Can Your Mind Grow ?

The concept of the growth mindset has been popularized by psychologist Carol Dweck, and this is in contrast to the fixed mindset.

Now everybody has a blend of the two of these.

But some people are more firmly in one camp than the other.

The fixed mindset says that you as a human being have fixed assets, fixed intellectual capabilities, a fixed amount of talent, and that life is about putting yourself in the right place for that talent, recognizing your talent, staying in your lane, not trying to reach too far ahead because that would result in failure.

And that's not a good thing.

So fixed mindsets tend to view the world as one pie.

And it's not necessarily an expanding pie.

A fixed mindset says basically you're either smart or you're dumb.

You're either brilliant or you're average or below average.

Now, you can quibble with my characterization to some degree, but this is the broad brush perspective on what it means and popular culture.This is very much in contrast with the growth mindset.

The growth mindset says that you as a human being are not fixed.

You can grow.

You can be at an average skill level one year.

Focus on it and be world class talent another year or 10 years later.

The growth mindset says that you are not determined by birth. You're not determined by race, ethnicity, color, belief system. Other than your belief in growing and expanding and learning.

The growth mindset says that no matter what your academic credentials are, you can learn at any stage of life.You can embark upon any new career at any stage. It doesn't guarantee success, but the potential is there.

The growth mindset is very much embedded into the whole idea of unlimited potential for human beings.

Now, in fairness, there are people who are very successful with a fixed mindset.

Some of the most successful attorneys, investment counselors, lawyers have a very fixed mindset. There have been some of the most profitable consulting firms in the world where the leadership has a fixed mindset.

And the whole focus is on how can we find the most brilliant people out there?

We don't necessarily want to train people, coach them, encourage them, build talent.

We want to just hire the Rhodes Scholars, the valedictorians, the straight A student, because they're just naturally brilliant and gifted.

There are some firms that can be successful that way, but for most wildly successful people, it's a growth mindset that gets them there. So these are some of the terms we'll be looking at as we go through this whole course.

Now, I'm assuming you're here because you not only want to learn how to have a growth mindset, but you want to know how it can really take hold and not just yourself, your family, your organization and all you deal with, because, frankly, life is a lot more enjoyable.

Having a growth mindset because anything is possible or almost anything is possible.

Your life is a never ending series of new adventures, new challenges and, yes, new growth.

So that's the dichotomy we're going to be looking at back and forth throughout this course.

The fixed mindset.

Where people really have a sense of this is who you are.

That's all you'll ever be.

Versus the growth mindset which says you can grow into anything.