I recently realized something about myself and wanted to share it because I thought maybe it could help someone else. I have what's known as a growth mindset, I realized as compared with a fixed mindset I don't know how commonly those terms are tossed around these days but they seem to be the best way for me to frame this important awareness I had.
I don't recall what may have made me think about this philosophical thing, I only know I had a brief awareness that I want to be someone who has new ideas and ways of thinking that emerge regularly.
You may have had the same idea about yourself, maybe one of my motivations is an awareness that I've wasted a lot of time stuck not believing growth was possible for me whether I admitted it or not. The good news is we can all grow, we live in a time when people can learn pretty much anything they want to.
After all we have many super computers, smartphones in our hands that we can use to search for answers to almost anything. As an example of one of my latest interests, I've been engrossed in videos from Andrew Huberman a professor of neurobiology and Ophthalmology at the Stanford School of Medicine.
The so-called information age has provided the mechanisms for us to be on a growth path for life. Something could have brought me to the point of looking inward to reflect on how I want to live. Perhaps I experienced instances in which people had fixed mindsets or seemed to be really predictable because they had the same sorts of thoughts and said the same things repeatedly.
Avoiding the life of quiet desperation is very difficult. We have to dig down and become determined to make things different that is be Progressive in our thinking as opposed to static. Progressive in the way we look at ourselves and consider our own lives.
You may be familiar with the really popular book called mindset by Carol S Dweck. She is a psychology professor at Stanford University. Dr dweck has won many awards for her accomplishments in social and developmental psychology. Her book reminded me of the fixed mindsets I've encountered most of my life and the struggles I've always had with it.
I think many if not most people are challenged by the limiting views they have of themselves in the influences of the people around them. Imagine how different basketball player Michael Jordan's life would have been if he would have thought he couldn't play after he's cut from his team in high school.
His life is probably one of the best examples of a growth mindset in action I can think of. what's exciting about Carol Dweck's book is that it argues we can continually improve by embracing a growth mindset while seeing with clear eyes instances in which we fall into a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset can cause us to spend a lot of time trying to prove we're good at things when we should be engrossed in the process of getting better.
Are people gifted with talents that give them advantages in certain endeavors ? yes, absolutely ?. However they still need to work to develop those talents to reach their potential and sometimes sadly the apparentness of the talent early in life is enough for some folks by that I mean they feel like they've already arrived when they could really apply themselves and Blossom in their abilities building on their natural edge.
But they've got to be focused on growth rather than basking in the glow of natural ability. So, the key is to enjoy and embrace the challenges, enjoy the journey. Journey over destination, the destination is important. Set goals and all that sort of stuff but enjoy the journey and address the challenges.
you may have heard the saying, “don't let perfect be the enemy of good.” a person with a fixed mindset falls into the the perfection out of a desire to prove they're already competent and skilful. I've been there, I've had that mindset , I wanted to appear good at things when I really wasn't but I had this thought that I need to appear good so that I will be considered good.
If you have a growth mindset you love the process of getting better and better and don't worry about perfection, although you want to aim to apply yourself to a task as best you can. A growth mindset frees you to be bad at something and gradually improve with an abiding growth mindset you're not really embarrassed. So, I've learned that achieving a growth mindset takes time. Dweck points out that we need to accept that we have an ongoing battle with the characteristics of a fixed mindset.
We have to remember that every time we've been tested and not done so well and I don't mean only in school. That shortcoming that we have is not an unchangeable assessment of what we're capable of accomplishing.
We can get better if we apply ourselves it may sound right but it's true. Here's something that's very encouraging, through effort, training, and experience and I believe through developing a habit of seeking knowledge, we can really surprise ourselves in terms of what we can achieve.
Failure does not have to define us if we confront and learn from our mistakes. Life is an adventure aspire to love people as much as you can. Pursue truth and enjoy the journey.