Moulding my Mindset : Making Your Mindset Matter

“Your son has to choose between the two. He is not capable of doing well in both at once.” Imagine having to hear your school teacher tell your parents that their son cannot manage academics and sports together. Isn’t that heartbreaking to hear? Well, from where I am, academics is the first priority and everything else comes after that. This decision making stage of my life had taken place in the 9th grade when I won a national medal in Swimming, but at the same time received an overall grade of 58% in my first semester. The negative comment my teacher made set my mindset to a fixed one, which made me believe that I could only succeed in one thing at a time, until I made efforts to mould my thinking and did things to contradict her claims. I, therefore, completely agree with Carol Dweck’s thesis and do believe that our mental mindsets can and must be changed.

Carol Dweck is an author of the book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success where she talks about the two different types of mindsets and which one is more beneficial for one’s growth. She says that there is a fixed mindset and a growth mindset and that both these mindsets have completely completely conflicting effects on an individual’s life.
She says, “In the fixed mindset, everything is about the outcome. If you fail — or if you’re not the best — it’s all been wasted. The growth mindset allows people to value what they’re doing regardless of the outcome . They’re tackling problems, charting new courses, working on important issues. Maybe they haven’t found the cure for cancer, but the search was deeply meaningful.”(page 48, Carol Dweck) Many people with a fixed mindset often care solely about the outcomes to their attempts because how it might reflect on their abilities, while, according to her claims, the growth mindset helps a person in every aspect of life. Be it sports, business, relationships or even parenting skills, the growth mindset enables a person to learn from their previous experiences and failures and makes them well equipped to face challenges. These type of people, according to Dweck, succeed in life in the long run as compared to people with fixed mindsets, who tend to feel defeated by failure because, according to them, only outcomes prove success. The laurels that I have received in my life would not have been possible if I held on to fixed mindset and didn’t attempt to change my mindset to a growth one and I therefore agree with Carol Dweck.

Let me continue the story of my initial fixed mindset. So, since my teacher told my parents that I wasn’t capable of doing well in both, sports and academics, at once. I was extremely discouraged and lost faith in myself. Swimming was something that I had pursued for 10 years of my life back then and I felt like all my handwork and gone to waste. My parents were understanding towards my sorrow and they told me that I should go for a swim every time I needed a break from studying. Well, that obviously wasn’t satisfying enough and I deep down yet wanted to continue swimming competitively. I started studying for my second semester and was fixed to believing that my human capabilities couldn’t expand more than to being able JUST study and do nothing else in order to get good grades. I had developed a fixed mindset and I was too scared to experiment or give myself another chance because that would reflect on my abilities.

At this point, I wasn’t happy. I was investing many hours into studying, but I wasn’t doing as much as I was capable of doing. I received a 61% in my second semester which was yet extremely low and it wasn’t such a drastic difference as compared to the grade I received during my swimming days. I worked harder during my 10th grade and managed to pull off an overall grade of 90% in my final exams. This did not give me any happiness. Everyone around me was happy for me but it basically added to my fixed mindset that I was capable of getting high grades only by concentrating solely on academics. Something sparked from within me that made me want to prove to myself that the people around me were wrong and show that I was capable of more. I wanted to change my mindset and believed that if I worked hard, and made efforts to learn from my past mistakes, I could genuinely make a difference and accomplish whatever I wanted. This was the moment where I started to make efforts to change my mindset. As Dweck righty states, “If you could, then one thing would be clear: With the right mindset and the right teaching, people are capable of a lot more than we think.” (page 38, Carol Dweck)

I decided that I wanted to start swimming competitively for my last two years of high school, and at the same time, do well academically. I was determined this time and believed that with genuine efforts, I could achieve what I previously couldn’t. I wanted to be a somebody. Dweck has written an entire chapter about the mindsets involved in sports in which she says, “Somebodies are not determined by whether they won or lost. Somebodies are people who go for it with all they have.”(page 61, Carol Dweck) I made an entire study and swimming schedule where I gave enough time to both. I would wake up in the morning at 5 A.M, go for training, then rush to my school, come back and sleep for an hour and then I would study for at least 4 hours. I followed this pattern for two whole years. I did experience some ups and downs, some hard days and some great days, but my growth mindset enabled me to learn from every mistake I made and was instrumental in helping me to work harder. My handwork was paying off and I was being praised for my efforts instead of my ability which made a big difference. It made me feel driven to work harder because my handwork was what was been commended. While most people felt like I would be able to cope up with my work, I, myself, believed in myself and my handwork and thought that I could do it.

