The Mindset — The Real Asset

A mindset is a belief that orients the way we handle situations — the way we sort out what is going on and what we should do. Gary Klein Ph.D.

According to researcher Carol Dweck, there are two types of mindsets: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.

In a fixed mindset, people believe their qualities are fixed traits and therefore cannot change. They also believe that talent alone leads to success, and effort is not required.

Alternatively, in a growth mindset, people have an underlying belief that their learning and intelligence can grow with time and experience, so they put in extra time, leading to higher achievement.

Below are the two mindsets that Dweck has identified, as illustrated by Nigel Holmes . Which one do you routinely embrace?

Where did i go right?

I grew up in an open minded family, and had the freedom of choice from young age, however there are milestones in life that activates or triggers the growth mindset, in my case they were:

The job

It’s the first reason to change your mindset, especially if you work in the IT industry, where change is rapid, every day there are new tools, methods, languages, and studies, thousands of articles and researches are published daily.

To grasp that knowledge with the old ways of reading can be ineffective due to the vast amount of data. In my case I found a solution that always works with me; I merely changed my perspective- here’s how:

It’s all about the perspective
I started to perceive myself as a permanent student, use any chance to learn. I don’t mean only on the job.

Authenticity
It’s great to acquire knowledge, but it is more important is make sure that the knowledge is right, in order to improve rather than to deteriorate.

I practice what iv been preached
I started to put the info into acts as soon as possible. Acquiring the data alone, won’t be enough to make it part of your mindset, for example: “you can watch lots of videos about anger management, read many articles and still explode with anger given the first situation, that provokes this reaction. This is likely to happen unless in the heat of a situation, you managed to take a few moments to collect your thoughts before saying anything. you will then realize that you have changed a behavior that has been disturbing you for a decade or more”

Immigration/changing your environment

I was lucky enough to meet my soulmate, we had a long distance relationship and spent the first years talking online. Our story had a happy ending, and continues to be.

However, moving from the Middle East to Europe, to live in a different society and amongst people whom have a different culture, was very challenging. Nevertheless, I decided to see these challenges as opportunities, focused on what privileges I was getting from my new life and thus I became more grateful.

Parenthood

Another fascinating moment that disrupted my mindset, and made me think beyond the present and into the far future was the moment I was blessed with the birth of my son.

Almost every parent memorizes some lullabies and has watched the same cartoon hundreds of times. The same material that was not interesting to us before now gives us some pleasure in watching and singing some of the songs with our toddlers, Love changes mindsets.

Because I had a lot of questions and wanted to be a good parent, I started reading and researching to understand how to deal with his fragility and behavior through his development.

I was learning how to deal with my son’s needs, and how to help him communicate his emotions better. After his second year I took pleasure of recording how he experiments with new toys and items, also the way he used devices and Apps. He was learning gestures like swiping, scrolling, dragging and dropping very quickly.

How to develop a growth mindset?

Whether in a relationship, or a career, the growth mindset is the reason behind success and has a direct effect on your perceived quality of life.

Here are some of the steps I have learned:

Create a new belief
Believe that your talents and skills can be refined by effective hard work.

Change your perspective
Failure is the ultimate tool for you to progress and the best way you can learn, so love yourself, and accept your weakeness.

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently — Henry Ford

Embrace challenge
Having a growth mindset means perceiving challenges and risks as opportunities for self-improvement.

Patience is a virtue
Value the process over the end result , growth mindset people enjoy the journey. A fixed mindset, by contrast, avoids situations in which they might appear weak or vulnerable.

Open to feedback
Effective and timely feedback is critical to success, and should be used in coordination with setting goals.

Fuel the blazing fire
Inspiration is that fuel that keeps igniting the flame of growth inside us. As a matter of fact, celebrating others’ success would make the climb to success an enjoyable one.

Carol Dweck, a Psychology Professor, researcher at Stanford University, introduced these ideas and wrote a book to describe each mindset in more details here.