Mindset : The New Psychology of Success pdfdrive com

How Do You Get a (True) Growth Mindset?
You don’t get a growth mindset by proclamation. You move toward it by taking
a journey.
As a growth mindset gained currency and became the “correct” way to think
in  some  quarters,  more  and  more  people  claimed  to  have  it.  It  sort  of  makes
sense.  Don’t  we  all  want  to  see  ourselves  as  enlightened  people  who  help
children  fulfill  their  potential?  A  noted  educator  told  me  that  it  had  become
politically  incorrect  for  educators  to  even  talk  about  (and  maybe  even  think
about) having a fixed mindset in any area. And a principal told me that he was
recently  giving  some  mild  suggestions  to  a  teacher  when  she  looked  at  him
indignantly and said, “Are you implying I have a fixed mindset?”
Although  for  simplicity  I’ve  talked  as  though  some  people  have  a  growth
mindset and some people have a fixed mindset, in truth we’re all a mixture of the
two.  There’s  no  point  denying  it.  Sometimes  we’re  in  one  mindset  and
sometimes we’re in the other. Our task then becomes to understand what triggers
our fixed mindset. What are the events or situations that take us to a place where
we  feel  our  (or  other  people’s)  abilities  are  fixed?  What  are  the  events  or
situations  that  take  us  to  a  place  of  judgment  rather  than  to  a  place  of
development?
What  happens  when  our  fixed-mindset  “persona”  shows  up—the  character
within  who  warns  us  to  avoid  challenges  and  beats  us  up  when  we  fail  at
something?  How  does  that  persona  make  us  feel?  What  does  it  make  us  think
and how does it make us act? How do those thoughts, feelings, and actions affect
us and those around us? And, most important, what can we do over time to keep
that persona from interfering with our growth and that of our children? How can
we  persuade  that  fixed-mindset  persona  to  get  on  board  with  the  goals  that
spring from our growth mindset?
I’ll address these questions in the final chapter as we examine the process of
personal change. What I will emphasize here is that it is a long journey, one that
takes  commitment  and  persistence.  But  once  we  acknowledge  that  we  all  have
recurrent fixed mindsets, we can talk to one another openly. We can talk about

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our  fixed-mindset  personas,  when  they  show  up,  how  they  affect  us,  and  how
we’re learning to deal with them. And as we do, we will realize that we have lots
of fellow travelers on our journey.