Cultivating the Growth Mindset

                    By Bayo Ogunmupe

    This is an examination of a research into the practice of the growth mindset so that you can cultivate it so that you grow faster and succeed easily. In Carol Dweck's famous study on growth mindset, Dweck taught students about brain plasticity and about how the characteristics of intelligence are not fixed. The idea was to convince students that they had control over improving their academic ability. Years later Dweck was proven right when those students scored higher on standardized tests. It's tempting to think of Dweck's study as a near instant success. You teach students or yourself, the details of the growth mindset. This takes about an hour. And then afterward your performance magically improves.

    Although Dweck's study has been supported by future studies, there are some missing elements to the story. What behaviors did the students change after the lesson? Knowing this is the key to understanding how you can improve your own life. One, success isn't an accident. One, namely Stephen Covey joined the National Basketball Association, too small, too short and too slow to be a star. But now he is the most valuable player in World Championship team. And this was all because of his devotion and habit of  consistent practice. Two, your brain changes, adapting to constant practice. Your brain is elastic, it can change. That is what brain elasticity means. So, no matter how bad you are at a subject now, you can change so that in future you can become very good at it. Basically, that is the concept of growth mindset.

      Three: the power of yet. In practising the growth mindset, use the word yet. You are not good at mathematics yet; but you can improve and master it. This is achieved by making the growth mindset a habit: the Growth Mindset Habit. That creates a change in behavior. Whenever you utter or come into contact with word Yet, it reminds you that you are open to learning something new. But there are hinderances to cultivating the habit of the Growth Mindset. The first of such regretful excuses is saying: others can do it, but that doesn't apply to me because they a better background than me. You look for reasons they can do it, and why you ca not. Such negative reasoning is harmful to growth and well being. Researchers are unanimous in agreeing that people do reinvent themselves at any age. There have been 48 year olds successfully starting families; 57 year olds graduating from universities for the first time and 71 year olds starting successful businesses.

    And stories abound of ill and disabled men and women who overcame obstacles to achieve their dreams. Another obstacle to the cultivation of the growth mindset is the belief that life is meant to be easier and enjoyed. You must divest yourself of such notion that life is a bed of roses. Truth be told, life is a school. You have come here to learn to overcome past life weaknesses and bad karma. The evil that men do lives after them. Your mind will always believe anything you tell it. So, feed it with hope; feed it with truth and love. Ninety nine percent of failed people come from among those with the habit of making excuses. The man of wisdom judges a person by his results, not what he claims to achieve. Knowledge is of no use unless it can be put into action.

    Finally, in order to create the habit of the growth mindset, you have to overlook all that is bothering you right now. When you stay stuck in regret of the life you think you should have had, you end up missing the beauty of what do have. Not all the puzzle pieces of life will seem to fit together at first; but in time you will realize they do, they cohere perfectly. So thank God for things that don't work out, because they just made room for the things that did. And thank God for those who walked away from you, because they just made room for those who stuck with you love. Thus, what is in front of you now is a great opportunity for the fulfilment of your dreams. The bottom line is that the biggest and most complex obstacle you will ever have to overcome is your own mind. Let that sink in for a moment. You aren't responsible for everything that happens to you in life. But you are responsible for your undoing the debilitating thinking patterns these undesirable outcomes create.

    So you must cultivate the habit of holding the growth mindset at all times. If you do not go after what you want, you will get it. If you don't ask the right questions, you will always get the wrong answers. If you don't take a step forward, you will always stand in the same position. If you wouldn't trade places with them, stop taking their advice. Do not seek the company and advice of failed people.