From the course: Cultivating a Growth Mindset

Fixed, mixed, and growth mindsets

From the course: Cultivating a Growth Mindset

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Fixed, mixed, and growth mindsets

- Try to imagine as vividly as you can that you've just interviewed for a job you really want. You're feeling positive as you leave the interview room. You're really hoping you get the role. A week later, you receive a call to say the interviewers really liked you, but there was someone else with more experience who got the job. You know deep down you have the experience required, but perhaps you didn't articulate that well in the interview. You know you would've been a great fit for the role and organization, but your nerves got the better of you. If I were to ask you how you felt about the process, if you had a fixed mindset you may think you're never going to get a role like this, your nerves will always get in the way, and you're not great at giving examples that showcase your experience. This is because those with a fixed mindset believe their skills and abilities won't change. They've reached a certain level and that's where they can expect to remain. In this case, you'd feel like there's nothing more you could do. You have the experience you have and maybe you're just one of those people that suffers with nerves more than others. If you had a growth mindset, on the other hand, you may look at the situation differently. You may think of the experience as disappointing, but something you can learn from, you can practice providing examples, you can learn how to interview well, and you can develop skills that help you to tackle your nerves. This is because those with a growth mindset believe talent and ability aren't fixed and this belief is backed by research. In fact, not only can talent and ability change over time, but we can control how we develop to achieve more, learn more, and get better in areas that are important to us. A growth mindset really is about lifelong learning and a belief in your ability to grow and develop. Traditionally, research focused on fixed and growth mindsets and nothing in between. What we now know to be true is you may veer more towards a growth or a fixed mindset naturally, but actually a lot of people are somewhere in between and have a mixed mindset. This means your mindset is part fixed, part growth depending on the situation, circumstances and how you feel about events going on in your life. This means sometimes you may feel like you have the ability to develop skills and talents and other times you may not. Ideally, you want to develop and cultivate a growth mindset. This will dramatically improve your performance, productivity, goal achievement, and happiness. It's all about changing your thought process to view challenges and disappointments as opportunities to learn and develop. It's about understanding you can develop skills, talents, abilities, and even your mindset over time. All it takes is effort and focus. Your mindset has the power to change your game at work and in your personal life. The key is learning how to make the shift towards a growth mindset and if you're already there, learning how to maintain this way of looking at the world even when facing challenges.

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