Have you ever had people say, "Oh, I'm just naturally not good at maths?
Yeah. I'm just not going to try because I'm naturally not that clever.
Of course he did well, he's a languages person."
Welcome to the fixed mindset. One which is currently trained by
our academic system, but really stunts all personal growth.
Today, I'm going to talk about what it is, how it's affected me and how you can
move from more of this fixed mindset to more of a growth mindset.
I hope this video helps to grow in some way.
Before I get started, this video is kindly sponsored by Skillshare.
Well, honestly, one of my all time, favorite learning platforms ever.
I've taken so many courses on Skillshare.
I can't even remember them all.
Minimalism to productivity systems, to creative writing.
It's just an amazing supportive learning environment that really encourages learning
for the sake of learning.
One course I took recently was by Emma Gannon.
I don't know if you know her, but she's an amazing author and podcaster.
Her course was all about battling perfectionism and
self-sabotaging behaviors, which can impact your creative work.
It was something really relevant to me as a creator who
often doubts their content because it's really scary putting up videos
which are going to be seen by potentially thousands of people.
Yeah, she just took me through some exercises which
really helped me personally.
If you need help setting achievable goals or inspiration for learning, just for fun,
I highly recommend Skillshare just to help
you structure your time better.
And the bit you've been waiting for. The first 1000 people to click the
link in my description will get a free trial of Skillshare premium.
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The fixed mindset assumes that your character, your creative abilities, and
your intelligence are static.
They are fixed.
They cannot change.
It is a natural, inherent ability that you either have, or you don't have.
It's why you believe that people are just gifted with talents or skills or abilities
ones which you might not possess.
And you just don't possess it, and that's it. You got unlucky.
For example, I am not a computer science person,
ah, conquer it to save my life.
The more you repeat that, the more you are reaffirming that to yourself.
It becomes not even about thinking that you're good, but that you just so
deeply believe that this activity is not for you, that you just stop trying.
Why should you strive for an A star in a subject that is just not for you?
It's just not your subject naturally, you know.
Why should you play a sport if you have confirmed that you are just
not a fit person? Just not an exercise person.
And this has even more issues because when you believe that your ability is fixed,
you feel the need to have it assessed in some way to validate your fixed ability.
Like, if you genuinely think
that your ability in maths is just a natural predisposition,
you suddenly need to prove your intelligence to people
Certainly, failing a test isn't just about, "Oh, I struggle with these questions
and I need to learn from them."
Instead, failing on that test is contributing to your idea of
I am not good at maths and I will never be good at maths.
Fixed mindsets make you strive for success, but avoid failure at all costs because
you start believing that failure says something about your intelligence,
your worth, your skillset, your talent.
A growth mindset is just one very simple change to the equation.
If a fixed mindset says,
"I am not good at maths."
The growth mindset says, "I am not good at maths yet."
Yet, the tiny simple word, yet, entirely changes the meaning of that concept.
You know you're struggling. Sure.
But you also know that you will eventually get there.
You'll work harder. You'll seek help.
You'll keep trying and you will get there. You just haven't got there yet.
Let's think of another example.
So if you believe that your ability to draw be artistic is not fixed,
that you just haven't put enough time into learning to draw yet,
then you'll keep on trying, and you'll keep drawing, and you'll keep practicing
because you have this inherent belief that you're just not there yet,
and you will get better and you will succeed eventually.
The growth mindset thrives on being challenged.
And failure isn't evidence of not being intelligent.
Failure is the springboard for growth, because if you believe that
you're not there yet, and you're just constantly still growing and you're not...
you don't have a fixed ability. You have a constantly evolving ability
Then failure is just where you can say,
"Okay, cool. I tried. What part of this made it go wrong?
Perfect. I'll dive into that. I'll learn from it.
It's not saying I'm stupid.
It's just saying, how can I learn from this and then get better.
And sure, everyone is different. People have different aptitudes to learning
different motivations, different interests, different temperaments.
But at the end of the day, everyone can change and grow with the
right application and the right learning and the right mindset.
I'm not very good at coding. I put my hands up.
I am not great at coding.
I have basic knowledge, but when faced with anything complex, I genuinely can't do it.
And it stresses me out.
And all my CS friends they're doing it with a breeze.
And in those moments, it is so tempting to say,
"I am not a CS person. Coding isn't for me.
But if I take a step back and look at it,
I never had the opportunity to learn to code at school.
I didn't know a single person who knew what Python was.
I was never introduced to it.
I never touched coding.
Some of my friends have been coding since they were 10yrs.
Are they naturally good at coding?
No, not really.
They just put a lot of effort in,
they struggled through, they learned, they put time in.
And so I know and truly believe that if I put the same level of effort and time in.
I will be amazing at coding because my ability right now is not fixed.
Coding is for anyone.
If I put my mind to it, I can and will get better.
I'm just not that good yet.
Why have this cancel culture for learning and for subjects?
It's just you haven't put in the time, the effort, the intention yet.
it's the same with makeup. I suck at makeup.
Why? Not because I'm not artistic or creative.
Just because I haven't really put the time or the intention in
to learning to be good at makeup. Instead of saying things like,
"Oh, makeup's just not for me.I'm not good at it, done."
