Growth Mindset

One of the most valuable things that we can have is a growth mindset. An all time favorite book of mine is Mindset by Carol Dweck. In this book she talks about having a growth mindset verses a fixed mindset.

A growth mindset is believing that you have the ability to change and improve in different areas of your life. A fixed mindset is believing that how good you are at something is determined by your talents and is relatively set.

Here are a few key points on it:
* Believing that you can accomplish something is important but believing that you can acquire the knowledge and skills to improve yourself in order to accomplish it is even more useful.

* Teaching students about growth mindset and how to develop it has been shown to improve students test scores and motivation.

* It is better to compliment a child’s efforts rather than the outcome. By labeling a child ‘smart’ or ‘talented’ you are developing a fixed mindset. It is more valuable to show that their efforts and their process led to the outcome.

* View challenges as exciting and an opportunity for growth.

* We can have a growth mindset in certain areas of our life and a fixed mindset in others.

* We have the ability to change our mindset.

* We can change from a fixed to a growth mindset by identifying and accepting that we have it. Then create a new and compelling belief. It takes effort and commitment to change our beliefs.