The Growth Mindset
“Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better?”
Intelligence is one of those areas that is very delicate for a lot of people. It’s easier for us to accept that someone has more money or is better looking, but it’s hard to deal with the feeling that someone might be smarter than us. The feeling of being stupid, or that maybe we are not up to the task, can make us quite defensive and easily trigger our insecurities.
If we believe our abilities to be set in stone, as if we were born with a certain amount of intelligence or talent that cannot be changed, then we become even more vulnerable to this kind of triggers and we might handicap our future success. Carol Dweck named this belief FIXED MINDSET.
A mindset is a self-belief deeply integrated into our psychology which creates the lens that defines for us the outer world and how we interact with it. A Fixed Mindset, in this case, is the belief that people are born already with a pre-determined level of intelligence or abilities. You’re either born smart or dumb. Either you can do things with ease, or you will have to work hard. This belief can often become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Nobody wants to feel stupid, so you’re more likely to remain in your comfort zone, just doing the things you are already good at, trying to reaffirm how smart you are. When something goes wrong you look to find somebody to blame or somebody who has done worst than you as a way of coping with the disappointment and save your image. You’ll spend more time and energy trying to present yourself as competent, shying away from anything that is too hard or that might put you in a bad light. But if you are a winner because you win, who are you when you lose?
In this context, the results of your actions then become a way to reaffirm who you are.
When our identity is attached to the outcome our self-esteem and ego become extremely fragile. The question “Am I smart or dumb?” become deeply integrated with: “Did I do good or bad?”
Obviously, not everybody follows the example above, and luckily your mindset is something you can always change if you choose to do so. At the opposite end of the spectrum there is a GROWTH MINDSET.
In a Growth Mindset, we believe that our intelligence and abilities are not set in stone and can be improved if we work on them. When we are in this mindset we don’t only NOT shy away from hard tasks and challenges, we welcome them as a way to test our current skills and improve them. We are less likely to blame in case something doesn’t work out, because we don’t need to! We take responsibilities for our own actions. At the same time, believing that no matter our current skill level we can improve it creates some distance between our results and our egos. Yes, we take ownership of our mistakes, but we focus on the lessons we can gather from them, avoiding beating ourselves up for them.
Neuroscience shows us that a growth mindset isn’t just a belief we can choose to adopt, it is also true! Our brain adapts and grows much like a muscle would when it is put under stress. The brain isn’t stiff like a computer, it is much more plastic: it changes and adapts during our whole lifespan. New connections between neurons are created and reinforced all the time, while unused ones die off. Repeating an action strengthens those connections, making it easier and more natural to execute.
It is better to think about those two opposite mindsets as the extremes in a spectrum. We all possess both beliefs in ourselves, we fluctuate up and down the spectrum at any given moment, depending on which area of our life is targeted. We can have different beliefs about ourselves and our work, athleticism, relationships, etc…
To start (or continue) a path toward a more growth mindset the first step will be to analyze our own behavior and see if we present some of the fixed mindset symptoms: overly blaming others, thoughts like: “I’ll never...”, “It’s not for me”, “I’m not talented at...”, etc…
Self-awareness is always key, then, of course, comes the more difficult part: practicing changing that story we tell ourselves and replace it with a new and improved one. Realize that we all are, and always will be, a work in progress. If we focus on the journey, on improving and getting better, the results will inevitably come.
Keep on, keepin' on
“Becoming is better than being.” The fixed mindset does not allow people the luxury of becoming. They have to already be.”