Two people, same situation, but different ways of dealing with setbacks. One would get discouraged when met with a failure. And the other would learn and grow from the setback. What differentiates these two people is not the setback, but the way they deal with the situation altogether. In 2006, Carol Dweck answered that question when she released her book, “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”.
In the book, she coined the term “growth mindset” and explained that people hold two different beliefs about what they can achieve with their skills. One is a fixed mindset, and the other is a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is the belief that intelligence and talent are static traits, something you either have or don’t, with little room to change. On the other hand, a growth mindset uses varying strategies, efforts, and practices to overcome one’s innate abilities.
According to Dweck, these beliefs determine how someone responds to challenges, criticism, and failure before any of this happens. After Carol’s claim, many researchers worked on this idea and found many critical points worth noting. A study conducted in 2018 highlighted that growth mindsets do help in better performance, but only for those who are already struggling with their studies (Sisk et al., 2018).
Another study consisting of thousands of school students across the country found improvement. But they argued that it only happens when the people around students believe this idea as well (Yeager et al., 2019). Then in 2023, Macnamara & Burgoyne carried out comprehensive research on all the previous claims about growth mindset. They found many problems related to the research design, misleading results, and the formation of theories that look good on paper (Macnamara & Burgoyne, 2023).
After this contradictory claim, a debate was carried out between both teams. Dweck and her team argued that when we look at other carefully done studies, this growth mindset theory still stands. However, not as dominant as the previous claim (Yeager & Dweck, 2020). Even after all this debate between the two sides, it’s not finished yet.
So, don’t assume a growth mindset will solve every problem. You can fit it into your everyday routine, whether you agree with the debate or not. When you ask for feedback, admit what went wrong, and practice your skills on purpose, you will be following the same routine that helps many people build a growth mindset.
Here are ten simple, practical habits that can help you build this mindset, one step at a time.
1. Use healthy vocabulary
Healthy vocabulary means using words that are pleasing to hear. When we use words like “I am not able to do” instead of “I am not able to do it yet “, we use healthy words. This small change in your wording motivates us to practice and face challenges. Despite the hardship we face, we will put in effort to go beyond our limits. So life provides us with two doors: “I can’t and I can’t yet” when facing a challenge. Now it’s our choice to decide whether we want to keep going or give up.
2. Learn from challenges
When you are stuck with a difficulty or challenge, stop saying This is above my ability, “It’s hard, or I don’t have the skills to do it”. Rather, see that difficulty as a step that you want to take to grow your skills.
3. Actively seek feedback instead of avoiding it.
We get feedback all the time in our lives, either from our parents, teachers, or a friend. But in some people’s minds, feedback is not important. They either delay feedback or don’t get it, because they aren’t interested. As a result, they have weak memory, unclear concepts, incorrect knowledge, or limited knowledge. This makes it hard for them to move forward in life.
However, a meta-study conducted in 2015 concluded that actively seeking feedback is positively connected with stronger learning and performance orientation (Anseel et al., 2015). So when we seek feedback instead of avoiding it, we make sure that we don’t make the same mistake again. This feedback activity promotes a growth mindset and helps individuals learn.
4. Separate feedback from your self-worth
As we discussed earlier, feedback is something we need all the time. It is also something people have difficulty hearing. Because they tend to align feedback with their self-worth. For instance, if someone says, “This part is not good, they might think, “I am not good at anything”. Although they did not mean that and are only talking about a piece of their work. According to researchers, this is why a lot of people do not like to get feedback. A 2015 study by Anseel et al. notes that incorrect feedback positioning can trigger cognitive biases. To foster a growth mindset, feedback should only be tied to work outputs and separated from an individual’s personal character and worth.
5. Learn from your mistakes
Mistakes happen in life; we shouldn’t pretend they don’t. But if we pause and really think, we can learn from them. Our mistakes are very helpful when we try to understand what went wrong. According to research done by Johnson and his fellow researchers in 2017 on resilience, people who have high self-esteem get over their mistakes easily. More simply, they try to understand what went wrong (Johnson et al., 2017).
For example, they do not think “I did badly because I am not good at this”. Instead, they think, “I made a mistake. I can get better with practice”. If we just forget about our mistakes without thinking about where it all went wrong, we will never learn. So let us learn from our mistakes and do better next time.
