14. Mindsets

The theory of mindsets and their relevance to your performance, motivation and well-being have been the subject of study for the Stanford University academic and psychology researcher, Carol Dweck, since the 1970s. Put simply there are two mindsets: if you have a fixed mindset you believe that your personal qualities (such as intelligence) or abilities (such as musical talent or sporting prowess) are carved in stone, whereas if you have a growth mindset you believe that your personal qualities and abilities can be changed or developed over time.

What is particularly important about Carol Dweck’s research for us as individuals is that it demonstrates how mindsets can have a significant impact on our behaviour and the way we live our lives. This is as true for happiness and well-being as anything else – a fixed mindset person will believe that if they’re born a pessimist they’ll always be a pessimist, whereas a growth mindset person will believe that it’s never too late to change.

How your mindset affects your behaviour

There are a number of ways that your mindset affects your behaviour, some of which may surprise you.

Our mindset influences:

We will now look at each of these in turn.

1. Goals – is it the journey or the destination which matters?

Carol Dweck suggests that people with a fixed mindset decide on ‘performance goals’. For a student, this might mean passing an exam or achieving a certain grade or percentage in an assignment. For a sportsman, this might mean skiing down the black run this winter holiday. For a saleswoman, this might mean selling a certain volume or value of goods in a month. In this way, a person’s qualities or ability can be measured easily, since either they meet their set performance target, or they don’t. Meeting the set criteria means that their skill or ability is validated. The reverse is also true. If they fall short of the set target, for example getting a B rather than an A in an exam, it means that they aren’t clever after all. You could say that a fixed mindset is a kind of black and white thinking – either you’re capable, clever and talented, or you’re not.

On the other hand, people with a growth mindset aren’t so hung up on their performance; they’re more interested in setting ‘learning goals’ which means that they’re focused on gaining competence in an area first, and then mastering it. For them, life is less about winning and losing, or passing and failing, and more about growing and learning from everything they do. It may be helpful for you to think about fixed and growth mindsets using a travel metaphor – growth mindset people set out with the intention of thoroughly enjoying and getting the most from the journey, whereas fixed mindset people are just concerned about reaching their destination.

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For a fixed mindset person, it isn’t just failure which is upsetting. Ironically, even achieving your performance goal can cause anxiety! This is because once you’ve achieved your goal you have to keep performing at this level (or higher) in order to maintain the belief that you are clever, able, gifted or worthy. Falling below the standard shakes your belief in yourself and your ability to the core, and this creates additional pressure on you to keep performing at a higher and higher level.

With a fixed mindset you really can’t win!

2. Responding to failure

Dweck’s research suggests that fixed mindset people who fail to achieve their performance goals then feel helpless and hopeless. In a college assignment, for example, students with a fixed mindset focus solely on the grade; they pay little attention to the information which might help them learn and improve their performance next time round, and their teacher’s or tutor’s notes get ignored. If the grade is lower than they hoped or expected, they quickly get depressed, lose self-confidence and run out of steam. Their response has a sense of permanence about it. For example, failing an exam, or not getting the required grade, simply means that they’re stupid. Full stop. According to Dweck, those with a fixed mindset are likely to say: ‘I’ll never be able to do it, so I won’t bother trying again.’

For growth mindset people, failure isn’t such a big deal. Rather than focusing on how they feel, growth mindset people focus on what they can learn from the experience which will help them do better next time, and they’re more willing to try new approaches in order to improve. They believe that doing badly in an exam doesn’t mean they’re stupid; it’s just a reflection of how they’re doing at this point in time. They’re more likely to say: ‘It’s beyond me, for now.’

3. Making an effort

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Answer the following question:

When you think about intelligence, how much is about the effort you make and how much is about your ability?

Intelligence = _____ per cent effort + _____ per cent ability

In research, fixed mindset people typically say that intelligence is 35 per cent effort and 65 per cent ability, whereas growth mindset people say that it’s 65 per cent effort and 35 per cent ability.

What did you say?

Fixed mindset people believe that effort reflects lower intelligence and believe ‘If I have to work hard it must mean that I’m not clever’. On the other hand, growth mindset people see effort in terms of greater success, so the harder they work, the more likely they are to succeed. ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again’ and ‘practice makes perfect’ are mottos created by and for growth mindset people!

