Growth Mindset: An Introduction

Some things sound simple, but aren’t. A growth mindset is one of those things. However, I (now) firmly believe that growth mindsets can be built, and in this post, we will explore a little more about what it is!

For the next two weeks here on Coffee, Grit, and Inspiration, we will be all about a growth mindset: what it is, how to build it, and ways to change your mindset about certain things. In this intro post, we will focus on what a growth mindset is.

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“There’s No Way…”

If you’re in or come from a “corporate” environment, you’ve probably heard a thing or two about growth mindset. The first time I heard the phrase was in a leadership meeting, and the guy on stage was telling me all about how a growth mindset can take someone who has no skill or talent in something into being at least somewhat skilled at something.

At first I’m thinking, there’s just no way that can be true. If I’m not talented at something, there’s no way I’ll ever be good at it. I settled back in my chair, resigned to spending the next two hours hearing a bunch of hippy-dippy, feel good stuff about “the power of positive thinking” or how “you can do anything if you only believe in yourself”. Like many people, perhaps just like you, I had heard this kind of thing many times before. It just felt way too cliche for 9 AM on a Wednesday morning. Especially when the coffee hadn’t yet hit my brain.

The Shift

What I didn’t realize is that my first thought, “there’s just no way”, was an example of the exact opposite of a growth mindset. As I continued to listen, I started to take in what he was saying. Several years later, I still remember what it felt like to sit in that audience and experience his message.

• We praise our kids when they’re talented at something. This leads to a belief that if they’re not talented, they’ll never be good at something. Think about your own experience as a kid. Were you praised for being talented at something? How might that have affected how you think about something you believe you are not talented at?
• Talent is not the same as skill. Skill is learned and improved with effort. It is how well you have learned to do something. Talent is how quickly you learn it. Just because you’re not especially talented at something doesn’t mean you can’t improve your skill in it.
• If you believe you can’t do something, or you believe you can, either way you are correct. While seemingly trite, “you can do anything if you believe in yourself” is a saying for a reason: because it has an enormous amount of truth.
• It’s possible to have a growth mindset about some things, and not about other things. Your general state of mind has an influence over how you see the world. However, it’s still possible for a generally positive person to have things about which they don’t feel particularly growy. Growthy? You get it.

What would have happened if, instead of thinking, “there’s just no way”, I had thought, “There might be a way”, instead?

More Investigation

Leaving that presentation, I knew I needed to learn more about how this worked. I Googled my little heart out, I read books, I watched YouTubes. What I learned was that firstly, this is not a new idea. Secondly, there were a whole lot of areas in my life where I not only didn’t have a growth mindset, I was actively working against myself. It’s almost like I was trying to prove to myself that I couldn’t do something.

Two things I found helped me to understand growth mindset better. The first is that a mindset is a belief (or theory) we have about ourselves. For example, “I’m smart” or “I’m not smart”. A growth mindset means, we believe that thing can be changed or improved. A fixed mindset, in contrast, is a belief that that thing cannot be changed. We will explore the differences between a fixed and growth mindset later next week.

An Example From My Life

An example I love to return to over and over again is my weight. My BMI was in the “you are freaking obese” range. This was a fact that my Wii Fit (remember those?) loved to remind me of daily. My doctor was on my case. My family worried about me. I had health-related problems like reflux and heartburn, which were were directly tied to being overweight. With all this evidence, I consoled myself with the idea that “this is just how my body works” and “I’m not able to lose weight”.

So, what? I guess now I’ll just die?

While I wouldn’t classify losing weight as a “skill” per se, I would definitely say that it’s something you have to believe you can do. You have to believe you are capable. The other part of it is, you have to put in the effort. I don’t think it’s possible to say this enough: All the positive thinking and rah-rah sayings in the world won’t help if you’re not actively putting in the effort to make something happen.

Growing My Growth Mindset

Thinking that I could do anything wasn’t going to make just anything happen, in and of itself. I had to decide what was most important to me, and channel some serious effort into that thing. For me, at that time, it was my weight. If you’ve read any other posts in this blog, you know I talk a lot about making sure you know what’s most important to you when setting goals. I believe it is a key component to succeeding at something.

I had reached a point where I was uncomfortable all the time. The older I got, the more I worried that I would start having mobility issues. Working from home full time meant that 80% of my day, I sat on my butt in an office chair, staring at a computer screen. I wasn’t moving. I was eating, though. And not only failing to keep my weight under control, I was gaining. Every day.

I had to make a conscious decision. I had to decide that this was something I needed to do, and then I needed to take action. My sister- and mother-in-law were having success in losing weight, so I asked what was working for them. They, in turn, turned me on to Noom. I signed up, forked over the subscription fee, and within four months I lost over 35 lbs (and still going). I now have long term goals with interim milestone goals to get me to a healthy weight. I’ve already seen improvement in my health and general well being.

Try. Then Keep Trying.

The thing is, it’s hard. I have to put in effort every day to keep me going towards my long term goal. The goal has meaning for me beyond myself, which is why I’m able to stick with it. But it’s still really, really hard some days. What I’m trying to do differently, however, is to believe that while it might be hard, it is possible to change this thing about myself.

The point I’m trying to make here is, if you’re letting “it’s hard, though” hold you back from something, stop! Of course it’s hard. Of course it will take effort. Accomplishing anything in life is less about talent and more about effort. Whether it’s weight loss, or learning a creative skill, or learning a practical skill, you can get at least moderately better if you put in the effort.

More Resources

There are a lot of people that have already put in a ton of time and effort into researching and defining a growth mindset. Here two of my favorites if you’d like to learn more:

• Carol Dweck popularized the idea of growth mindset in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success [affiliate link]. You can learn more about her research here.
• Angela Duckworth talked a lot about talent vs. effort in her book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance [affiliate link]. I strongly recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn more about the effects praising for talent vs effort can have.

Image credit: homedust.com

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