I started getting really good grades and at the same time, got qualified for a national level tournament where I represented my state. I actually started doing so well, that I began getting one of the top ten ranks in my class. My national tournament dates were somewhere in the middle of my examinations and I was worried about messing both of them up. I took this like a challenge upon myself and prepared for my examinations way in advance so that I could reduce my stress during the swimming tournament. Most of my teachers warned me that I would be making a big mistake by going for the tournament, but I felt that I could do it and that my hard work would definitely pay off. If I did manage to do well in both, Dweck’s claims about how we must adapt to the growth mindset would be precise. I agree with her when she says, “Just because some people can do something with little or no training, it doesn’t mean that others can’t do it (and sometimes do it even better) with training. This is so important, because many, many people with the fixed mindset think that someone’s early performance tells you all you need to know about their talent and their future.” (page 41, Carol Dweck)

So, I went for the tournament and the outcome of it wasn’t any sort of miracle. I won a Silver medal and I was so happy about it. I had worked hard for it and spent tireless days in order to abide by my study schedule. This tournament was in another city and I now had to go back since I had an examination the next day. I had carried all my books to the competition but I didn’t get enough time to revise my stuff. My family too was extremely happy with my victory and they told me that even if I messed up my exams at that point, it was okay. Yes, it was up to me . If I wanted, I could have given up studying hard for the exam and could’ve repeated my 9th grade fiasco all over again. But, is the growth mindset really about that life? Is this what Dweck advocates in her entire book? Well, the answer is no and the entire idea behind my hard work was to learn from my previous mistakes and do better this time. As Dweck states, “Success is about being your best self, not about being better than others; failure is an opportunity, not a condemnation; effort is the key to success.”(page 28, Carol Dweck) I wanted to ace my exam and not be the version of myself that believed that I could only excel in one thing at a time.

The results day came quick and everybody was surprised by my grades. I received the 7th rank in the science class of my grade and this really made people take back their statements about me. I was extremely proud of my hard work and it made me convinced that changing from the fixed mindset to the growth mindset was necessary and definitely possible. I know that my story was not a mind-blowing one with a really miraculous ending, but it was a story of how I was able to accomplish more than I knew by just changing my mindset. I completely agree with Dweck. She gives examples of various successful people including the great Michael Jordan. She gives a very inspiring example of what he did that showed that he had a growth mindset. “Once, after the team lost the last game of the season,” she says, “Jordan went and practiced his shots for hours. He was preparing for the next year.”(page 50, Carol Dweck) This is the type of mindset that leads you to become a better person. Here, I’m not talking about being “better” than another individual. I am talking about being a better version of yourself and how that’s what matters.

I would like to conclude saying that I do completely agree with Dweck about how Mindsets can and must change. We, as humans, aren’t born perfect. We all make mistakes at some point in our lives. Some people learn from such mistakes and come back stronger, while some people give up and are not ready to face challenges that would jeopardize how their abilities were shown to be. The difference between these two types of people are the mindsets that they have and this tells us how much mindsets play a role in our lives as human begins. Carol Dweck tells us this throughout her book and I absolutely agree with her. If you’ve read my story and you are someone that relates to the fixed mindset examples, then I would request you to try shifting your mindset to a growth one. It is highly beneficial and it helped me grow as a person and achieve whatever I wanted to. I strongly believe that with the right amount of determination, anybody can do what they wish to do.

References:

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck.