The tale of two mindsets
One of my favourite stories is the tale of two sons:
Twin sons born to an alcoholic and drug addict who is serving life in prison for the murder of a liquor store cashier both didn’t have much going for them. One of them ended up just like their father, a drug addict who ended up in jail for attempted murder. The other, his twin, however, has no alcohol or drug addictions, he’s happily married with 3 children and is physically fit, has a good job and is happy.
Both were asked, unbeknownst to the other why their life turned out the way it did. What was amazing was that they both had the same answer:
‘What else could I have become, having grown up with a father like that?’
What you see is here is not just a tale of two sons, but a tale of two mindsets. These are as follows:
Fixed Mindset:
When you adopt a fixed mindset, you believe that your qualities are carved in stone. This creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you were born with a certain amount of intelligence, personality and character, then you’d better prove that you’re in the top end rather than the bottom.
With this mindset, every situation is evaluated as either success or failure. Will I look smart or dumb? Will I be accepted or rejected? Will I feel like a winner or loser?
Growth Mindset:
A growth mindset, on the other hand, is when you believe that your basic qualities can be cultivated with effort, strategies and help from others. A growth mindset accepts that people may differ in their initial talents, aptitudes and abilities, however, everyone can change and grow through application and experience. They believe that a person’s true potential is unknown and unknowable.
Rather than hiding deficiencies, people with a growth mindset use them to learn and grow and embrace challenges and failure as a way to stretch themselves.
We all possess a little of both, but with a bit of training and awareness, we can cultivate more of the latter and less of the former.
Think of your life, as a timeline of events. Each event has multiple ways to interpret it. One person may see it as an obstacle, the other an opportunity. Think back to the story of the twins.
We often choose to let events shape our lives however it’s really our beliefs as to what those events mean that shape them. So we attach meaning to each event. And it’s the meaning we attach to those events and how we interpret them that dictates what we are today and what we’ll become tomorrow.
That choice we make. That interpretation we choose and the meaning we attach to events. That comes down to our mindset.
“If we win because we are a winner, then when we lose, it must be because we’re a loser.”
There are physiological manifestations to mindset that appear in brain scans. It shows that people with a fixed mindset, the brain becomes most active when receiving information about how the person performed. Such as a greater score.
But for people with a growth mindset, the brain becomes most active when receiving information about what they could do better next time.
This means, that those with a fixed mindset, worry about how they will be judged. Those with a growth mindset focus the most on learning.
What does this mean for me?
Not any one person is perfect, however knowing when we are adapting and fixed mindset is the first step. Then with focused training, coaching and the right tools, we can all move towards a growth mindset. And why is that desirable?
Studies show that success, happiness and achievement are bi-products of having a growth mindset. And best of all, this is a change you can make today.
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This article was written by Stuart Munnich. If you’d like to know more or receive notifications for future articles, please head over to the Agoge Project Website or subscribe to updates right here!
