Can you draw? Can you play guitar?
Can you run Marathon?
The answer to these questions can be ‘Yes’ OR ‘No’, based on your comfort level in the skill. However, is it possible that instead of answering in ‘Yes’ / ‘No’, one answers as ‘not now, but I can learn it?’, and that’s the growth mindset. I, myself turned answer to these questions from ‘No’ to ‘Yes’ for me.
In a growth mindset, we believe that most of the skills can be learned through dedication and hard work—brains & talent are just the starting point. The way two atoms in different orbits need different activation energies to move to Nth orbit, two people with the different talent level of a skill will need to put varying degree of efforts to reach the same level of expertise in the same skill.
As is mentioned somewhere on a web portal:
“Believing that your qualities are carved in stone—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. It simply wouldn’t do to look or feel deficient in these most basic characteristics…I’ve seen so many people with this one consuming goal of proving themselves—in the classroom, in their careers, and in their relationships. Every situation calls for a confirmation of their intelligence, personality, or character. Every situation is evaluated: Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smart or dumb? Will I be accepted or rejected? Will I feel like a winner or a loser? But doesn’t our society value intelligence, personality, and character?”
So essentially Growth Mindset means, whatever skills you have is just the starting point, not your full potential, and you can always work diligently to improve and grow, and the same is applicable to others, they can also grow, beyond their demonstrated capabilities, if given constructive feedback and praised for efforts, not talent.
Now, if your answer to my first question (Can you draw?) is still ‘No’ then you should watch this TED video by Graham Shaw. And if you approach it with Growth Mindset, I am sure your answer will become ‘Yes’ in few minutes ;-)
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