What if your true learning potential was unknown, even unknowable, at best? What if it were impossible to foresee what you could accomplish with a few years of passion, toil, and training? Are Olympic athletes, professional gamers and surgeons simply talented individuals who show up when needed? Or did they spend years learning their skills, fostering good habits, actively practicing their craft and believing improvement is possible at any level.
According to Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, this isn’t some hypothetical situation it’s a mindset. And it’s one you can cultivate at any point in life.
A “growth mindset,” as Dweck calls it, is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a tendency to believe that you can grow. In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, she explains that a “fixed mindset” assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which we can’t change in any meaningful way. A growth mindset, on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees failure “not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities.”
This is important because it can actually change what you strive for and what you see as success. By changing the definition, significance, and impact of failure, you change the deepest meaning of effort.
“In one world, effort is a bad thing. It, like failure, means you’re not smart or talented. If you were, you wouldn’t need effort. In the other world, effort is what makes you smart or talented.” – Carol Dweck
While researching this topic one of the the learnings that stuck out for me is that adding the word "yet" to sentences and thoughts can have an impact on our mindset. "Yet" acknowledges that the learning is possible and that effort, passion and persistent are more indicative of success than natural ability.
Example: I have never coded in Ruby on Rails...or... I have not yet coded in Ruby on Rails.
Thinking in this way is a very helpful approach. Here at Shopify you will often encounter scenarios where you don’t know the right answer, approach or idea...YET!!
This video explains how our most complex organ is capable of changing throughout our lives. This inspiring animation demonstrates how we all have the ability to learn and change by rewiring our brains.
25 Ways to Develop a Growth Mindset
If you are thinking to yourself that you may be more fixed mindset oriented don't worry, our brains are amazing things and there’s always opportunity to shift towards a growth mindset. As you might have guessed, awareness, effort and resilience will be necessary to make these transitions.
1. Acknowledge and embrace imperfections. Hiding from your weaknesses means you’ll never overcome them.
2. View challenges as opportunities. Having a growth mindset means relishing opportunities for self-improvement.
3. Try different learning tactics. There’s no one-size-fits-all model for learning. What works for one person may not work for you.
4. Follow the research on brain plasticity.The brain isn’t fixed; the mind shouldn’t be either.
5. Replace the word “failing” with the word “learning.” When you make a mistake or fall short of a goal, you haven’t failed; you’ve learned.
6. Stop seeking approval. When you prioritize approval over learning, you sacrifice your own potential for growth.
7. Value the process over the end result. Intelligent people enjoy the learning process, and don’t mind when it continues beyond an expected time frame.
8. Cultivate a sense of purpose. Dweck’s research also showed that people with a growth mindset had a greater sense of purpose. Keep the big picture in mind.
9. Celebrate growth with others. If you truly appreciate growth, you’ll want to share your progress with others.
10. Emphasise growth over speed. Learning fast isn’t the same as learning well, and learning well sometimes requires allowing time for mistakes.
11. Reward actions, not traits. Tell students when they’re doing something smart, not just being smart.
12. Redefine “genius.” The myth’s been busted: genius requires hard work, not talent alone.
13. Portray criticism as positive. You don’t have to used that hackneyed term, "constructive criticism“but you do have to believe in the concept.
14. Dissassociate improvement from failure. Stop assuming that “room for improvement” translates into failure.
15. Provide regular opportunities for reflection. Let students reflect on their learning at least once a day.
16. Place effort before talent. Hard work should always be rewarded before inherent skill.
17. Highlight the relationship between learning and “brain training.” The brain is like a muscle that needs to be worked out, just like the body.
18. Cultivate Grit Students with that extra bit of determination will be more likely to seek approval from themselves rather than others.
19. Abandon the image. “Naturally smart” sounds just about as believable as “spontaneous generation.” You won’t achieve the image if you’re not ready for the work.
20. Use the word “yet.” Dweck says “not yet” has become one of her favourite phrases. Whenever you see students struggling with a task, just tell them they haven’t mastered it yet.
21. Learn from other people’s mistakes. It’s not always wise to compare yourself to others, but it is important to realise that humans share the same weaknesses.
22. Make a new goal for every goal accomplished. You’ll never be done learning. Just because your midterm exam is over doesn’t mean you should stop being interested in a subject. Growth-minded people know how to constantly create new goals to keep themselves stimulated.
23. Take risks in the company of others. Stop trying to save face all the time and just let yourself goof up now and then. It will make it easier to take risks in the future.
24. Think realistically about time and effort. It takes time to learn. Don’t expect to master every topic under the sun in one sitting.
25. Take ownership over your attitude. Once you develop a growth mindset, own it. Acknowledge yourself as someone who possesses a growth mentality and be proud to let it guide you throughout your educational career.
Remember!
The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you work and the way you live your life.
Believing that your qualities are carved in stone, the fixed mindset creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over instead of growing.
People in a growth mindset don’t just seek challenges, they thrive on them.
The growth mindset allows people to truly love what they’re doing and to continue to love it in the face of difficulties.
Those with the growth mindset find success in doing their best in learning and improving. And this is exactly what we find in champions!