Disclaimer: This article contains several citations from Mindset by Carol S. Dweck. It’s an incredible book and I highly recommend it for deeper insights!
Have you ever experienced any failure in your life? Chances are most of us have. How did you feel when experiencing setbacks? I think most of us would feel awful and disappointed. Feeling awful and disappointed is of course normal. However, the actions that come after setbacks are those that matter. Your post-failure reactions determine whether you have a fixed or growth mindset.
What is a fixed and a growth mindset you may ask. Well, according to psychologist Carol S. Dweck in her book Mindset, they are two mindsets that kind of determine how one would react when facing challenges. Let’s start with the fixed mindset.
Fixed Mindset
How do you perceive your skills? Do you think that skills are learn-able? Or do you think that you are just talented enough to have the skills you have today? If you have the second idea, you might have a fixed mindset. Like its name, fixed mindset is a mindset that believes one’s abilities are fixed like a carving on a stone.
According to Dweck, people with a fixed mindset tend to see setbacks as a “threat” of their talent. Individuals with fixed mindset often feel the urge to prove themselves to gain approval. They believe effort is futile if talent isn’t innate. On top of that, they also detest rejection and setbacks because for them, setbacks serve as a verdict that they are not good enough. It is no surprise when you find people with a fixed mindset have difficulties accepting constructive criticism.
This kind of mindset can lead to avoidance of challenges, which is not a good thing if you want to improve yourself. Fixed mindset can also act as a mental block in which we self-sabotage our progress because we believe we are not talented enough.
“I am not good at math, I’ll never understand it.” , “George is so talented at basketball, I could never catch up to him.” Do these sound familiar? If yes, it is not necessarily a sign that you have a fixed mindset, rather it is a situation when one might fall into a fixed mindset.
So where does this fixed mindset come from?
Fixed mindset could stem as early as childhood or develop later when someone reaches adulthood. The mix of childhood upbringing and societal pressure on different individuals might affect their mindset as well. For example, if as a child we were often being praised for our natural talent rather than our effort, we might have developed some kind of fixed mindset as a result of that.
Now we’ve talked enough about the fixed mindset, let’s talk about its counterpart, the growth mindset.
Growth Mindset
Contrary to the fixed mindset, the growth mindset is the belief that skills, talents, and even intelligence can be developed through continuous learning and effort. People with the growth mindset see challenges and setbacks as opportunities to grow rather than failure.
According to Dweck, individuals with a growth mindset embrace challenges as opportunities for improvement. They persist in the face of setbacks and see effort as a path to mastery. They also learn from feedback and constructive criticism.
Embracing a growth mindset is important when you want to learn and master a skill. By believing in your capacity to grow, you can persevere in the face of challenges. Outside of professional settings, embracing a growth mindset for other aspects of your life like relationship and health can be beneficial for you as well. For example, if you want to lose weight you have to make an effort like exercising and maintaining a healthy diet.
“I didn’t get a good score this time, but I will study harder for the next exam.”, “I didn’t reach the sales target this month, but I will try my new strategy for next month.” , “My writing still sucks, but I will improve it on my next post.” These are the examples of a growth mindset. Now I know sometimes, it is quite difficult to keep positive when facing a challenge. Believe me, I still find it hard to keep the growth mindset when facing a challenge.
Now if we know that having a growth mindset is good but at the same time we also know that embracing it is hard, how can we change our mindset?
How to (Actually) Foster a Growth Mindset
Before we jump to foster a growth mindset, let’s ask the most basic question first. How to find out if you have a fixed mindset or growth mindset?
If you’re still unsure whether you have a fixed or growth mindset, I suggest you answer these questions first:
- Do you give up easily?
- Do you avoid challenges because you fear failure?
- Do you feel unusually defensive whenever someone critiques your work?
If most of the time the answer is yes, you might have a fixed mindset.
Now don’t be too hard on yourself if you realize that you have a fixed mindset. Everybody has a fixed mindset of their own. The important thing is to acknowledge that you have a fixed mindset and gradually change your perspective.
Let’s start by rewiring the way we think. We can adopt several strategies to rewire our brain when we face challenges and setbacks, like:
Embrace challenges
First of all, let’s start by accepting that growth is not easy. Most of the time, we need to go out of our comfort zone to grow. You can’t get that beach body you want if you’re still munching on cookies and slurping your favorite bubble tea. On the other hand, you need to exercise and maintain a healthy diet. Exercise and maintaining one’s diet is a challenge to those who are just starting out their fitness regime.
By accepting the facts that growth is not easy, we can be more open to embrace challenges and see it as part of growth. View challenges as opportunities rather than threats.
When you’re starting out on a diet, it will feel difficult. There will be a lot of challenges. You might not be as strong as you thought you’d be. Don’t be discouraged by the challenges, embrace it instead as part of the road toward mastery.
Replace the concept of failure
You would still feel discouraged even after you tried to embrace challenges. You would still “fail” at some things. Replace the words “I failed” with “I learn something new”.
You might be still having difficulties losing weight even though you’ve exercised and maintained a healthy diet. It could be discouraging and bring negative thoughts. However, don’t give in to the discouragement. Think back and reflect on things you might have missed. Maybe after you think back you might find that your fitness regime might be wrong and you learn that.