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Several years ago at a positive psychology conference, I had the pleasure of hearing the inspirational British swimmer Adrian Moorhouse talk about drive, persistence and goals. We wanted to know how he’d bounced back from poor performance in the 1984 Olympics, where he’d only managed 4th and 6th places, despite being predicted to do much better. His recipe for success was adopting a growth mindset. He didn’t focus on beating his opponents’ times (a performance goal) – what he was more interested in was improving his swimming performance and pool turns little by little, learning something new every day. In short he persisted. By doing this he was motivated to keep trying harder rather than allowing himself to become discouraged by hearing the news of a rival swimmer’s progress.

And history shows that this strategy worked: in 1988, Moorhouse won Olympic gold in the 100m breaststroke.

Practice makes perfect?

Tony de Saulles, writer and illustrator of Horrible Science books, is passionate about spreading the word that practice is essential. ‘Many children seem to think that you are either good at something or not’, he told me recently, ‘and I think it’s quite exciting for them to hear that actually, you can become reasonably good at anything you want to be good at if you are prepared to practise’.

So persistence, or refusing to give up when faced with disappointment or discouragement, is essential for success. How often are overnight successes really overnight? Not very often! Research into expert performance suggests that 10,000 hours (or roughly 10 years) of deliberate practice is required in order to reach the top of your field, whether that’s in sports, science or scrabble! For more on this topic, see Chapter 7.

Positive psychologists emphasize that persistence is one human strength which can be improved, simply by practising difficult and demanding tasks. Chris Peterson also suggests using your perseverance in new ways, such as making a list of things to do and doing one of them every day, or finishing an important task ahead of schedule.

4. Strategies

The final area in which fixed mindset and growth mindset people differ is in the behaviours they adopt when challenged. When faced with a problem, fixed mindset people typically keep repeating the same behaviour. Eventually they get the message that this doesn’t work, but rather than try something new, they give up completely. Growth mindset people aren’t so easily dissuaded! They think of problems as opportunities to try new strategies. So of course by doing this they’re far more likely to be successful in the end.

How to change your mindset

One of the techniques that Carol Dweck uses to help people change from a fixed to a growth mindset is to teach them about basic brain functioning. We know, for example, that our brains form new neural connections when we learn new things, and that new connections cause the brain to grow (in density not size!) Studies show that the part of the brain which deals with 3D space is denser (it has more neural­ connections) in taxi-drivers than it is in non-taxi drivers­. Musicians have a better developed auditory cortex than non-musicians. Evidence from neuroscience suggests that by learning or practising something new, you can ‘develop’ your brain. So, think of your brain as a muscle which needs exercise; the more practice it gets, the stronger it becomes.

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Failing forward

Think of an occasion in the past when your mindset has worked against you and stopped you getting what you want. Be honest. Perhaps you set your sights on achieving something, and when you didn’t, you gave up, pretending that the goal didn’t matter after all.

What can you learn from your ‘failure’? Knowing what you now know about fixed and growth mindsets, what would you do differently next time? Jot down your ideas in your well-being journal.

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Growth mindset superhero

Think of someone close to you, perhaps a sibling, a friend or colleague, who displays a growth mindset – perhaps towards their career, their relationships or their study. Recall a time when they’ve overcome a difficult set-back or a series of obstacles.

Reflect on exactly what they did to rise above the problem and find a solution. What can you learn from their approach? Record your ideas in your well-being journal.

Developing a growth mindset in others

If you’re a parent, have you ever referred to one of your children as ‘the clever one’ and another as ‘the sporty (or arty) one’? Or perhaps you yourself were pigeon-holed in this way as a youngster. Unfortunately this type of labelling can help cement a fixed mindset in a child’s mind.

As well as teaching basic brain functioning, we can also use praise to develop a growth mindset in others, especially children and young people. Studies have found that you can do this by praising the effort they make instead of their intelligence or their ability. So, eradicate ‘what a clever boy/girl!’ from your vocabulary now. This is especially important since most schools, with their fixation for achieving targets, only encourage a fixed mindset.

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