World renowned Stanford university psychologist Carol Dweck, in decades of research on achievement
and success, has discovered a truly groundbreaking idea.
The power of our mindset.
In one of her early researches she wanted to study how people cope with failures.
She did it by watching how kids grapple with hard problems.
So she gave children in their school a series of puzzles to solve.
The first ones were fairly easy, but the next ones were hard.
Confronted with the hard puzzles one ten year old boy yelled out loud: "I love a challenge".
Another sweating away on those puzzles looked up with a pleased expression and said:
"I was hoping this would be informative".
Carol always though you coped with failure or you didn't cope with failure.
She never though that anyone LOVED failure.
Not only weren't these kids disscouraged by failure, they didn't even think they were failing.
They thought they were learning.
Carol at that time thought that human qualities were carved in stone.
You were smart or you weren't, and failure meant you weren't.
If you could arrange successes and avoid failures you could stay smart.
Struggles, mistakes and perserverence were just not part of the whole being smart picture.
Those children on the other hand thought that human qualities such as intellectual skills
could be cultivated through effort.
And thats what they were doing, developing their intellectual skills or simply put, getting smarter.
So what does this mean for you?
It shows us how a mindset can have a profound effect on your life.
And that there are two mindsets:
Fixed mindset and a growth mindset.
Believing that your qualities are carved in stone, which is a part of the fixed mindset,
creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over.
If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain moral
character - Well then you'd better prove that you have a healthy dose of them.
That's why people with a fixed mindset shy away from challenges, because they are scared
their deficiencies could be unmasked through it.
The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can
cultivate through your efforts.
Now growth mindset doesn't mean everyone has the same talent and abilities, it just means
everyone can grow through hard work, mentoring and perseverance.
So why waste your time looking smart when you could be getting smarter?
We are slowly conveying these ideas that smart and talented people don't make mistakes and
they don't work hard.
The most important thing in the world is to be smart, talented and look that way all the time.
What happens is people start narrowing their world so they can succeed within that fixed mindset.
But let's take a quick look at the world of sports.
Michael Jordan actually wasn't a natural.
But the was the hardest working athlete, perhaps in the history of sport.
It's well known that Jordan was cut from the high school varsity team, he wasn't recruited
by the college he wanted to play for and he wasn't drafted by the first two NBA teams
that could have chosen him.
Weren't they foolish?
Now we know he was the greatest basketball player ever, and we think it should have been
obvious from the start.
When we look at him we see MICHAEL JORDAN.
But at that point he was only Michael Jordan.
When Jordan was cut from the varsity team, he was devastated.
So his mother told him "To go discipline himself".
Boy, did he listen.
After that he used to leave the house at six in the morning to go practice for 3 hours
before school.
He had the growth mindset.
He knew he could develop and improve his skills through hard work and that's how he became
the Jordan we all know today.
So what can we do to ingrave growth mindset in to ourselves and others?
Just knowing about the two mindsets can produce incredible results.
The other thing we can do is praise more wisely.
When we praise people for the process they engage in, their hard work, their perseverance
they learn to stick to challenges.
Praising talent on the other hand, makes them vulnerable.
When we tell someone: "You did that so quickly I'm impressed".
They hear: "If I didn't do it quickly, you wouldn't be impressed".
or: "You got an A without working, you're so smart"!
They think: "Oh, if I work you're not gonna think I'm smart".
Instead when you give praise to other people you should try something between these lines:
"I like the way you tried all kinds of strategies on that math problem until you finally got it.
You thought of a lot of different ways to do it and found the one that worked."
This way your praise hard work and not the so called "talent".
Also telling people they are "smart" is one of the biggest mindset crimes you can commit.
In one study they actually found out that telling people they are smart lowers that
persons IQ.
Here's a common question people have about mindsets: Can you have both mindsets?
Many people have elements of both.
You can have different mindsets in different areas.
I might think that my personality is fixed, but that my intelligence can be developed.
Or that my social skills are fixed, but my creativity can be developed.
Carol found that whatever mindset people have in a certain area, that mindset will guide
them in that region.
You have a choice.
Mindsets are just beliefs.
They're powerful beliefs, but they're just something in your mind and you can change
your mind.
So try your best to put yourself in the growth mindset every time you face a challenge, that
way you will be better than yesterday.
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