While I only recently learned about the importance of a “growth mindset” in learning a new skill, the term is over 30 years old. It was first described by Dr. Carol Dweck, a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. Her research showed that people have implicit beliefs about ability or intelligence. Some people believe they are born with fixed ability (“fixed mindset”); others believe ability can be changed and improved with hard work and training (“growth mindset”).
What is your mindset? You can figure it out when you examine your response to failure. Failure reveals our mindset. Fixed mindset people dread failure because they perceive it as a negative reflection of their innate ability. Growth mindset people don’t fear failure as much because they believe their performance can be improved and they can learn from their failures.
I experienced my own mindset recently during a physical training session. The instructor was giving me real-time feedback on my performance: “Keep your head up”, ” keep your eyes open”, “track me”. When I caught myself closing my eyes, or not tracking, I would say to myself (loud enough for her to hear): “Don’t close your eyes”, “don’t lose focus”. Well, she got on my case for using the negative, for speaking out loud what I don’t want. Her point was that to get into the growth mindset, I must speak that which I want to see manifest in my performance.