When you fail, try to replace the concept of utter failure with learning something new.
Reflect on progress rather than result
Now even though you have embraced challenges and replaced the concept of failure, you might still haven’t got the result you wanted. It would be tempting to fall into despair in this situation. Rather than falling into despair right away, you could try reflecting on your progress instead. Sometimes you have made a lot more progress than you think.
You might haven’t got the six pack abs you wanted but you might have lost a lot of weight and become stronger after you start exercising. You might haven’t got fluent in Chinese but maybe you might have been able to hold a daily conversation well.
When you reflect back on your progress, you might find that you are actually pretty good. The next time you’re disappointed over the result, look back on the progress you’ve made.
Adding the word “yet”
It is tempting to default to negative thoughts when you have tried but have not seen the result you wanted. Negative thoughts may still arise even though you’re already starting to embrace a growth mindset. After all, we are humans, right?
Now if you’re already doing the previous 3 tips I mentioned before, you can add this last tip to complete the equation. By adding the word “yet”. As you are on the journey to mastery, you might stumble on some setbacks. When that happens, remember to add the word “yet”.
“I don’t have the sales I wanted yet” , “I don’t have a six pack abs yet”, “I don’t speak fluent Chinese yet”. By adding the word yet, you’re subconsciously telling yourself that the condition is not stagnant. You still can achieve the things you want in the future, with some effort of course.
Of course, embracing these tips doesn’t automatically turn us into having a growth mindset all the time. Developing a growth mindset takes time. Start by noticing our thoughts, especially negative thoughts, when facing challenges. Gradually reframe those negative thoughts into positive ones.
How Will Embracing a Growth Mindset Really Improve Our Lives
We’ve talked enough about the fixed mindset and the growth mindset, as well as tips on how to really embrace a growth mindset. But really, how does embracing a growth mindset really improve our lives?
Obviously, people with a growth mindset tend to be more resilient toward challenges. This fact alone is enough proof of the benefit of having a growth mindset. If you are more resilient, you don’t give up easily. When you don’t give up easily, you’ll make more progress than those who do.
Whether you are an employee, a businessman, an athlete, or a student, having a growth mindset will benefit you in a lot of ways. If you are an employee, having a growth mindset will help you when you need to develop the skills that can be leveraged in your job. In a normal situation, skillful workers tend to get promoted earlier than those who are less skillful.
The same is true to businessmen as well. Businessmen need to adapt to situations quickly. By having a growth mindset, rather than seeing setbacks as failures, businessmen can use the opportunity to learn more and pivot their business more quickly than their competitors.
Apart from the professional fields, having a growth mindset can be beneficial to other aspects as well like relationships. You need to be open to criticism and willing to change in a relationship. By focusing on improvement, you become better at resolving conflicts and supporting your loved ones’ growth.
Now that we’ve talked enough about the “theory” behind the growth mindset, let’s jump to the real life case.
Real Life Example of Cristiano Ronaldo
Let me give you the real-life example of Cristiano Ronaldo. Young Cristiano started his footballing career in a club named Sporting Lisbon. He first got onto the world stage when he moved from Sporting to Manchester United. In Manchester, he faced immense pressure to perform well in a more demanding league. On top of that, he didn’t speak fluent English at the time. Instead of being overwhelmed, he used this challenge as a stepping stone to his career.
He also faced criticism in the early days of his footballing career. Early on, he was criticised as a flashy player who lacked the end product. Rather than letting the criticism define him, he persevered and became one of the most prolific goal scorers in football history.
If you’re a football fan, you might notice how his playstyle changes as well. In his early days, he was fast and skillful with the ball as a winger. As he grew older, he changed his playstyle to become a clinical striker instead of winger. He adapted and was willing to change so he can develop more as a football player.
It is no secret that Ronaldo is one of the best footballers to have ever played the game. Certainly, he is talented as well. However, Ronaldo always gives credit to his hard work more than his talent. According to him, without hard work, talent is nothing. We can see his success as the result of fostering a growth mindset. Had he relied solely on his talent, he wouldn’t have lasted long as a football player.
The Bottom Line
Even though we talk a lot about the growth mindset, we can’t disregard talent altogether. Yes, talent is real, and talented people can get a head start. However, that’s only as far as talent can take you—a head start. Without hard work, your talent will fade over time.
If you realize that you have a fixed mindset, don’t be too hard on yourself. We’re all actually a mix of fixed and growth mindset. Acknowledging that you have a fixed mindset is an excellent first step.
In summary, I wrote the 4 steps you can do to gradually embrace a growth mindset:
- Embrace challenges – see challenges as a step toward mastery.
- Replace the concept of failure – replace the words “I failed” with “I learned something new”.
- Reflect on progress rather than result – look back on the progress you made, and you’d feel you’ve done a good job.
- Adding the word “yet” – adding the word yet to negative thoughts.
Embracing a growth mindset is a lifetime journey. It is totally normal to slip into a fixed mindset from time to time. What matters most is recognizing when it happens and reframing your perspective to align with a growth mindset.