At Simply Great Lives we help people experience and learn about many mindsets during our events. One of the important ones is the growth mindset vs the fixed mindset. Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. has researched this. She has found that successful people predominantly work with a growth mindset. You can explore more on this topic here.
Fixed Mindset
People with a fixed mindset believe that qualities like intelligence, and talent are unchangeable and fixed. These folks believe they’re stuck with what they’ve got, and they try to cover over their limitations by appearing smart and capable. They measure their talents and intelligence instead of developing them. They believe that talent alone creates success.
With a fixed mindset, you believe that people don’t change, including yourself. You are what you are, so why waste time and effort trying to change. If you hold a fixed mindset, the idea of living a legacy and making an impact seems ludicrous. Things are stuck the way they are. For example, why bother helping a homeless person, they’re going to stay homeless anyway? Why try to rehabilitate a thief? They are what they are.
If this is your view, something called “confirmation bias” will help you find evidence to support this. You will be able to point out lots of cherry picked evidence that confirms that people don’t change. You will feel justified in your view.
With a belief that you are static, it makes it very difficult to get ahead in life. You get promoted to your level of maximum competence, and get stuck there.
Dr. Carol Dweck has shown that this static view is wrong.
Growth Mindset
People with a growth mindset believe that they can develop talent, intelligence, and other qualities. They believe that our default intelligence and talent are just a starting point. These folks believe that hard work, practice and effort lead to greater capacity and success in life.
I would also like to add to this list, qualities like boldness, level of extroversion, and character qualities like honesty and integrity.
With a growth mindset you can get smarter and better. You aren’t stuck in your position in life. That homeless person can get off the street. That thief can chose to go straight. They aren’t what they are. They can change.
I can attest to this mindset in my own personal life. I used to be pretty introverted. I still recharge by being alone, but I can be pretty outgoing. I’ve gone from introvert to author, speaker, trainer, coach, and radio show host. And I still have more room to grow. This isn’t to brag, but to show you that you too can change qualities you thought were fixed.
One of the keys to this growth is to not focus so much on getting good results on the first attempt, but to focus on the process, practice, and habit of improving and trying new things. This is like a child learning to walk. They usually don’t just get up and start walking around. There’s usually a trial and error process until one day they’re running around.
What might you be able to change in yourself that you thought was unchangeable?
This is just one of the mindsets we will be covering in our radio show today. If you’d like to learn more about mindsets, check out www.theimpacthour.com to find out how you can listen.
