Creating a growth mindset

... and why you'd want to!

Dr Carol Dweck introduced the concept of ‘fixed’ and ‘growth’ mindsets in the book ‘Mindset’, first published in 2006, and whilst my experience of reading it is that the message is clear from the first few chapters, it is still worth a read in my opinion. If you’re not familiar with the concepts already, you can probably get a sense of which kind of mindset might be more advantageous to have!

Dr Dweck is quite prescriptive about one of these mindsets being good and desirable (no surprises it’s the growth one) and the other definitely less good and undesirable (the fixed one), and she also believes that by adulthood, you either have one mindset or the other. That sounds rather ominous, doesn’t it?! But fortunately, it is possible to influence our mindset through nurture.

Let’s look at the two ‘mindset types’ first.

Fixed and growth mindsets

You can see how the fixed mindset focuses on what you ‘are’ more so than what you ‘do’ – your intelligence is fixed and innate. The emphasis is very much on the output rather than the effort involved. I imagine most of us at this point are thinking something along the lines of ‘sure, innate talent is nice to have, but effort absolutely does make a difference’ – and therefore feeling hopeful that their mindset is more inclined towards the growth option of the two. (That was definitely me by the way). And we aren’t wrong. However, as is often the case with things that present as black or white – what about a bit of grey in the middle? A combination mindset? Or even a situational mindset?

Let’s look at them a bit more closely, and some of the features that are a bit more nuanced.

The features of fixed and growth mindsets

Maybe now the plot thickens a little – for example it is very human to be wary of change and fearful of failure – concepts that more naturally align with the fixed mindset column. We can also disappear down a rabbit hole of comparisonitis (I’ve blogged on this topic before if you'd like to read more), feeling ‘less than’ others, and even potentially a little envious. I’d say don’t feel guilty or ashamed if you recognise some of your traits in the fixed column – it does not mean all is lost, and you are imperfectly human!

As in most things coaching-related, it’s about starting with some awareness and how these thoughts and feelings are serving you (or not!). My personal favourite is the ‘success of others’ feature. Maybe it’s because I feel a little older and more secure in myself now, or maybe it’s because I am a coach (!), but I can’t tell you how liberating it is to see others’ success as a genuine source of inspiration rather than a threat or something of which to be jealous.

You cannot control how others are doing (unless you deliberately try to sabotage them, which I wouldn’t recommend!), and I think it takes your focus away from what matters – what you are doing, how you are doing it that feels right for you, why you even want to do it in the first place and what you can do next to get further towards your goals.

I’ve had a small recent win which has taken quite some time to come to fruition. My website was not even on Google’s radar (why would it be to be fair?). But if I had a purely fixed mindset, my attitude would be that it was hopeless to try and improve that, it wouldn’t work and clearly it meant I wasn’t destined to be found that way. It has been a challenge and I had my website kindly ‘assassinated’ by an SEO expert, but I worked on it and finally, many months later, it seems to be paying off.

The good news is that we know that through neuroplasticity (the brain’s capacity to evolve and adapt), a growth mindset is possible to develop. We do have to be willing (old dog can learn new tricks - if it wants to!) and it’s rarely the easy option, but it seems much more likely to be the one that will help us get to where we want to be. If you’ve reached a bump in the road (they will inevitably appear!) and the way forward to where you want to get seems impossible – try adding the word ‘yet’ to your thinking. You may not be there yet, there are challenges to overcome, but it’s not the end of the journey... yet!

I’d love to know what you think of the fixed and growth mindset concepts – and if you would like to work on developing your growth mindset relevant to your own situation and context, please do get in touch, I’d love to see if I can help - kathryn@kbmindfulcoaching.com.