The power of the mindset
There are so many myths about ability and achievement. Yet what we don’t realize is the years of hard work, and dedication required before success reach fruition. Stanford psychologist Dr Carol Dweck spent many years of research on achievement and success, working with young learners exploring the power of the “mindset”. It is a simple idea that makes all the difference.
Dr. Dweck introduced the terms ‘fixed mindset’ and ‘growth mindset’ to describe the beliefs people have about learning and intelligence. When children believe that they can be smarter, they understand that effort deliver results. Therefore, they put in the extra effort leading to higher achievement.
Dr. Dweck explains that the growth mindset believes that our basic qualities are things that we can cultivate through effort. We differ in many ways, in our talents, aptitudes and interests, and even temperaments, but we can change and grow through hard work and experience. The “growth mindset,” as Dr Dweck calls it, is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: an invitation to grow, a tendency to believe that you can grow, and change.
In her book ‘Mindset: The New Psychology of Success’ (2006), she explains that while a “fixed mindset” assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which we can’t change in any meaningful way, a growth mindset thrives on challenge and sees failure “not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities.” It is about responding to failure with intelligent strategies. In order to achieve at one’s best, in whatever field that might be, individuals must take responsibility for their learning, and practise resilience as part of the process. But these cannot simply be shallow platitudes that are embraced but never practised. They must be modelled and they must be learned. A growth mindset is very much a part of this process.
People with a growth mindset believe that these qualities and others can be developed through dedication and effort. They like challenges, persist when things become difficult, and recognise that effort is the key to becoming good at something or improving. Whereas, people with a fixed mindset believe that traits are fixed qualities having a certain amount of intelligence or talent and nothing can change that. They avoid challenges, give up easily and effort is considered to be a waste of time.
It may sound simple but a growth mind set is not a magic bullet to success. It is a shift in thinking to recognise that the brain is malleable and it has the capacity to change under the right conditions. Having a growth mindset does not discount the innate capacities that we are all born with, in fact it does the opposite. Edward De Bono, one of the leading educational thinkers of the modern age, says that “many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers.
The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.” In other words, circumstance and opportunity matter but they are not the only things that matter. It is the responsibility of parents and educators to model this positive way of thinking in our children. We all need to embrace the notion that growth is always possible when coupled with purposeful practice and a matching desire. What emerges as the achievement at the end of the process is simply a reflection of the responsibility that is taken and the resilience that is shown.
Success is personal and not about being better than someone else, and the focus is on what a person does rather than who the person is. When we enter a mindset, we enter a new world. In one world, the world with the fixed traits success defines proving we are smart or talented, validating who we are. In the other, the world of changing qualities, it is about stretching ourselves to learn something new, developing the self. We have a choice. Mindsets are just beliefs. They are powerful beliefs, it is something in the mind, and we can change our mind, and our thinking if we are willing to go beyond individual attitudes, and overcome structural arrangements. The right mindset can help shape our lives, and those we teach, love and care about.
Ref: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006),Dr Carol Dweck