“I Can Learn To Swim” And Other Truths The Growth Mindset Taught Me
On March 30, 2019, I lined up on the deck of a pool with hundreds of other people, swim cap on head, borrowed goggles ready to put on, nose plug discreetly tucked in the pocket of my spandex shorts, ready to put on. I began to shiver with nerves as the first swimmers jumped in the pool and began the 300m swim. Was I too far forward in the line? Should I be further back with the slower swimmers? Should I be AT THE VERY BACK, because I was probably the slowest swimmer here (or so I felt)?
I got to the edge of the pool and waited for the okay to jump in. “Take a deep breath… and exhale,” the man at the timing mat said to me. “You’ve got this. You’re good to go.” I jumped into the pool and began to swim.
Three months earlier in January 2019, I had jumped into a pool for the first time in years to try to learn how to swim more efficiently. A friend had invited me to do a sprint triathlon with her in March and the thought just kept coming into my mind. I already had a background in running, and I wasn’t too concerned about picking up cycling, but I had never felt confident in the water. I felt self-conscious every time I got in the pool and tried to swim. I technically knew how to swim (or rather, I knew how to not drown), but I always went so slowly, inhaled water through my nose, and had no endurance. The last time I remember trying to learn to swim was when I had to swim 200m for my scuba certification back in fall 2014. My friend Elizabeth met me at a pool, gave me her old pair of goggles to use, and taught me the basics of the freestyle stroke and breathing. I completed that 200m swim, and then can’t remember stepping into a public pool since then — until January 2019.
It wasn’t graceful. I had to pause and catch my breath at least every 25m. I swam for a total of 14 minutes, and a lot of that was resting.
I swam about once a week for the first month, then increased to two times a week. I remember the first time I felt comfortable swimming. I realized I didn’t feel as self-conscious, out of place or awkward as I had been feeling. I just felt like another swimmer training alongside those in the other lanes.
When I jumped into the pool for the triathlon I was nervous, and really, that nervousness didn’t go away until I was out of the pool. I was so nervous that I couldn’t maintain my bilateral breathing, which usually felt most comfortable to me while training. I alternated between freestyle swimming and backstroking to get through those 300m. But I did it.
Learning to Learn
My mom always tells me that I could sing before I could talk. I carried a tune perfectly, even as an infant. Music always came easy. I continued to sing in church, in middle school and high school choirs, and in indie bands as I moved into adulthood. I supplemented my talent with training, but still, it just always felt easy.
Other potential hobbies and interests did not feel that easy. I have vague memories of showing up to auditions and tryouts for random sports and clubs with little to no prior experience, expecting to just give it a go, join the team, then learn from there. I can remember sneaking out of at least two of those tryouts embarrassed, unable to keep up (for example: hip hop dance team, and I had never tried to learn a dance move in my life).
Because my main hobby came so easy to me, it had never occurred to me that I needed to start from the very bottom and work my way up with other things in my life. I just associated a lack of knowledge or skill with the embarrassment of sneaking out of an audition or tryout early.
Essentially, I associated my lack of knowledge or skill with failure.
My views on this didn’t change overnight, and I can’t even pinpoint a moment when they did. I do know that in 2014, I trained and prepared for a 10k, a relay race, and my open water scuba diving certification — all things that I wouldn’t even have considered being able to complete a year earlier but the opportunities just fell into my lap within the year (though the 10k and relay races were definitely “someday” items). I had personal moments through 2015 and 2016 that tore me down and required me to emotionally build myself back up. In 2017 I followed my first training plan to prepare for my first half marathon, a task that I could hardly fathom beforehand.
Learning to grow physically and emotionally through these various challenges definitely taught me how to be a beginner and start from the bottom, but I didn’t know how to define that until later.
The Growth Mindset
In December 2017 I read the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck, and suddenly the pieces fell into place. It outlined the principles that I had been learning over the past few years and finally gave it a name: the Growth Mindset.
The growth mindset, according to Dweck, is the belief that our intelligence, personality, and skills are things we can develop, as opposed to things that are fixed and unchangeable.
The growth mindset views failures and setbacks as actions (“I failed”) rather than an identity (“I am a failure”) (Dweck 33). It offers the opportunity to grow and become, rather than remaining stagnant. It offers a productive purpose, instead of seeking external approval or validation. Dweck states, “When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world. In one world–the world of fixed traits–success is about proving you’re smart or talented. Validating yourself. In the other–the world of changing qualities–it’s about stretching yourself to learn something new. Developing yourself” (Dweck 15).
