The importance of a growth mindset.

What is a growth mindset?

"The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments, everyone can change and grow through application and experience."

- Dr. Carol Dweck

Dr Carol Dweck has been studying human motivation for some 30 years. Dr Dweck noticed that there was a significant difference between different students’ approaches to success and failure, which inspired her to start doing research around the effects of these approaches.

She found that students who had a 'growth mindset' i.e. instinctively believed they could achieve great things through effort and strategy did much better than those who had a fixed mindset; the belief that talent cannot be changed.

Characteristics of an individual with a growth mindset includes:

• An "Intelligence can be developed" attitude

• A desire to learn

• Persists even when it’s hard

• Views criticism as a chance to learn

• Sees the success of others as inspiration

The first step out from a fixed mindset is believing that you can step out of it and that growth mindset is possible to achieve.

a growth mindset can be achieved by:

• Embracing Your Imperfections

• using a more positive vocabulary

• KNOWING THAT THE BRAIN IS MALLEABLE

• Stop Seeking Others’ Approval

• Enjoy the Learning Process

• Be INSPIRED BY Other People’s Growth

• Cultivate a Sense of Purpose

• accept that Criticism Can Be Good

• Abandon the Idea of Building an 'ImagE'

• Take Risks even if Others are Watching

• Own Your Attitude

• understand the definition of “Room for Improvement” vs “Failure”

• Reflect, Reflect, Reflect

It’s also worth being aware of how the idea of a growth mindset is sometimes misunderstood. In the rush to embrace it as a method, the message has sometimes been diluted to “growth mindset is all about effort” or morphed into “anyone can do anything” –neither of which is accurate or helpful