Embrace a Growth Mindset, Celebrate Failure, and Listen to Justin Bieber

Jenny Pauk
Jul 27, 2017 · 3 min read

So I have to admit that I have never been too crazy about Justin Bieber. I mean I always thought he had some catchy songs that I would find myself singing along to, but there were also some of his songs that I thought were kind of annoying. So I definitely wasn’t a part of the Justin Bieber fan club or anything, but, now, I may have to join.

Unless you’ve been living with no contact to radio and pop culture, you have probably heard the song “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber.

Several months ago, I started listening to the song a bunch and annoying people with it, and I came across my favorite line: “I never liked to admit that I was wrong.” And I thought that line was quite simple, yet, dare I say it, profound.

Here’s why.

I don’t like being wrong. I like being right. I like knowing things. And I’m sure that most people would agree with me on that. Very few people like to be wrong. So here you are wrong about something, and being wrong sucks in its own way, but then admitting to other people that you were wrong is another even bigger challenge.

Why? Because often, we associate being wrong with being inadequate or being a failure.

Why? Because we are often living with a fixed mindset.

Carol Dweck, Ph.D., is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of motivation and is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. She wrote a book called “Mindset” that looks at the way we think and how it might be holding us back. She discusses that there are two kinds of mindsets a Fixed mindset and a Growth mindset

Fixed — “In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success — without effort.”

Growth — “In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work — brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”

The Growth mindset is where we want to be because it helps us forgive ourselves for not knowing everything. So instead of feeling like a failure when we admit we are wrong, we should simply look at being wrong as a learning experience, or, better still, celebrate our failure.

Billionaire Sarah Blakely, the inventor of Spanx, was taught by her father to celebrate failure, and more importantly, learn and grow from failure. He would often ask her what she had failed at that week. She said that allowed her to be more free and not be afraid to try new things because she wasn’t afraid to be wrong or fail.

That is one thing we should all be taught in school.

Instead of living in the world where “I never liked to admit that I was wrong,” live in the world where you don’t know everything and that’s okay. Live in the world where you learn and grow from your failures and shortcomings. Live in the world where you celebrate failure.

This is the first life you are living, so how can you expect to be perfect at it already? If you are ever wrong (and if you’re like me you will be a lot), celebrate it, learn from it and grow from it.

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