Your past experiences, environment, and habits all contribute to your mindset.
There’s a famous quote about mindset, and it goes like this: “Everything in life starts with your mindset first, and your actions second…start with getting your mind right, then take action.” (–Sylvester McNutt III)
And it’s true. Your mindset influences how you think, feel, and behave because, at its core, your mindset is a set of beliefs you hold that shape how you make sense of the world and yourself. As such, your mindset plays an essential role in setting and achieving goals, and determines how well you’re able to cope with life’s challenges.
People with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence, abilities, and talents are fixed traits and can’t be changed. People with a fixed mindset have an ego-protective attitude, which means they prioritize looking good and performing perfectly over learning. These people also tend to give up easily in the face of failure or setbacks, and often avoid challenges because it might make them look bad if they struggle or fail. They also don’t think putting in effort will get them anywhere because they believe, “If I’m not already good at it, I won’t get good, so why bother?” Fixed minded people often get defensive when they are given constructive criticism or feedback…or ignore helpful criticism all together. They are also threatened by other people’s success, because they think it makes them look bad in comparison.
Having a fixed mindset can hold you back because when you believe that your qualities are already set in stone and you are unable to change them, for whatever reason, this leads to self-debilitating actions that are a self-fulfilling prophecy for failure. For example, if a fixed minded person fails an academic exam, they may blame the person who wrote the test questions or make up excuses for why they weren’t able to be successful, rather than taking actions to improve their study habits so they don’t fail in the future.
In contrast to fixed minded folks, people with a growth mindset believe that your intelligence, abilities, and talents *can* change with work and dedication. They have a learning-focused attitude and prioritize development and incremental improvement towards mastery. If they fail, they focus on learning from it and try again. They see challenges as perfect opportunities for growth and development. They see effort as a worthwhile investment because it is what leads them towards that steady improvement. They are also able to see constructive criticism as beneficial input that will help them improve, and often seek out feedback from others for this reason. When they see other people’s success, they view it as inspirational and seek to learn what they can from that person’s success.
A growth mindset helps you achieve your highest potential because when you believe you can be better, and also notice that the effort you put in has a direct impact on your success, you’re more likely to put in extra effort, which will lead to more achievement. At the end of the day, growth minded people out perform fixed minded people.
Being growth minded is actually pretty easy – just focus on learning! It is especially easy if you’re in an environment that supports and encourages continuous learning and growth.
By embracing a growth mindset, you’ll be able to learn faster, improve more quickly, and overcome the challenges you face. Growth mindset gives you an edge to achieve optimal performance.
Having a growth mindset applies to pretty much everything…
Here are some common mindset misconceptions. See how many of these questions you can answer correctly. Click each to view the correct answer.
False. Sometimes quitting is for winners. You’ve got to critically think through a situation and determine if you have learned everything you can, have tried every angle you can, and determine if moving on to something else is the right thing to do. Fixed minded people can get stuck in “trying to make things work” even when every piece of evidence is telling them that it won’t. They’ll keep banging their head against the wall instead of walking away and finding a different path.
False. Growth minded people are so highly focused on learning, growth, and development that they give the right amount of effort to everything they do, including effort to rest and recover, so they can come back to it again tomorrow.
False. Fixed minded people are focused on looking good and protecting their ego. So, they might talk a lot about “how great things are, and how awesome I am, and how awesome all their pals are…” and keep any problems, struggles, or deficiencies hidden. They don’t want advice on how to fix problems because they don’t think it’ll change anything.
If you’re feeling stuck, simply adding the word “yet” can help you shift your perspective. Adding “yet” helps keep you focused on your goals because it implies that you will get there eventually, so you might as well keep after it!
For example:
When we have worked our tails off but still haven’t succeeded, when we feel personally attacked, or when we’re just plain exhausted…we can feel really defeated. In moments like these when it feels like it is the end of the road for you, ask yourself: “what can I learn?” This shifts your focus away from defeated thinking and sparks curiosity which can help you push forward. Focusing on what you can learn from the situation also stops you from ruminating over the problem and shifts your brain into solution-finding mode instead.
Fixed mindset wants us to believe that if we’re not perfect right away, we’ll never be good enough, so why bother even trying. Especially because trying can actually take a lot of effort sometimes, particularly if something is new to us.
But growth mindset thrives on “try” because it helps us realize that trying things out is the first step to getting really good at something, and the effort will be more than worth it in the end. So, get in there and try stuff out! You don’t have to be perfect. Heck, you don’t even have to be average! (Frankly, you could crash and burn more than anyone else has ever crashed and burned…but you’ll still be better off than someone who didn’t even start!) What matters is that you got in there and made progress, even if it wasn’t perfect.
No one ever got to the finish line without taking all the steps in between. When we focus too much on the outcome, it can quickly seem out of reach and make us want to give up. So instead of fixating on the outcome, focus on the next step in front of you. Think about what small steps you can take towards incremental improvement. And take that first step as best you can in that moment. Then, focus on the next step, then the next, and so on… Eventually, the outcome you’re after will come.
Building a growth mindset in those around you can help you stay growth minded too. A great way to do this is to give constructive criticism or praise that focuses on the process too, not just the outcome. For example, instead of just “Wow, you really nailed that presentation this morning!” add in “It looks like all of your extra hours and time spent learning the material really paid off! Great job!”
Use the “Mindset Reflect & Connect” activity in the Course Action Guide to apply these mindset concepts to your own life. Review each question prompt below.
Why does fixed and growth mindset matter in your daily life?
Example: “Mindset matters to me because…”
What is something that you are very GROWTH minded about, and how can that help you and those you interact with on a daily basis?
Example: “I am very growth minded about working out–I always think about it as a challenge to overcome and keep pushing even if I’m tired. This can help me keep myself and my workout buddies motivated during hard workouts.”
What is something that you are FIXED minded about, that you could use some help with because it’s been getting in your way?
Example: “I am fixed minded about learning something new–if I don’t understand the material right away I don’t slow down or re-read instructions because I just want to get it over with as soon as possible, even if I get nothing out of it. I need help sticking to it.”