6. Practice self-acceptance
No one is perfect in this life. We all make mistakes and learn from these mistakes. However, some people have a hard time bouncing back when they encounter a setback. In 2017, a study was conducted that found that when we think we have to be perfect at everything because people expect it, we push ourselves too hard and find it difficult to stand on our feet (Johnson et al., 2017). When you make a mistake, it’s okay; learn from those mistakes, give yourself some positive self-talk, and bounce back to your daily routine. And you will find yourself having a healthy mind and spirit.
7. Practice Resilience
Resilience is not something you are born with. You acquire it with practice and continuous learning. There are several training programs developed that teach you how to manage stress and get over hardships. These programs use different cognitive and mindfulness techniques to foster good behaviour and attitude. With the help of these techniques, you stay calm and pay more attention to your surroundings (Joyce et al.,2018). So practice these techniques and become stronger, adaptable, and more resilient.
8. Set learning goals, not just performance goals
When you try to set some learning goals for yourself, you focus more on learning than on winning or proving yourself at a task. This is because when you focus on learning, you are more likely to listen to what other people have to say and use that to get better (Elliott & Dweck, 1988). To achieve this, try setting some learning goals for yourself, such as “I want to get better at this thing”.
Even so, a performance goal like “I need to prove I’m good at this” can turn mistakes and feedback into something that feels like failure. Even if both goals lead you to similar actions, a learning mindset keeps you driven, helps you get better with time, and makes setbacks easier to handle.
9. Find the right friends.
Finding good friends is also one way to keep yourself away from all the negative thoughts. Good friends always encourage their friends to keep going when they encounter a failure. Failing an exam or finding it hard to solve a maths problem, a good friend will encourage you to deal with this challenge with a smile on your face.
10. Focus on Progress, Not Perfection
Building resilience starts with small, consistent actions. Progress takes time. Research shows that people do not become confident or better at handling challenges overnight. They make slow and sometimes inconsistent progress. For them, some days are good and some bad. And this is a normal part of learning and growing. So, rather than expecting a complete transformation. We should set small, realistic goals. Gradually, these small improvements will help you recover from challenges more easily.
Conclusion
A growth mindset is something we develop with practice and consistent effort. Using positive self-talk, resilience training, and seeking feedback from authority figures helps us bounce back from any setbacks. If we want to get strong, we should challenge ourselves with our failures, incorporate different mindfulness techniques, and use supportive self-talk to increase our skills. So practising all these 10 points is important, as they will help us get better, gain knowledge from our mistakes, and face our failures with a smile.
References +
- Anseel, F., Beatty, A. S., Shen, W., Lievens, F., & Sackett, P. R. (2015). How are we doing after 30 years? A meta-analytic review of the antecedents and outcomes of feedback-seeking behaviour. Journal of Management, 41(1), 318–348. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206313484521
- Elliott, E. S., & Dweck, C. S. (1988). Goals: An approach to motivation and achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(1), 5–12. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.1.5
- Johnson, J., Panagioti, M., Bass, J., Ramsey, L., & Harrison, R. (2017). Resilience to emotional distress in response to failure, error or mistakes: A systematic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 52, 19–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2016.11.007
- Joyce, S., Shand, F., Tighe, J., Laurent, S. J., Bryant, R. A., & Harvey, S. B. (2018). Road to resilience: A systematic review and meta-analysis of resilience training programmes and interventions. BMJ Open, 8(6), e017858. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017858
- Macnamara, B. N., & Burgoyne, A. P. (2023). Do growth mindset interventions impact students’ academic achievement? A systematic review and meta-analysis with recommendations for best practices. Psychological Bulletin, 149(3–4), 133–173. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000352
- Sisk, V. F., Burgoyne, A. P., Sun, J., Butler, J. L., & Macnamara, B. N. (2018). To what extent and under which circumstances are growth mindsets important to academic achievement? Two meta-analyses. Psychological Science, 29(4), 549–571. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617739704
- Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2020). What can be learned from growth mindset controversies? American Psychologist, 75(9), 1269–1284. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000794
- Yeager, D. S., Hanselman, P., Walton, G. M., et al. (2019). A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement. Nature, 573, 364–369. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1466-y
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