The Power of Mindset

Explore the groundbreaking work of Dr. Carol Dweck and the difference between a fixed and growth mindset. Reflect on situations where you had a growth or a fixed mindset and feel the liberating power of the growth mindset.

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Workbook Pages 32 - 34

What would you… | Page 32

Explore Your Mindset | Page 33

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Alright. Now that you've identified the potential external barriers, the things outside of you that may get in the way of you accomplishing your goal and the internal barriers, the things that are inside of you, it's time to work on those internal barriers. The focus of this section is to really develop the mindset that's required to break through those self imposed limitations into your next possibility.
So now I'm going to read to you a scenario and pretend that this was your day. This just happened to you. One day you go to class that's really important to you and you like it a lot. The professor returns a midterm paper and the to the class in your grade is a C plus. You're very disappointed that evening on your way home, you find a parking ticket on your windshield.
You're frustrated. So you call your best friend to share your experience, but you feel sort of brushed off. So given this situation, I'd like you to make note in your workbook and answer these three questions. What would you think? How would you feel and what would you do? Again, this is the scenario. That you've experienced, what would you think?
How would you feel and what would you do.
Now that you've answered those three questions, I want you to set that aside for a bit and we'll get, we'll get to that a bit later and we're going to talk now about the mindset required to break through those internal barriers that you identified that might get in the way of you achieving your domino goal.
Because how you see the world profoundly impacts the way you do your life. Now we're going to dig into the work of Carol Dweck and Carol Dweck is a psychologist at Stanford university, and her research was grounded around this question. What are the consequences of thinking that your intelligence or your personality is something you can develop as opposed to something that is a fixed or deep seated trait?
Essentially, she was asking the question. Are we born smart? And her research, she identified that there are two basic mindsets and there's a fixed mindset and a growth mindset, and it's all related to your belief about your ability and how she came to this in her early days of her research. She's very passionate about working with young children and teaching them that their brains can grow, that your past is not your potential.
So in her early experiments, what she would do is get a group of young kids together and give them puzzles. And she'd notice varied reactions to solving the puzzles. Some kids would work hard and complete the puzzle, and she said to them, would you like to do it again? And she noticed one of two responses.
One response was, no, I want a new one. I want to try something new. And the other response was, yeah, I'll do it again. So some kids wanted to repeat the success and other kids wanted a new challenge. And then there was a whole third group of kids who had tried to build the puzzle and couldn't get it, and then would chew it away and say, stupid puzzle.
So she began to to think and identified that there are two bind sets, and it's all related again to the belief about our ability. The fixed mindset and the growth mindset and the fixed mindset is really one that believes your qualities are carved in stone, that you're unchangeable. You are who you are.
You may have a high potential, but that's who you are. You can't change your personality, your potential, your athletic ability. You're kind of born with it. It's very fear-driven and every situation defined you as a success or a failure. And the other mindset is the growth mindset. The growth mindset is really about that.
Your past is not your potential. Your basic qualities are things that you can cultivate through through your efforts. Everyone can change and grow through application and experience, and it's really a firm belief that your person's potential is unknown and every new experience is an opportunity for growth.
So think about those kids building the puzzles some. Stupid puzzle. Others, I want to repeat the success and others wanted a new challenge, very different perspectives and ways of approaching a challenge. Now the key is in with mindset. The key is in the responses with a fixed mindset response. You don't pay attention to the learning information.
You feel depressed, become de-energized. There's a tendency to blame others and you may misrepresent past successes or failures. So a fixed mindset is really limiting, right? You don't want to try new things cause what if you fail? Think about that. When you put your, the con, put your domino goal into context.
How do you feel about, is it possible those internal barriers. Do you think it's impossible or are you able to break through those barriers? Fixed mindset thinking is why try growth. Mindset thinking on the other hand is really what we do in our responses is we pay attention to the learning. Like those kids who tried really hard to get that test or build that puzzle, they kept trying to figure it out to make it right.
We pay attention to the learning and we do better on future tests. Think about the scenario, the C plus, it was a midterm exam, right? You could have done better. What was your response to that? They focus on the learning rather than how they feel now. Don't get tricked by that. People with a growth mindset don't stuff their feelings.
Rather, they're able to experience them. And what I call it is about being able to sit in the fire of the feeling and not react to it to integrate what's going on and understand rather than getting swept away. And they try new ways of doing things. So thinking about that scenario, um, the C plus the parking ticket and the friend, how did you respond?
What did you think? How did you feel and what did you do. People who are more prone to a fixed mindset usually blame the teacher. They're angry that they got the ticket, and they're pretty frustrated with their best friend. People with a growth mindset generally. Of course, they have a reaction. You know, they've had a crappy day, but they're willing to go to the professor and say, you know what?
Could I do better? It was only a midterm exam. You can always do better. It's not terminal. Fixed mindset thinking is every situation defines me as a success or failure. Growth mindset is, well, I could just ask the professor how I can do better. The parking ticket, usually it's around people's responses. Eh, I parked there.
I knew it was wrong, and the best friend, they're able to step outside their own experience and say, you know what? Maybe they were having a bad, bad day. So thinking about the two different mindsets, fixed mindset thinking and growth mindset thinking. Growth mindset thinking allows you to fail forward. It allows you to feel that frustration and not go back into that comfort zone, but rather step into the unknown and sit in that energy of not knowing.
There's a lot of freedom in a growth mindset. It allows you to try new things. It allows you to make mistakes. Thinking about your goals from fixed mindset perspective holds you back. Because you're thinking every risk I take defines me as success or failure. So this piece is designed to help you transform your thinking from everything I do is wrong to, Oh, I make a mistake.
That's just learning. So I'd like you to take a minute and in the exercise in your workbook called explore your mindset, answer the questions, and begin to dig down into situations where you experienced a fixed mindset. And a growth mindset and notice how it felt and what might be different.