41 of the Best Growth Mindset Quotes for Parents and Kids

Inside: Use these growth mindset quotes to inspire both you and your children to work hard, not give up, and to recognize that challenges and failures can be turned into opportunities. 

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Does your child show signs of having a “fixed mindset”, or rather, a self-image that his or her intelligence and creative ability are static and can’t be changed?

People who adopt a fixed mindset tend to avoid challenges, can’t handle mistakes, and as a result, they don’t enjoy learning.

But with a growth mindset, kids and adults see challenges, mistakes and even failures as opportunities to grow. These people believe that intelligence isn’t fixed at birth but is obtained through hard work.

While some children naturally adopt a growth mindset, others need a little nudging. And sharing quotes can be a great way to introduce kids to growth mindset concepts and ideas.

The following memes are some of the most popular growth mindset kids quotes, including a few from Carol Dweck, the originator of the term “growth mindset” and author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

Another great way to instill a growth mindset in kids is by reading books with growth mindset themes. See my list here:  14 Children’s Books That Promote a Growth Mindset

Want to learn more about growth mindset as a concept and how to help your children adopt one? Check out: Encouraging a Growth Mindset: Resources for Parents.

“All things are difficult before they are easy.” Thomas Fuller

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

“I haven’t failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison

“Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.” – Samuel Johnson

“If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.” – Carol Dweck

“If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.” – Michelangelo

“The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it’s the same problem you had last year.” – John Foster Dulles

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” – John Wooden

“It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all. In which case, you fail by default.” – J.K. Rowling

“The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” – Harry Golden

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.” – Thomas Watson

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” – Tony Robbins

“Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Joshua J. Marine

“A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.” – Vernon Howard

“The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem.” – Captain Jack Sparrow

“A challenge only becomes an obstacle when you bow to it.” – Ray Davis

“So what should we say when children complete a task—say, math problems—quickly and perfectly? Should we deny them the praise they have earned? Yes. When this happens, I say, “Whoops. I guess that was too easy. I apologize for wasting your time. Let’s do something you can really learn from!” – Carol Dweck

“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.” – Voltaire

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make a mistake.” – Elbert Hubbard

“Once your mindset changes, everything on the outside will change along with it.” – Steve Maraboli

“If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” – Frank A. Clark

“You don’t lose if you get knocked down; you lose if you stay down.” – Muhammad Ali

“When you close the door of your mind to negative thoughts, the door of opportunity opens to you.” – Napoleon Hill

“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

“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell and got back up again.” – Nelson Mandela

“We ought to relentlessly ignore excuses, especially those we are told by ourselves.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“There is no failure. Only feedback.” – Robert Allen

“Failure is not the outcome, failure is not trying.” – Sara Blakely

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Looking for more ways to nurture a growth mindset in your kids? Sign up for my email list – where I share one parenting tip each week – and I’ll send you this growth mindset affirmations printout as a free gift. Hang it up in your kitchen or your child’s bedroom as a way to reinforce a growth mindset in your kids. Click the image below to sign-up and get your printout.

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“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

“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

“The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the most of yourself.” – Wallace Wattles

“Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.” – Napoleon Hill

“Just because you haven’t found your talent yet, doesn’t mean you don’t have one.” – Kermit the Frog

“Don’t worry about failure. Worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” – Sherman Finesilver

“The problem human beings face is not that we aim too high and fail, but that we aim too low and succeed.” – Michelangelo

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” – Albert Einstein

“The best things in life are often waiting for you at the exit ramp of your comfort zone.” Karen Salmansohn

“Just because some people can do something with little or no training, it doesn’t mean that others can’t do it (and sometimes do it even better) with training.” – Carol Dweck

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” – Thomas Edison

“Every mistake you make is progress.” – Unknown

“The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset.” – Carol Dweck

“Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and start being excited about what could go right.” – Unknown

Help kids develop a growth mindset with The Big Life Journal

The Big Life Journal empowers children to face challenges head-on, think positively, embrace mistakes, and know they can achieve anything!

Featuring a new and interesting topic every week, the Big Life Journal develops strong social and emotional learning and growth mindset skills through inspiring stories, colorful illustrations, and engaging guided activities.

With plenty of room to draw and write on each page, the Big Life Journal lets kids work at their own pace as they reflect, learn, and grow. Through stories, kids will be inspired by the failures and successes of people like Elon Musk, J.K. Rowling, Walt Disney, and others.

And now there’s also a Big Life Journal for tweens and teens. See it by clicking here.

See related:

8 Fixed Mindset and Growth Mindset Examples and How to Help Kids Improve

How to Change Your Child’s Mindset in Just a Few Minutes a Day

59 Funny Parenting Quotes That Will Make You Laugh Out Loud

48 Inspiring Positive Parenting Quotes on Raising Kids and Being a Better Parent

70 of the Most Popular Quotes for Parents That Sum Up What Parenting is Really Like