The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem.
Captain Jack Sparrow
Test scores and measures of achievement tell you where a student is, but they don’t tell you where a student could end up.
Carol Dweck
If you’re looking for more effective ways to encourage children to embrace the idea of growth mindset, why not turn some of these quotes into growth mindset posters, and hang them strategically for visual reference?
This is a clever and fun way to help reinforce the message in an environment of positivity.