When I walked into the hip hop dance team tryouts with no prior dance experience, I saw myself as someone who simply could not follow choreography, was not coordinated, and awkwardly snuck out of a room full of graceful, hip popping (is that what hip hop is?), cooler-than-me high school girls. Over 10 years later, my then-boyfriend was trying to romantically slow dance with me in the kitchen while dinner cooked, and my palms instantly started sweating. It was not romantic. I’ve only recently realized that I can probably dance — I just need to take the time to learn in my own way, at my own pace.
Comparatively, by the time I started training for my first triathlon in January 2019, the growth mindset had already become a common way of thinking for me. While I was a bit embarrassed about wearing a nose plug in public, it didn’t stop me because it helped me focus on other aspects of my form (and I just slipped it off to catch my breath in between laps). If I’m sharing a lane with someone faster than me, I don’t think much of it anymore — we’re all going at our own pace, and they are probably just focusing on their training like I am on mine. I don’t care if people see me working with my swim coach on the tiny little details while they’re breezing by with seemingly 10-second laps, because the tiny little details are where I’m at right now, and I love soaking in those details and those skills. The growth mindset has taught me to love the process and not just the outcome, especially when I’m starting with a nose plugged, 25m out-of-breath slow swim. That just means there is so much more to learn, and learning is incredibly exciting!
How
The growth mindset is incredibly valuable in all areas of life, from athletic endeavors, to education, to professional development, daily habits, and more. So, how do you change from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset to see this value?
We have to change how we respond to challenges, failures, and even how we approach our goals. It’s changing that inner dialogue from “I am a failure” to “I failed” — from a permanent label to a single setback that can be moved past and overcome. It’s reframing the situation.
Here is a short exercise you can do to begin reframing your thoughts:
Consider a situation that you’ve used to define a negative trait in yourself (or, if you’re experiencing a situation right now that really has you feeling down, use that). Write it down, and then write down your current inner dialogue.
For example: I’m always 10–15 minutes late for everything I’m invited to. I’m never on time.
Now, reframe the situation. In this example, I put myself in a holding pattern: I’m NEVER on time. But am I NEVER on time, or have I just been late to quite a few events in the past? Rephrase the statement to reflect that.
I have been late to quite a few events in the past.
Assuming you want to improve upon that self-perceived negative trait, consider ways you can change your approach in the future.
I’m going to start getting ready 10 minutes earlier than I normally would. I’ll plan to leave the house 10 minutes early. I’m going to set alarms on my phone to remind me when I need to start getting ready and when I need to leave the house. If I get to the event early, I can just relax in my car for a few minutes before going in.
A large part of the growth mindset is taking action. I love how Dweck defines this in her book: “The critical thing is to make a concrete, growth-oriented plan, and to stick to it” (Dweck 229). Concrete. Growth-oriented. And then implementing that plan, not just sitting on it.
The Outcome
A 2016 study shows the impact of practicing the growth mindset in an academic setting. In a survey administered in 2012 to every 10th-grade Chilean student, their parents, and school, questions about students’ “mindsets about the malleability of intelligence” were asked. The questions helped categorize the students into having a fixed mindset, growth mindset, or “mixed mindset.” Regardless of socioeconomic factors, students displaying a growth mindset consistently scored higher academically than those displaying a fixed mindset. Additionally, while the lowest-income students were twice as likely to display a fixed mindset than the highest-income students, the lowest-income students who did display a growth mindset also showed high academic success. This shows, I believe, the transformational power of the growth mindset to improve our circumstances and our lives.
As mentioned previously, I started working with a swim coach a few months after my March 2019 triathlon to help me become a more efficient swimmer. I was told that by learning proper form, I could swim with greater ease and efficiency, and it was true! With each lesson, I became more comfortable and more competent as a swimmer. I still have a lot more practice I need to get in before my next triathlon, but I’m pretty proud of my progress so far: Whereas the farthest I had swum in March was 300m, I was able to swim 750m by July, and 1000m just a few days later. In between those notable swims were a handful of swim lessons, many solo swim practices, YouTube videos, visualizing, accidentally starting out too fast, forgetting to breathe, forgetting my mantra, remembering my mantra, and more.
If swimming 1000m comes naturally to you, that’s great. But as with most things, I didn’t just go out and swim 1000m one day — but I believed I could get there, so I put in the work and did it.
References
Claro, S., Paunesku, D., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). Growth mindset tempers the effects of poverty on academic achievement. PNAS Early Edition, Stanford University. Under Review.
Dweck, C.S. (2012). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York, NY: Random House.
Article originally published on healthyhumansproject.com.
