The Callused Mind: How You Can Rid Yourself of the Fixed Mindset
Imagine the pain of failure. We all have hit that low point in our lives, where we do not measure up to what we considered a success. Missing that last goal, failing that important test, or perhaps the most painful a broken relationship. What do you do after these heartbreaks? Many people breakdown, they give up all hope of every succeeding at that activity again. These people are stuck in the fixed mindset. But how do these people get back on their feet? They can transform their mindset. David Goggins started out just like most people with a fixed mindset, he was lazy, overweight, and did not want to pursue challenges. However, something clicked. He was able to defy the odds and overcome his mind. Goggins became a Navy Seal and an ultramarathon runner. He embraced that transformation that happened in his mind and now thrives off his growth mindset.
I agree with Professor Dweck’s thesis that you can change your mindset. Our mental mindsets are constantly evolving due to the experiences we encounter and the challenges we face. Dweck conjures that mindsets are fluid and you can change them once you can comprehend your current mindset. She understands that the, “view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want to be and whether you accomplish the things you value”. Just like Dweck I believe that people can, “catch themselves when they are in the throes of the fixed mindset… And then they switch themselves into the growth mindset”. When Goggins was able to change his mindset once he finally understood them, this switch confirmed Dweck’s findings.
In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Professor Dweck argues that the fixed mindset is detrimental to how we function. She maintains that people must switch to a growth mindset if they wish to be better themselves. Dweck believes that, “Everyone is born with an intense drive to learn… Babies don’t worry about making mistakes or humiliating themselves. They walk, they fall, they get up”. She realizes that the wall people hit that causes them to stop learning is self-awareness. Once individuals can evaluate themselves and their actions, they, “become afraid of challenges”. This throws these individuals into the heart of the fixed mindset. For these individuals, they become so obsessed with, “[making] sure they succeed”, that they feared any challenge that could end in failure. If they are going to attempt to better themselves, they must break free from this fixed mindset by first understanding it.
Dweck offers her audience chance to examine Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, a talented violin prodigy who started studying music with a famous violin teacher. Her incredible talent also came with many bad habits, “Her fingerings and bowings were awkward and she held the violin in the wrong position, but she refused to change”. Salerno-Sonnenberg was trapped in the fixed mindset. The idea that she could fail if she tried to change scared her. She could not imagine telling herself that, “[she] gave it [her] all and it wasn’t good enough”. One day her violin teacher snapped. She told Salerno-Sonnenberg that, “If you going to waste your talent, [she didn’t] want to be a part of it”. This was the moment where Salerno-Sonnenberg was able to understand how her fixed mindset was holding her back. Instead of using challenges as an opportunity to learn she shied away from them due to her fear of failure. She realized that, “trying and failing-an honest failure-was better than the course she had been on” and was able to develop a growth mindset. She used this new mindset while practicing for an upcoming competition and, “For the first time she went all out” and her effort paid off, she won.
Unlike Salerno-Sonnenberg, some people may want to remain in their fixed mindset. They are skeptical of the benefits of the growth mindset and believe that they are better off currently. These people like too, “know what [their] abilities and talents are, [they] know where [they] stand, and [they] know what to expect”. Their fixed mindset provides comfort and the feeling that, “you can really know the permanent truth about yourself”. However, Dweck realizes the limitations of this simplistic thinking. She knows that by not attempting to change your mindset you are, “robbing yourself of an opportunity by underestimating your talent… [and] undermining your chances of success”. By changing your mindset, you are accepting the belief that your abilities can change and grow. You can use this newfound mindset to purse greater challenges that were seemingly impossible before with the fixed mindset.
One person who embodied this transition from their fixed mindset to a growth mindset is David Goggins. Goggins is a retired Navy Seal who has also completed U.S. Army Ranger School and Air Force Tactical Air Controller training. He is commonly called the toughest man alive. His unrelenting drive causes him to seek out challenges to test himself and his limits. He runs ultramarathons and sticks to a strict training regime to not only challenge himself physically but mentally as well. However, Goggins did not always possess this unnatural drive to never quit. Goggins had a rough childhood. His father was abusive, school was not a priority, and he also had a learning disability. In third grade he had a teacher that wanted to place him in a special needs class because of his disability. This event placed Goggins into a fixed mindset. His teacher had, “managed [his] expectations. She saw the learning disability. She saw [that he] was socially unable to survive in this world”. This mindset stuck with him throughout his adolescence, he ended up, “Fat, out of shape, insecure, [he] was everything everybody said [he] was going to be”. One night this all changed. He turned on his TV and there was a documentary about men going through Navy Seal training. He saw, “a ton of them quitting, ringing the bell” until there were only a handful of guys left at the end. And at this moment Goggins recalls, “this one statement changed my life… this commanding officer stands up in front of these men… And he said, ‘We live in a world where mediocrity is often rewarded. These men up here detest mediocrity’”. This forced Goggins to look at himself. He realized, “[he] wasn’t even f**king mediocre. [He] wasn’t anything”. Goggins was able to understand how his current mindset was holding him back so he decided to do something with his life. He wanted to become a Navy Seal. During Seal training there is hell week. This is one week of the hardest training they can throw at you, you’re sleep deprived, hungry, and in pain. During his first hell week Goggins got injured, broken legs. He tried it again and got the same result the second time, now with a broken knee. Goggins was standing in front of his commanding officer, and he remembers how he challenged him again. The CO told Goggins, “this is your last time we’re gonna put you through Navy Seal training. This will be your third hell week in one year… this is your last time”. Goggins could have quit right then and there. He already did what was thought to be impossible, he lost 106 pounds to even enlist in the Navy, he could have walked away and still had something to be proud of. But he was a different David Goggins now. He did not believe in managing his expectations anymore, he wanted to surpass them. His growth mindset allowed him to run towards challenges and keep working till he achieved his goals. Goggins completed this third hell week and went on to continue looking for ways to improve himself, he looked for friction to grow.
Goggins embodies the transformation that Professor Dweck believes must happen in order to improve our wellbeing. He was able to become one of those people with a growth mindset that, “[didn’t] just seek challenge, they thrive on it. The bigger the challenge the more they stretch”. By understanding his fixed mindset, Goggins was able to choose. He realized that, “[he] chose the four-lane highways for [his] life, the easy route… there was also a shovel over here… No one wants to go to the shovel… The shovel means you’re going to f**king hurt”. By understanding his mindset Goggins was able to make a conscious attempt to change his mindset. His new mindset opened up more opportunities for him and ways to cultivate his skillset.
Professor Dweck is correct in her belief that our mental mindsets must be changed if we are to purse success. David Goggins is a perfect example. It is due to his ability to understand his mindset that he was able to change to experience the benefits that the growth mindset afforded him. When you can switch away from your fixed mindset you are allowing yourself to ability to overcome more challenges. This appreciation of effort with the growth mindset leads to more experiences and successes.
