Mindset

Coined by Dr. Carol Dweck, Mindset is a powerful concept to be aware of in our lives. Mindset is a belief we have about how our abilities are determined. She distinguishes between a Fixed Mindset - where you believe your ability is determined at birth - and a Growth Mindset - where you can cultivate your ability with effort, time, and the appropriate supports.

We all tend to have a big mixture of fixed and growth mindsets depending on the task at hand. So why does this matter? It turns out our mindset significantly impacts our behaviors when we’re engaged in a task. When presented with a really challenging task, a growth mindset will push us on to try and learn from any setbacks we may face along the way. A fixed mindset, however, avoids challenging situations to avoid risking failure and avoid (according to the fixed mindset belief) evidence of the limit of their abilities.

Clearly, a growth mindset is more constructive in moving us towards our goals, but it’s not always easy to maintain it. In fact, students waver between these two mindsets on a daily basis as they’re constantly presented with more and more challenging learning tasks. Amongst Epic Fail videos, report cards, and competitive sports, failure can seem threatening to kids, which pushes them to adopt more of a fixed mindset.

We at Thrive bring an awareness of our unspoken mindsets into our tutoring and learning coaching to help ensure we’re always growing from feedback and mistakes.

How do you reflect on past mistakes and failures so you can learn from them and move forward?