Fixed Mindset vs Growth Mindset

I had the opportunity to attend a professional development session today on Growth Mindset, with James Anderson

It reinforced some learnings from the weekend, that we are our beliefs, values and actions. James discussed the 5 truths of talent. Essentially this meant that:

1. Innate ability runs out at some stage
2. Effective effort leads to growth. Effective effort means pushing beyond your comfort zone, making mistakes you learn from, and identifying the behaviors that lead to growth
3. Your potential is unlimited. Everyone can grow beyond their current abilities
4. There are no naturals. Yes, some people may have a headstart, but to be an expert, or the best in your field, you still need to spend time perfecting your ability.
5. Virtuous Practice builds talent.

Habits of mind

I was particularly interested in the habits of mind pertaining to a growth mindset. These are intelligent behaviors, or behaviors that lead to growth and progression.

Source

The other interesting point from today was that rather referring to a dichotomy of fixed vs growth mindset, James identified a mindset continuum. This makes sense, as rarely in life is anything black or white, especially pertaining to human behavior. This also suggest that we have the ability to move from a fixed mindset through to a high growth mindset over time, in different aspects of our personality. This chart identifies some areas of personality and how a fixed mindset through to high growth mindset may react in different situations.

source

The final tidbit of information I gained from the day, is the performance plateau. Basically this described that as a person gains a mastery of something, they hit a performance plateau. Without progression, this leads to frustration, struggle, failure, resignation & fear. Especially if we aren’t able to break through this plateau.

However, if we are able to continue learning, or break through the plateau with progress, then we experience satisfaction, achievement, confidence and courage. Therefore a growth mindset, and the ability to keep learning and progress in our lives can be thought of as a courage mindset. We are more likely to stretch ourselves then, and step out of our comfort zone to take on new challenges and subsequently learn more about ourselves.

It was this discussion that encouraged me not to settle in my life, to keep pushing beyond my comfort zone and keep experiencing new things and learning about life and in the process, myself.

Finally, my favourite quote of the day: “Labels are for jars, not for people” - James Anderson.

If you would like to learn more from James he has a book called “The Agile Learner”.