Getting out of a fixed mindset can be difficult. Over time, people learn certain habits or patterns of beliefs that are tied into specific experiences that are often painful. These experiences compound until the person becomes convinced that life is just the way it is and you have to make the most of it. In fact, you will find that many people have little personal mantras or ways of looking at the world. They might say that “life is a battleground” or “work hard play hard.” These idioms have little to do with the way that the world is and everything to do with the unique mindset of the individual. Either way, the person needs to adopt strategies that will help them out of a very fixed way of looking at the world.
Growth Mindset
Dr. Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford University, brought us the concept of the growth mindset. In her research, she discovered the impact of having a “fixed” versus “growth” mindset. Dr. Dweck summarizes her findings as follows: “Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth mindset. They tend to achieve more than those with a fixed mindset…” Because of that, it is important to explore how one can journal to increase growth mindset.
Imagine what would be possible for you if you had an ingrained belief that you could grow, change, achieve. And imagine that you coupled that belief with an unrelenting passion and perseverance. I believe half of your success equation would be in place.
Further anneal your success with a daily, conscious, deliberate, reflective, experimental, and persistent effort towards achieving your goals. Now, any success that seemed elusive has transformed into a success that is highly attainable. Daily journaling about your goals and how you are investing your time and energy in your priorities, forces you to align with and course-correct as needed in order to do the small daily, weekly, monthly actions that your goals require present every single day.
If you still feel ambivalent about investing time to journal, it might help to know the numerous benefits that journaling affords. The benefits of journaling can be: increasing cognitive abilities, increasing mindfulness, goal achievement, increase in emotional intelligence, boosting memory and comprehension, strengthening self-discipline, improving communication skills, healing, exercising creativity, increasing self-confidence, increasing clarity, deeper self-awareness, stress reduction, improvement in problem-solving, and helping with improving relationships.
What is a Fixed Mindset?
The most common example of a fixed mindset is money. People have certain ideas about what their time is actually worth. And what happens is that other people reflect this idea to them. So the person who values their time at $15 an hour will apply for jobs that reinforce the idea that they are worth $15 an hour. And they will actually self-sabotage jobs that pay them $30 an hour because “they are not worth that.”
This phenomenon was documented in a book by entrepreneur and success coach Tim Ferris called The Four Hour Work Week. He noticed that competition was tough at the bottom and medium levels because everybody was fighting it out. It can actually be easier to shoot for high-end jobs once you have the appropriate psychology than working your way up step by step. But it actually gets straightforward in the upper echelons of management because they believe that it is worth every penny even though they often do very little work.
This is a reflection of the esoteric principle that the whole universe is a product of the mind. What we believe internally is reflected in us, and we then proceed to believe that this reflection is actually the truth of existence. This has also been demonstrated in the scientific literature to a degree. In advertising, people only notice marketing materials that are relevant to them. Everything else is subconsciously filtered out, as the brain can only handle a limited amount of data. If we don’t change our perspective, we will keep seeing the same information and believing that it is the ‘truth.’
A fixed mindset can be loosely defined as a narrow and precise view of reality where we are sure about certain things. And they are only true because the fixed mindset person believes in them so strongly. How would somebody with a fixed mindset ever change the world with a revolutionary invention? It would not be possible. People of a fixed mindset observe the world as it is. People of a growth mindset create the world as they would like it to be. This is a huge difference.
What is a Growth Mindset?
A growth mindset focuses on expansion at all times as opposed to trying to preserve the existing situation. While finances are the easiest and most obvious example to give, the concepts of both fixed and growth mindsets apply to relationships, health, creativity, spirituality, and personal happiness. Typically, people can apply a growth mindset to one area of their lives but fail to carry over this into others. But if you grow a company, you can grow a relationship or even spiritual success. You have to take the same principles into a different field. The details will differ, but the foundational ideas for improvement will remain the same.
People with a growth mindset are not focused on the past or even with current difficulties. It’s not even that they look for ways to solve problems; they are focused on creative ways to grow that can completely bypass existing issues. It comes down to a question of focusing on lack of focusing on growth. This does not mean that you ignore things that need to get done. You will still attend to specific obligations. But they are less of weight when your focus is on where you are going instead of where you happen to be.
A Quick Mindset Quiz
Wondering where you fall on the spectrum of growth mindset to fixed mindset? Take a quick quiz to find out:
Do you agree or disagree with the following?
- I believe that you “can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” so I’d instead stick with what I know rather than try something new.
- I believe that everyone is intelligent in their own way, but trying to be smart about things we’re not naturally good at is a waste of time.
- I believe that learning as an adult is pointless. I already know what I need to know to get by.
- I believe that I will never achieve as much as someone who is more naturally talented than I am.
- I believe that you are born with particular innate abilities and that the only practical use of time is mastering those skills. Branching out will only lead to failure.
- I believe that successful people can do great things without practice. They’re “naturally” good at it.
If you disagreed with most of those statements, you have a growth mindset! You’re willing to try hard things to improve yourself as a person.
If you agreed with most of those statements, you have a fixed mindset. You most likely believe that you’ve done all the learning and growing you’re going to do– If that’s the case, give this Carol Dweck TedTalk a view. It just might change your mind (pun intended).
Manifest in the Midwest
References
Dweck, C. (2016, January 13). What having a “Growth mindset” actually means. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/01/what-having-a-growth-mindset-actually-means