Just recognizing that that's a choice you can choose to get better, or you
can choose to say that this is fixed.
And this subtle change in how you view your abilities is truly life-changing.
Because every time you meet a challenge or an obstacle that you can't really overcome,
just saying the word yet changes it.
You can't overcome it yet, but you can, and you will.
I would do this sometimes in my A-level exams.
I would come to a questioning in a chemistry paper, so stressed, right?
The time is going, it's an exam.
And it's a tough bloody question.
And in that moment, your brain wants to say, "Oh my God, Jade.
You haven't revised this enough. You know how it'll be. You just can't do it."
But the word yet, you can't do it yet, is what kept me trying.
And sometimes half the battle isn't even intelligence or knowledge. It's resilience,
Growth mindset is what makes a passion for learning instead of a hunger for approval.
So how does this affected my life?
Oh my God, guys.
You know how much I bought into the whole grading system, attach my worth to grades.
As a perfectionist, I associated my worth to grades so much.
I did not always see grades as an opportunity for feedback
and to learn and to grow more.
I had credited the percentage that I got to my intelligence as
though my intelligence was this fixed thing that needed to be
measured and needed to be validated.
And that one bad grade meant I was an imposter all along thinking
that I could do the subject.
The reason this is such an issue is because at school I got a reputation as
the academic one, the nerdy one.
People came to think of me as getting good grades.
And I say that not in a boastful way, but in kind of a problematic way.
In a damaging way.
Because if you get this fixed reputation of intelligence, you suddenly don't
want to challenge that reputation.
If I didn't understand, I wouldn't ask for help because I felt so embarrassed
to admit that I didn't get it.
And I would rather just sit there silently and struggle alone
than let people know that I was struggling.
I felt the need to prove my intelligence in something as stupid as like,
I don't get this piece help me, which would have been so much quicker.
I would have learned. I would grow through it. Bam done.
If I got a test result back and it wasn't what I wanted,
hmm, people would literally turn around and be like, Jade, what did you get?
And then I would be pressured into telling them. And then if I got lower
than what they, they got, they'd be like, Oh my God, I got higher than Jade.
And I look back. I'm like poor baby, Jade.
I would sometimes be on the verge of tears in the classroom, like hiding my tears
because of this humiliation of feeling stupid about a question that everyone got
right and that I didn't get right. When in reality, I should have embraced
that for whatever reason, that was just challenging for me.
And that's really cool because then now knowing that
I can learn from it, I can grow from it.
Doesn't say anything about my intelligence or my worth.
And it's only with time that I've really come to see the value in asking for help.
In admitting that you're wrong, in seeing failure as something useful.
Every time you're honest,
you're actually becoming more intelligent because you are actively learning and
growing from mistakes.
You're becoming more competent because you're tackling an area that
actually needs work. Even now on YouTube or operating through life,
it's very easy to fall back into a fixed mindset.
For example, I think, "Oh, my God, I should never talk about issues
I'm not well versed in online."
For example, issues like racism.
I will always make mistakes.
I will never be able to say things perfectly.
And if I stopped there, this fixed mindset thing would make me never grow
and never learn and never improve my knowledge on any of these social issues
or the way that I think about the world, because the growth mindset in me says,
Cool. It's terrifying, but I'm going to learn through talking about it and through
getting your opinions and throwing to ultimate opinion and do more research.
I've messed up so many times.
For example, I grew up in a school in an area where I only ever heard the word chav
being used colloquially, humor and joking.
And just as like a fun word that had no negative connotations.
I never knew the background of this word or its implications historically
for the working class.
I just genuinely never knew.
So I said it once casually in a video, because I wasn't aware of the context.
And instead of beating myself up about it after which I definitely did,
how can I then instead view it as growth?
This is a prime moment, not as a failure.
Instead, how can this be a moment of growth
to be a better version of Jade in the future?
I didn't know that
yet, which is also why council culture sucks because humans just
need opportunities to grow and to learn and to improve themselves.
So if everyone adopted this growth mindset towards life and academics and social
issues and relationships, everything, the world would be such a better place.
We'd be less defensive of our knowledge.
We'd be more forgiving.
We'd be more likely to truly learn
and to be honest with where we're at.
Because we wouldn't have this fear of needing to prove that
we're smart to other people.
There's no fear of looking stupid when you believe that your intelligence
isn't fixed, but always evolving.
So, what is something in your life that you are struggling with right now?
Something where you're really tempted to say, this isn't for me.
something you attempted to give up on, but which now, you know, it just
means you're not the best at it
yet?
How does viewing it a little bit differently change your approach?
How can you strategize your learning to tackle the areas and to just get better?
Have a beautiful week.
And check out Skillshare if you're one of those first 1,000 people.
Also, this gorgeous top was gifted to me by my all time
favorite clothing brand.
It's just an honor to have received one of their pieces.
This is from Oh seven days.
They use scrap material and produce these gorgeous clothes.
I'm all for circular economy.
I'm all for that ethics. I think they're wonderful.
And I'll leave the link in my description if you're interested.
Have a gorgeous rest of your week.
Bye!
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