Having a growth mindset – the key to your success
This article was originally written for LiveMore app and if you’d like the shinier and better edited version, please have a look at it here, which is a link to the app. As I will mention again at the of this article, you can also find ways to track your progress on this topic and a quiz on how much of a growth mindset you might have on the app, as well as lots of other content. Best of all, it is free! I would really encourage you to have a look!
‘I don’t divide the world in to the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures… I divide the world into the learners and non-learners.’ Benjamin Barber
Well, that’s nice for you Mr Barber, whoever you are (incidentally, an eminent political theorist), and much easier said than done, especially when we live in a world where being kiasu (defined here) is very much a real thing.
However, there is a growing movement, much based around Dr Carol Dweck’s research around mindsets (Mindset, Changing the Way You Think to Fulfil Your Potential, 2017) which posits and proves that for the vast majority of people (ie >95%), your abilities, even around things we think are fixed such as intelligence, artistic and sporting abilities etc, can be improved. We just have to perceive and approach all situations as opportunities to learn.
Consider this, in a NASA study, 1,600 children between the ages of 4-5 were tested for creative potential. 98% scored at ‘genius levels’. As these children grew older, those ‘levels of genius’ diminished dramatically so that 10 year later, those levels were at 12% and decreasing. There are lots of reasons that are possible for this change. Current education systems with their rigid processes reduce our sense of curiosity[1]. Fear of societal judgment[2] of possible failure means that people are ‘trained’ to be less innovative and less eager to learn, in order to not upset the status quo. However, by exercising tenets associated with a growth mindset, we might just have a very real chance of changing those assumptions and making sure that apparently fixed abilities such as intelligence are not quite so fixed.
So what is a growth mindset?
Typically someone who has a growth mindset isn’t bound by limits and channels concepts of potential. Conversely, a fixed mindset fosters rigid boundaries and retaining the status quo, often to the detriment of success. Here is an image to summarise the two.
Why does having a growth mindset matter?
When we are born, children have an infinite capacity to learn. And through that learning comes growth through stretching themselves. This is when we learn to walk and talk, interact with others, language, social skills and everything in between. Nothing is too hard. Perseverance is normal. This is no shame, no humiliation and there is no ego involved. There is just learning, and there is a lot of it.
However, over time, we learn to understand judgement – of ourselves or from others. We start to learn what failure means and how this might impact how others perceive us and how we perceive ourselves. Some grow to fear challenges for fear of ignominy. We’re afraid of not looking smart. We can’t make mistakes. Validation matters.
Dweck has shown that those who succeed tend to be people who don’t look at life in a binary fashion. It’s not about right or wrong. Success or failure. For them, it’s all about the growth mindset, a constant journey of learning. If you haven’t done well in a test, ‘what were the learning points? How can I improve for next time’? As opposed to, an all or nothing approach. ‘I am stupid because I didn’t do well in that test’. Or even more insidious, ‘I am a failure because I did not get that promotion’.
Any measure of success can be helpful and informative but it should not define you and your success forever more. These measures portray a snapshot of where you are now, but they do not show potential. And yet, for those with fixed mindsets, they will religiously stick by those measures of success and be wholly defined by them. By being stuck in a fixed mindset, the thought of failing is so debilitating, that it is better not to try and/or to fight to prove your current worth, ie missing the point of the exercise at all, you and your potential.
This could mean that they fail to grow, riding on the success of previous glories. Think of the archetypal jock in the movies who, fast forward 20 years is a fat, jowly has-been stuck in the same town, reliving past prizes…. Or these individuals keep amassing more awards and diplomas but they are forever imprisoned by their PhDs. They often teeter on the edge of burning out for fear of slowing down and not achieving yet another qualification. Who would they be without more qualifications? Blaming others for mistakes is another sign of a fixed mindset. John McEnroe was known to be such a person. Whilst an excellent player, he was also quick to blame others for any failures and feared looking bad, instead of looking to improve.
Alternatively, one could take the leaf out of the growth mindset book whereby everything is about learning. There is a sense of joy about facing challenges as opposed to approaching them with a sense of fear and trepidation. One is happy for others’ success. It is especially freeing because you don’t have to stress out about always being right and the best, having to prove yourself all the time, but just learning to improve. Thomas Edison for example persevered until he (and his team) invented the lightbulb. This happened after many years of tinkering around, experimenting (and failing) again and again. To him, this was about possibilities, not about the many mistakes that led him up to that point.
So, if you fancy a life of lower stress and agony from the pressures of always having to be the best and right, and desire one for even greater success through learning, then a growth mindset is for you. And the best thing is that you can teach yourself to adopt the belief that a growth mindset means freedom and potential, alongside all the habits required to do so.
Some thoughts to leave you
Next time you face a challenge, are you thinking – ‘oh no not again’? Or are you rubbing your hands together in glee and wondering, ‘when can I start?’ If the former, ask yourself, ‘how can I change this into a learning moment for myself?’
If you’re getting feedback from someone at work or even at home, and you aren’t feeling all that great about it. Instead of defaulting to, ‘this person is an idiot and speaking rubbish’, or ‘I’m such a loser’ ask yourself, ‘despite what I think about this person, what can I learn from what they are trying to tell me?’.
You’ll begin to start noticing that after awhile, your interactions with others will be less adversarial. You’ll naturally default to exploring and educating yourself from lots of different angles, as well as raising your self-awareness. You’ll find yourself less stressed out and anxious about your work and your relationships. And the upside being, your learning curve will be steep – all of which will propel you into the stratosphere. Say bye to being ‘kiasu’ – the world is yours for the taking.
‘You want to know the difference between a master and a beginner? The master has failed many more times than the beginner has ever tried’. Yoda
To close off this article, I’d like to leave you with a question. How growth focused is your mindset?
If you are interested in pursuing this topic even more, I will be setting up some questions in Quizzes and Tracks to sow the seeds for your journey. To think about how much you, with a Growth Mindset can achieve.
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[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/robynshulman/2020/03/10/this-is-what-happens-when-we-close-doors-on-creativity-in-the-classroom/?sh=751a172c151e
[2] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/lesson-of-a-lifetime-72754306/