According to Carol Dweck, author of Mindset, “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 more fixed mindset (those who believe their talents are innate gifts). This is because they worry less about looking smart and they put more energy into learning.”*
You must have had this experience at some point in your life – you did something really well and everyone complemented you on your talent. Maybe for you it was in sports. For me it was academics. And, because you were “talented”, you thought it was a natural gift and you didn’t have to work at it. Over time, some people who worked harder than you overcame your “talent” and unless you learned to work at it, you were being left behind.
It turns out that complimenting people on their gifts may not encourage them to keep growing. Instead, Dweck’s many studies show that it can produce a fixed mindset that we can’t develop talents –that they are innate gifts. When we work hard, develop good strategies and seek advice from others we can develop talents way beyond our initial abilities. This is what she calls a growth mindset.
What’s more, we don’t have growth mindsets in every area of our life. We usually have a mix. She suggests that you pay attention to your judgmental self-talk. What is the conversation you are having about a task that seems hard? Are you encouraging yourself to try different approaches, to ask for help, to keep at it? Or do you give up when it gets hard.
This week focus on something that seems hard and stay with it. Try different strategies, and gulp, maybe even ask for help if working harder and trying other approaches didn’t work. It will make your brain smarter if you try.
* “What Having a “Growth Mindset” Actually Means” by Carol Dweck, Harvard Business Review, January 13, 2016
Illustration courtesy of startalk.umd.edu