There is a psychological trait that all successful people appear to have in common.
It’s been cosigned by Bill
Gates and NASA uses it as criteria for selecting potential
Systems Engineers.
This concept is called the
growth mindset, a term originally coined by Carol Dweck.
People with a growth mindset
believe that intelligence or skill, in any field, can be
Developed through effort.
Basically, they believe that
anyone can nurture their abilities in anything.
The inverse of the growth
mindset is the fixed mindset.
People with this mindset
believe that intelligence and skill are innate: it’s something that
we’re born with. We’re either
born gifted or not; there is no room for change. Basically, they believe
intelligence is fixed from birth. In this essay, we’ll explore why the growth
mindset is the better one and how we can develop it?
So, we talked a little about
what the growth mindset is?
The belief that intelligence
and skill, in any field, can be developed. But, let’s also talk about what it’s
not? It’s not magic. It won’t help you get everything that you want out of life
and it won’t make you the next Elon Musk or Steve Jobs. However, it is a very
powerful lens with which to see the world and it can improve the probability of
your success.
All of us are a mixture of
both growth and fixed mindsets. In some areas of our lives, we operate with
a growth mindset. In others, we operate with a fixed mindset. Because of this, I want you to think of both
mindsets like a pair of glasses. Some people wear the
growth glasses more often and others wear the fixed glasses more. However, we
all wear both in different situations in our lives. Although, we should all
strive to wear the growth ones much more than we wear the fixed ones.
But, why?
Well, a lot of research seems
to suggest that people with a growth mindset are more successful than people
with a fixed mindset.
For example, a study found
that “Students who held a growth mindset were three times more likely to score
in the top 20% on the test, while students with a fixed mindset were four times
more likely to score in the bottom 20%.” Another study found that when 7th
graders participated in a growth mindset program, they were able to avoid a
drop in grades which usually occurs in middle school. People with the growth
mindset are much more resilient which allows them to overcome challenging and
difficult situations. Because they prioritize learning over failure, they are
unafraid to take risks. They prioritize growth over stagnation.
On the other hand, people with
a fixed mindset don’t want to challenge themselves because
they believe talent and
intelligence are fixed. They look at failure as an assault on who they are as a
person. To them, lack of knowledge is an indicator of stupidity and failure
once means failure always.
A person with a growth
mindset believes that they are always in a state of flux and
Transformation. So, they don’t
attach their identity to their results. Instead, they focus on the process of
growing and learning. Few people will deny that the growth mindset seems to map
nicely onto reality. We know that the brain can continue to learn until the day
we die, thanks to the field of neuroscience. It also seems quite intuitive that
people must work hard and persevere, despite obstacles, to end up being
successful. So, the growth mindset seems to be a much more accurate view of
reality than the fixed mindset.
People with a growth mindset
are living in greater accordance with reality than people
With a fixed mindset. They
can make truer decisions where as a person with a fixed mindset lives in a
greater state of delusion.
What do I mean by this?
Imagine two entrepreneurs : one
has the growth mindset and one has the fixed mindset.
They are both in the early
stages of their entrepreneurial journey.
Suddenly, they both encounter
roadblocks and are forced to make a decision.
The one with the fixed mindset
see’s the long and arduous journey ahead of her due
to the roadblock. The journey
is in the way of what matters to her:
The result,
She believes that
entrepreneurship should come easy to those who are destined for it.
She decides to quit. The one
with the growth mindset see’s the long and arduous journey ahead of her and smiles.
The journey is the way for
her, the journey is what matters. Taking the role of a student, she accepts the
long and arduous path as her teacher. She will allow it to mold her into the
person she needs to become, to achieve the results she desires. She decides to
persist. When we look at both of these examples, most of us would agree that
the entrepreneur with the growth mindset has a greater understanding of
reality.
Her decision is truer.
We know that things take time,
effort, and strategy to achieve but it’s often difficult to put that kind of
thinking into practice. So, how can we develop the growth mindset?
The first key :
To develop a growth mindset
is very simple: understanding that it exists and that it’s possible
for the brain to change. Neuroscience has shown that our brains are not fixed,
and in fact, they are very malleable.
We can always grow and learn
new skills. For example, a study found that taxicab drivers developed more grey
matter in their brains to help them navigate more effectively in large cities. They
also found that the amount of grey matter in their brains was correlated with
the number of years that they had been working as a taxi driver. This suggests
that the act of driving a taxi led to changes in their brains which allowed them
to be more effective at their job.
The second key :
It is to focus on process over
results. Dweck has said that we should praise others for their efforts and
their process, rather than praising them for their results.
For example, it’s better to
say, “you studied very effectively for that test and your hard work really paid
off,” rather than, “you’re so smart, you got an A!”
In the former example, we’re
focusing in on and praising the student’s process which
is something that they can
control. Hopefully, they’ll learn to associate themselves and their results
with the process. However, in the latter example we praised the student for a
result which is, ultimately, out of their control. Unfortunately, this student
will likely begin to associate themselves with the result. I think it’s really
important to emphasize that it’s not easy to pass a growth mindset on to
others. It’s not as simple as telling someone that they’re a hard-worker and
that they just need to put in the effort. They need to internalize that they
can change their results by changing their process.
So, they need to know how to
effectively create a process, alter it, and produce results from that process.
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