I am currently reading the book called “Mindset – The New Psychology of Success” by Carol Dweck. I was so influenced reading just the first few chapters, that I decided to share the learnings even before I completed the book. The author is a leading expert in motivation and personality psychology. Dweck has found that everyone has one of the two basic mindsets Fixed or Growth mindset. If you have the fixed mindset, you believe that your talents and abilities are set in stone – either you have them or you don’t. You must prove yourself over and over again, trying to look smart and talented, at all costs. This is the path of stagnation. However if you have a growth mindset, you know that talents can be developed and that great abilities are built over time. This is the path of opportunity – and success.
People with fixed mindsets believe their qualities are carved in stone. This mindset unfolds as early as childhood. Sometimes this mindset is stamped in by teachers, in the middle school, who believed that the student’s IQ score told the whole story about them. These students were given the best of the chores thereby creating a mindset in which everyone in the class has one consuming goal – look smart, don’t’ look dumb. Every situation calls for confirmation of their intelligence, personality or character. Every situation is evaluated: Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smart or dumb? Will I be accepted or rejected? Will I feel like a winner or loser?
There’s another mindset, in which the traits are not simply a hand that you’re dealt and have to live with, rather they are just the starting point for development. The growth mindset is based on the belief that, your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. People may start with different temperaments and aptitudes, but it is clear that experience, training, and personal effort take you the rest of the way. For people with growth mindset it is not some fixed prior ability, but purposeful engagement.
People with fixed mindsets believe that they have to be smart to be successful. They always want to be seen as smart people. When a challenging opportunity arises they are afraid of not being smart enough for it. They reject the golden opportunity, of learning from the challenge. On the other hand, for people with growth mindset success is about stretching themselves and becoming better. They believe that intelligence is something you have to work for, it isn’t just given to you. Believing that success is about learning, the people with growth mindset seize the opportunities that come their way.
People with fixed mindset thrive when things are safely within their grasp. If things get too challenging – when they’re not feeling smart or talented- they lose interest. They want to avoid making mistakes and hence shy away from tougher challenges. People in a growth mindset don’t just seek challenge, they thrive on it. The bigger the challenge, the more they stretch. They think: If you only go through life doing stuff that’s easy, shame on you.
For people with fixed mindset it’s not enough just to succeed. It’s not enough to be smart and talented. They have to be pretty flawless. They do not believe in learning as they think their abilities will keep them in good stead. They opt for success over growth. They want to prove that they’re special. Tennis star John McEnroe had a fixed mindset. He believed that talent was all. He did not thrive on challenge.When the going got rough, he often folded. As a result, by his own admission, he did not fulfill his potential. For people with growth mindset it is not about immediate perfection. It’s about learning something over time: confronting a challenge and making progress. These people believe that “Becoming is better than being”. Michael Jordan – growth-minded athlete par excellence- is a man whose greatness is regularly proclaimed by the world. Only he knew how hard he had worked to develop his abilities. He was a person who had struggled and grown, not a person who was inherently better than others. The best pilots fly more than the others; that’s why they are the best.
With fixed mindset, people see failure not as an action – 'I failed'- but as an identity – 'I am a failure'. Failure means you lack competence or potential. Even in the growth mindset, failure can be a painful experience. But it doesn’t define the person. It’s a problem to be faced, dealt with, and learned from. If you make a mistake, you have to make it right. You aren’t a failure until you start to blame. You will be still in the process of learning from your mistakes until you begin to deny them.
From the point of view of the fixed mindset, effort is only for people with deficiencies. In their view, effort is for those who don’t have the ability. They tell us, “If you have to work at something, you must not be good at it." In the growth mindset, it’s almost inconceivable to want something badly, to think you have a chance to achieve it, and then, do nothing about it. These people give their best effort for the things they value.
People with fixed mindset are more depressed than people with growth mind-set. The more depressed they felt, the more they let things go, the less action they took to solve their problems. With the growth mindset people, the more depressed people felt, the more they took action to confront their problems, and the more they kept up with their lives.
Mindsets are an important part of your personality. Mindsets are just beliefs. They are powerful beliefs, but they’re just something in your mind, and you can change your mind. Just by knowing about the two mindsets, you can start thinking and reacting in new ways. Try to catch yourself when you are in the throes of the fixed mindset and try to switch into growth mindset. Believe that talents can be developed that allows to fulfill one’s potential. Value what you do more than getting fixated on the outcome. Remember failure is a better teacher than success is. It is an action not a trait. Be open to criticism and focus on learning and improving.
Mozart laboured for more than ten years before he produced any work that we admire today. Prior to that his compositions were not that original or interesting. Often they were patched-together chunks taken from other composers.
Happy Learning,
-Ram
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