The Growth Mindset

 by Isobel Geddes

(image by Ravi Roshan)

2021. “A new year, a new you.” Whilst this phrase might not always encourage people (often implying a pressure to change that makes people feel inferior to society’s standards), I wanted to focus on one opportunity of self-improvement: the mindset.

Introducing the fixed mindset, often heard through various phrases including: “I’m just not a natural” and “There’s no point, I’m not a language person.” It is not uncommon for us to hear such phrases as an attempt to justify the reasons for not pursuing a challenge. It’s attitudes like these that hinder someone from actually developing themselves in aspects that they are not immediately comfortable within: the black and white filter that declares we are born with abilities or without. Yet, the irony is, the more one repeats such phrases, the closer they become to the truth as we stop trying and give up hope. A fixed mindset views every mistake as a failure; a hindrance that only confirms the idea that you are destined to fail, rather than providing an opportunity to learn from the mistakes. This quickly leads to an ever stronger fear of failure, mistakes being perceived as events that in just one second can determine your intelligence, your talent, your abilities, and the list goes on...

On the contrary, I present the growth mindset: “I haven’t tried to learn maths yet” and “I could be talented at this”. It is surprising how the addition or replacement of just a few short words can change so much. From failure and mistakes acting as dictators of success in a fixed mindset, in the growth mindset they are used for reflection and self improvement. The key phrase: “I can learn from this”. When we compare ourselves to others (“the maths natural” or the “sciences person”), we often forget to look at the bigger picture. True, it might be that right now they seem to be on a much higher level, it is important to take the time to reflect that you aren't being compared equally and more importantly, you don't know all the details. Whilst you might have only started something one or two years ago, they could have been taught from the age of five or six. It's often difficult to see how much time and effort someone has put into something, but remembering that you too could reach their level with just more time and more effort can be extremely beneficial. If someone were to be placed into an environment in which they were the furthest behind, they would actually have a large opportunity given to them. Using the growth mindset, one can view the bottom as a starting point, with the idea that actually being in this position could be one of the best as immediately you are surrounded by a large number of resources (your peers) that you can learn from. As a result, it is the person at the bottom that is the one who learns the most and gains the most self development, because they are the ones who can improve the most by using who they are with.

The fixed mindset encourages you to only develop your strengths, leaving the weaknesses behind as something to be forgotten, whilst the growth mindset acknowledges that perhaps you haven't had the chance to develop your skills as far, but with enough practice, effort and time, it's possible to reach the position that you initially viewed as advanced; a level of ability initially thought to only be achieved if one is “a natural” or a “maths person”, for instance. The subtle change between the two perspectives and phrases can be life changing. Just because you aren't there yet doesn't mean you won't ever be. Half the battle can be said to be perseverance: not giving up when you see that someone is doing it better. In today’s world, it is easy to fall back to the fixed mindset. Yes, the growth mindset can be terrifying, but the point is if you continue to stay in the fixed mindset it is so much harder to learn and grow as a person. If we were all to adopt this growth mindset in absolutely everything, the difference in our world would be astonishing. More forgiveness, more education, more honesty; no one would have this fear of failure or of showing weakness.