Mindset Matters

Although I have always described myself as open to new ideas and flexible, I sometimes observed that I was internally reacting differently and feeling stuck in unexpected situations that happened to me. Don't pretend to be surprised, sometimes you experience this too, admit it! :) After many achievements I have gained during the MDE journey, when I look back, the "growth mindset" approach was the most striking and impressing approach in my mind. What was the reason I was affected? Of course, it was not that I had this approach at all, but it was really impressive for me to see the contributions of this way of thinking and move forward by asking the right questions, making this thinking style suitable for everyone with certain techniques.

So basically what are the concepts of "growt mindset" and "fixed minset", let's see together.

Over 30 years ago, Carol Dweck and her colleagues became interested in students' attitudes about failure. They noticed that some students rebounded while other students seemed devastated by even the smallest setbacks. After studying the behavior of thousands of children, Dr. Dweck coined the terms fixed mindset and growth mindset to describe the underlying beliefs people have about learning and intelligence. When students believe they can get smarter, they understand that effort makes them stronger. Therefore they put in extra time and effort, and that leads to higher achievement.

Dr. Dweck claims that these two mindsets manifest from an early age, and shape a great deal of our behavior, relationships, and approach to failures and successes. In her words:

Believing that your qualities are carved in stone creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain moral character, well then you’d better prove that you have a healthy dose of them. It simply wouldn’t do to look or feel deficient in these most basic characteristics.

Growth mindset is a thinking style that always aims to improve, believes that it can do this, looks positive and sees even failures as opportunities for improvement. On the contrary, the fixed mindset is a perspective that makes it unable to go forward with the obstacles it puts in its head, avoids facing difficulties and is inflexible in its ideas.

In this journey, I will share with you a few tips that can be useful for moving to the growth mindset by fixed minset in my other article.