A Different Racing Line-How Mindsets Changed My Laptimes
Tires, check, brakes, check, helmet, check, mindset? What? What does a mindset have to do with racing? I’d never thought I would be this unprepared in a time attack lap. Lining up to the starting line with all these different cars around me with all the equipment that I had the one thing I was missing… was my mindset. When I first got into cars and racing the only thing I really thought about was the car but didn’t think about the driver. When reading the book “Mindset” by Carol Dweck, I realized that I agree with Dweck’s statement on how our mindsets can and must be changed. When I had my first race back in June of 2019, going into it the only thing I thought about was getting my car prepped for the race and not how my mentality was supposed to be. I went in thinking I had plenty of experience racing up and down the local mountain range and that going into this I would be able to put my best lap time and maybe surpass my piers. Surely, I was mistaken. Going into the first lap I did terribly I had too much confidence going into the corners and missed my race lines. I didn’t let cars pass me that were faster than me which is by the way, against the rules of the race track. After the first couple of sessions were done my friends who were with me gave me a list of all the things I did wrong and me thinking I did the best was shot down by all these negative comments. I felt as if I wasn’t cut out for this type of hobby, maybe racing isn’t for me. I should just quit.
Well, of course, I felt that way it was my first time on the race track what am I suppose to think of myself? As some sort of god? I started to listen to my friend’s advice and started getting the grove of things. I put myself in a Growth Mindset as Dweck would describe it, that I was a beginner, I am still learning, that one bad run I had wasn’t gonna decide whether I quit this passion for racing. After convincing myself that I could do better, my lap times changed.
My lap times changed cause my mindset changed and for the better. Instead of thinking I couldn’t do any better than my first laps the Growth Mindset helped me see a new light. I told myself that I could do better but even more than that I wanted to learn and challenge myself. In Dweck’s book Mindset in a section in chapter 2 called “Is Success About Learning-or Proving You’re Smart”, she gives out many examples of how changing our mindset benefits us. She also tells us how people with the Growth Mindset want a challenge. She first talks about infants and how when they first start to learn how to walk the don’t give up in fear that they are failing. They get back up and try again. She also says, “As soon as children become able to evaluate themselves, some of them become afraid of challenges, they become afraid of not being smart”(Dweck). Just like those children I was afraid to be put down again. I was afraid of going out there again only do the same or even worse. My mindset was fixed and I only thought of me failing if I attempted the lap again. Although I didn’t want to go out again my friends cheered me on and convinced me to try and to challenge myself.
Racing was a new thing to me and so was challenging myself. I’d often give up on challenging myself when I don’t see results right away. The Fixed Mindset part of me thinks if I don’t start good I won’t end up good thus dooming me for failure. So did pre-med students did in Dweck’s findings. She observed them through their first time taking chemistry. A hard class in which a C+ is an average score on the exam. she exclaims, “most students started out pretty interested in chemistry. Yet over the semester, something happened. Students with the Fixed Mindset only stayed interested only when they did well right away. Those who found it difficult showed a big drop in their interest and enjoyment”(Dweck). The challenging work itself wasn’t enough for the Fixed mindset students to be interested. They needed some sort of validation that they were doing well to keep on moving forward. So did I. When I first got on the track my car was all over the place. I wasn’t following correctly and I knew instantly that I was bad at it. This type of discouragement caused me to do poorly the rest of my lap. My shifts were getting lazier I lost my confidence in the straights and I was mentally not having a good time. I thought to myself “How am I doing this bad when all I do is think about cars, drive cars and watch videos about cars?” The fact that it was challenging wasn’t enough to keep me going and I put myself in a Fixed Mindset. But into my second lap when I was encouraged to learn only then was I put into the Growth Mindset. I started to follow other people knowing they were better than me and take my experienced friend’s advice. Not only did my lap times improve, but I was also learning, and that felt better than anything.
The Growth mindset seemed to be in a lot of the people that were on the track that day except this one driver who was well known as one of the best drivers in the state. He won many championships and was there that day practicing alongside me and my friends. As he sped past me I thought to myself “Dam he must think he’s the best and he’s really cut out for this kind of stuff”. Although he was dominating on the track, in person, his ego was through the roof. He thought of himself as some sort of god with a gifted talent almost like he was born to race. Everyone even said that he wasn’t a guy you would want to be friends with. In chapter 2 of Mindset, Dweck describes this type of behavior of having the Fixed Mindset. People who have this type of fixed thinking need themselves to succeed, and when they do, they think of themselves as perfect human beings and that they are better than everyone else. Dweck goes more in-depth when she is describing Military pilots and their fixed mindset. She says, “In summary, people who believe in fixed traits feel an urgency to succeed and when they do they may feel more than pride, they may feel a sense of superiority since success means their fixed traits are better than other peoples. However, lurking behind that self-esteem of the Fixed Mindset is a simple question. If you’re somebody when you’re successful, what are you when you’re unsuccessful?”(Dweck). She goes further on to say that this overall way of thinking is a bad mentality to keep. You should always think you can improve and that you work hard for your accomplishments and not think of it as some sort of talent but the time you spent practicing.
Dweck has proven to us multiple times on how we should change our mindsets to better ourselves in all aspects of our life. However, some might say these findings are wrong or may not fully agree with what Dweck has to say about mindsets. In her very own book, she mentions a question brought up in which she agrees with the person. The question is, “I know a lot of workaholics on the fast track who seem to have a fixed mindset. They’re always trying to prove how smart they are but they do work hard and they do take on challenges. How does this fit with your idea that people with the Fixed Mindset go in for low effort and easy tasks?”(Dweck). This question not only brings up a valid point that questions if a Fixed Mindset is as bad as she describes it, but Dweck herself agrees with the person by saying it’s not a bad thing. Then again, she says how these types of people still have the negative parts of the Fixed Mindset as well. They still think in a way that they have to prove to themselves that they are intelligent and talented. This makes them arrogant to mistakes and makes them feel they are superior. Referring back to the Military pilots, we can see how having a fixed mindset makes you seem better than everyone cause your talent and that they won’t be able to tolerate criticism and admit to their mistakes. Thus, slowing down their process of succeeding and just like in racing, you need to be able to take in information that experienced people are telling you to progress in going faster, and to cut times off laps. She proves once again that having a Growth Mindset is better in all cases.
Racing has taught me a lot of things not only in its own way but made me rethink how to approach new challenges that come my way. A change of mindset is what I had on the track. Not the equipment of the car, but the way I urged myself to try harder. I was seeing all my friends learn something new that day and I love learning so I decided to give it a second shot. Not only did I prove what Dweck has to say about mindsets and how we can change ourselves for the better but I can take different challenges at a new angle. I am able to succeed because I want to learn. That’s what makes a good driver, to find the proper race line. A different race line.
