Carol Dweck’s book Mindset is a must-read for parents. Filled with nuggets of wisdom and profound ideas, it will change how you approach life and parenting. But life is busy, so here is a rundown of what a growth mindset is and why it is vital for your children.
Having a growth mindset means you believe your abilities can be learned and improved. A growth mindset embraces challenges and accepts criticism as a learning tool. It understands that new skills take effort and perseverance and that failure is a part of learning.
“In a growth mindset, your flaws are just a to-do list of things to improve” – Derek Sivers.
When your child has a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset, they can overcome setbacks and take inspiration from other people’s success.
This way of thinking drives motivation and will help children achieve their goals. If you change the way you think, you change how you learn, which is a powerful idea for kids to understand.
Here are 61 growth mindset quotes for kids to boost positivity and nudge them in the right direction:
Mindset Quotes about Mistakes
Making mistakes is part of learning and growing. It is what being human is all about, and something kids need to see as a learning experience.
Why not chat about mistakes you have made and how you learned from them? It’s important to normalize making mistakes and help reduce the fear and shame they can bring.
1. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein
2. “If you can’t make a mistake, you can’t make anything.” – Marva Collins
3. “The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make a mistake.” – Elbert Hubbard
Mindset Quotes for Kids about Failure
Everyone fails, and it is hard! But failing is a part of learning and is completely normal.
The word ‘yet’ is essential for a growth mindset. It turns failure from a negative experience into a positive learning one. A growth mindset helps kids learn to fail well. Failure is inevitable but using it to move forward is where the magic happens.
4. “Don’t worry about failure. Worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” – Sherman Finesilver
5. “You failed. But you lived. The sooner you own up to it, the faster you evolve.” – Mimi Ikonn
6. “Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.” – Thomas Watson
7. “The problem human beings face is not that we aim too high and fail, but that we aim too low and succeed.” – Michelangelo
8. “Failure is success if we learn from it.” – Malcolm Forbes
9. “There is no failure. Only Feedback.” – Robert Allen
10. “Failure is not the outcome, failure is not trying.” – Sara Blakely
11. “I never lose. I either win or learn.” – Nelson Mandela
12. “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed” – Theodore Roosevelt
13. “If at first you don’t succeed, you’re normal.” – Kid President
14. “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” – Paul Coelho
Perseverance Quotes for Kids
Learning is a process of vulnerability and challenges, precisely why perseverance is so important. Life is uncomfortable and is constantly pushing us out of our comfort zones. The ability to go through those feelings and keep working towards their goal is one that kids need for success.
15. “It’s not that I’m smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” – Albert Einstein
16. “If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” – Frank A. Clark
17. “Everything is hard before it’s easy.” – Goethe J. W
18. “The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” – Harry Golden
19. “Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Joshua J. Marine
20. “It never gets easier. You just get better.” – Jordan Hoechlin
21. “Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.” – Roger Crawford
22. “If things start happening, don’t worry, don’t stew, just go right along, and you’ll start happening too.” – Dr. Seuss
23. “You don’t lose if you get knocked down; you lose if you stay down.” – Muhammad Ali
24. “Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell and got back up again.” – Nelson Mandela
25. “I am always doing what I cannot do yet in order to learn how to do it.” – Vincent van Gogh
26. “The expert at anything was once a beginner.” – Helen Hayes
27. “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden
28. “It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.” – Zig Ziglar
Positive Mindset Quotes
Our minds are powerful and critical to our success. Encouraging kids to have a positive mindset means they see challenges as a way to learn and grow. They can see the opportunities that problems offer and achieve their goals despite their difficulties.
Positivity is vital for mental and physical health, not to mention learning and relationships.
29. “You’re in charge of your mind. You can help it grow by using it in the right way.” – Carol Dweck
30. “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
31. “Believe you can, and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
32. “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” – Winston Churchill
33. “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh
34. “The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem.” – Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean
35. “When you close the door of your mind to negative thoughts, the door of opportunity opens to you.” – Napoleon Hill
36. “There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how you use them” – Friedrich Nietzsche
37. “Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and start being excited about what could go right” – Unknown
38. “We are our choices.” – Jean-Paul Sartre
39. “Nothing is impossible; the word itself says I’m possible.” – Audrey Hepburn
40. “Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.” – Jim Rohn
41. “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” – Dr. Seuss
42. “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” Charles Swindoll
43. “There is a difference between not knowing, and not knowing yet.” – Sheila Tobias
44. “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” – Maria Robinson
45. “Everything is figureoutable.” – Marie Forleo
Quotes about Effort
In a world of instant gratification, teaching kids about hard work and consistent effort is more important than ever.
A growth mindset helps children believe they can improve their abilities through dedication and effort. When they understand that their goals are directly related to the effort they put in, kids have more control over their learning.
46. “Dreams don’t work unless you do.” – John C. Maxwell
47. “The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.” – Oprah Winfrey
48. “I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy-I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.” – Art Williams
49. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier
50. “If we only did things that were easy, we wouldn’t actually be learning anything. We’d just be practicing things we already knew.” – David Dockterman
51. “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” – Tony Robbins
52. “Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.” – Napoleon Hill
53. “DNA has nothing to do with success. Turn your genes into overalls and get to work.” – Darren Hardy
Mindset Quotes about Courage
Being open to mistakes, failure, and disappointment takes courage. Having a growth mindset means kids are willing to adapt to change and be bold in their goals. It also takes courage to believe in your abilities and accept that you have made mistakes.
When children have the courage to try and explore, they learn about themselves.
54. “The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the most of yourself.” – Wallace Wattles
55. “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” – E. E. Cummings
56. “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney
57. “To uncover your true potential, you must first find your own limits, and then you have to have the courage to blow past them.” – Picabo Street
58. “Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid. Courage means you don’t let fear stop you.” – Bethany Hamilton
59. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
60. “Always do what you are afraid of doing.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
61. “May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.” – Nelson Mandela
Mindset Matters
As parents, we want to help our kids grow into successful adults who are confident and kind. Encouraging a growth mindset is a small but impactful way we can give them the tools to achieve their dreams. It is also a way of thinking we can model.
So, use these quotes to inspire you and your children as you work on growing your mind together.