Ted Talk: https://youtu.be/pN34FNbOKXc
What makes athletes, entrepreneurs, and some of the most successful people in the world successful?
The answer is – Mindset. Particularly, a growth mindset.
“The key to success is not simply effort, focus or resilience, rather these are by-products of having a growth mindset”. – Eduardo Briceno
Often success is associated with the belief that you need to have intelligence or talent to be successful and perform well at something. Some people believe that they have ingrained certain abilities, and that poor performance reflects an inability to succeed. This is known as a fixed mindset (FM). Contrastingly, there are those whom when faced with setbacks or challenges embrace these as an opportunistic moment for personal growth and further development of their skills and abilities. These thinkers are considered to possess a growth mindset (GM). American chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin asserted; “The moment we believe that success is determined by an ingrained level of ability, we will be brittle in the face of adversity”. In other words, if we believe that we are limited by our current inabilities to perform well in certain areas than we limit ourselves from opportunistic growth and are less resilient to setbacks.
This week’s L&G discussion focused on understanding these two mindset types, and how they can affect performance. In his TED Talk, Eduardo Briceno spoke of the power of belief, and how a growth mindset helped Waitzkin learn to successfully compete with the world’s best performing chess competitors and use it as a formula to achieve continued success in his life.
Eduardo explains that those with a (FM) see effort as a bad thing that only people with low capabilities need. When they are met with failure or setbacks, they conclude they are incapable of achieving successful outcomes and this results in low motivation and withdrawal. This is perpetuated by their concern that they will be judged by others. In contrast, those with a (GM) focus more on learning and see effort as a smart approach to grow and develop one’s skills. They view setbacks and failure as a part of personal growth and choose to learn from these experiences, often finding a way forward and overcoming their limitations.
Dweck & Mueller (1998) divided children into two groups and assigned each with a set of puzzles. They found that children who received a fixed mindset praise (FMP) which associated the child’s skill with being smart resulted in poorer performance and lower confidence in ability than those children receiving a growth mindset praise (GMP) which focused on their efforts. This is because the (FMP) portrays intelligence and abilities as fixed qualities, whereas the (GMP) focused on the efforts and process. The researchers also found that when introducing children with the choice between selecting a harder puzzle and an easier puzzle, the (FMP) children picked the easier puzzle over the challenging puzzle, whereas the (GMP) children opted for the harder puzzle. Finally, when allowing children, the opportunity to score their individual performance, the (FMP) children lied over 3 times more about their performance.
This study showcases as a good example of student mindset and performance and its results yield similar experiences to the mindsets of current international students that attend study support and counselling support services. Our experience of helping these students is challenged when students are stuck in a fixed mindset and fall into patterns of avoidance, demotivation and procrastination, whereas students exhibiting a growth mindset tend to progress with their personal development and academic skills.
Eduardo Briceno shares 3 tips people can follow to increase a growth mindset and become successful.
- Recognise that the brain is malleable and is capable of change.
- Learn about deliberate practice and how to develop your abilities.
- Listen to your fixed mindset voice, and when you hear it, talk back with a growth mindset voice. (i.e. – If you hear you can’t, add YET to the end of that sentence)
L&G group reflective discussion: The discussion on Fixed mindsets vs growth mindsets was fruitful and instigated many in the group to share their own personal experiences of success stories with students. An interesting point shared by Peter was the notion that a fixed mindset is not always a negative thing as people following diets need to have a strict fixed mindset to stay disciplined and achieve their goals. However, the crux is: If we are to realise our potential, we must start thinking differently, and realising that we are not chained or limited to our current capabilities. Having a growth mindset allows us to do this.