How to Cultivate a Growth Mindset (Part II)
I am thrilled to continue to share this concept of the Fixed and Growth Mindset with you. It is my goal that you find it to be not only interesting but that you can walk away with a tool that can enrich and expand not just your professional life but also your personal development.
This post is the second of three that will discuss the topic of your mindset as it relates to your success. In this first post, I discussed the characteristics of the Fixed Mindset. In this week's post I will discuss the Growth Mindset and all of it's benefits and in my third post on this subject, I will discuss how to cultivate a Growth Mindset.
Now, Let’s contrast a Fixed Mindset that I discussed last week with a Growth Mindset.
The core belief of the Growth Mindset is that intelligence can be developed. The concept behind a Growth Mindset is that I can grow my intelligence by effort and learning and engagement - even by tackling difficult things. So a person with a Growth Mindset is more prone to:
- Embrace challenges (rather than avoid them)
- Persist in the face of setbacks (instead of giving up easily)
- See effort as the path to mastery (value it)
- Learn from criticism
- Find lessons and inspiration in others success (rather than being threatened by it)
They view experiences, challenges and problems more like a practice than as a test. They don’t grade themselves on each performance - they value the follow through and the learning and the progress. This type of behavior results in ever-higher levels of achievement. Think about it - if someone refuses to quit, continues to learn, observes and gains knowledge from both their mistakes and others success - they can’t help but improve and grow and reach whatever it is they are aiming at.
Dweck observed young teenagers who were assigned varying degrees of difficult puzzles and problems. Some of them gave up right away, some made excuses about how they could do it but it was a waste of time, and some said things like: “I was hoping this would prove to be a challenge!” Or “I like trying hard things!”. She was intrigued by how much the mindset dictated the students’ engagement and then their ability to complete the problem. Some even asked for more. This is where she realized that the belief system we grow up with regarding intelligence ends up making all the difference.
So maybe you are like me - you realize that you tend to avoid challenges because you are afraid of failure and looking stupid. Maybe you grew up being made fun of or humiliated when you made a mistake or did something wrong. So you learned to never show weakness and to maintain a perceived level of intelligence no matter what. But you have insecurities because you are always on guard against mistakes and things that might make you look bad. At least I certainly did. When I first read Dr Dweck's book I was surprised to realize that - even though I described myself as an open-minded person, I actually had a Fixed Mindset when it came to my own capabilities, and because of that there were things I simply didn’t even try anymore, like learning a new language, snowboarding and games like friendly poker because if I couldn’t excel then what was the point? How about getting better at it? How about getting smarter or stronger? But, what if these weren't tests but rather simple opportunities to practice?
The study of the brain and research advances in neuroscience confirms that neuroplasticity - the ability for neurons to create new neural pathways and connections - continues into our adulthood. Turns out you CAN teach an old dog new tricks. Your brain is wired to continue to learn your whole life.
Some of the benefits of adopting a Growth Mindset are:
- Improve your self-esteem and confidence
- Learn new skills
- Accept new challenges
- See new opportunities
- Look out for feedback that can help you improve and move forward
We are all familiar with the concept of continuous improvement for a company - this is basically allowing yourself to be continuously improving instead of feeling that you have to continuously prove yourself. Carol Dweck firmly believes that EFFORT creates INTELLIGENCE. The act of accepting the challenge, engaging with it, learning from it - this will increase your understanding and skill with this particular activity. Even if you don’t succeed the first time. You have grown your intelligence in this area simply by engaging and making an effort.
I realized that I needed to cultivate my own mindset, as such, I'm excited to share my next post with you about how to cultivate a Growth Mindset!
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