The Truth About the Growth Mindset Everyone Is Forgetting About
In her preeminent book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. explains that the growth mindset is believing that self-improvement is a product of hard work. Moreover, when you have a growth mindset you also believe that the innate talents you are born with are just the starting point for your development.
On the other hand, Dweck describes the fixed mindset as believing that human characteristics are forever carved in stone at birth. Furthermore, with a fixed mindset you believe you’re either good at something or you’re not. If you’re good at something it will be easy, if you’re not it will be hard.
Universally everyone agrees that the growth mindset is better than the fixed mindset. However, as everyone nods their head in agreement with this sentiment a big mistake is made. That mistake is forgetting the caveat emptor Dweck subtly suggest throughout her research.
In her book Dweck writes:
The growth mindset is the belief that abilities can be cultivated. But it doesn’t tell you how much change is possible or how long change will take. And it doesn’t mean that everything, like preferences or values, can be changed…
The growth mindset also doesn’t mean everything that can be changed should be changed. We all need to accept some of our imperfections, especially the ones that don’t really harm our lives or the lives of others.
The fixed mindset stands in the way of development and change. The growth mindset is a starting point for change, but people need to decide for themselves where their efforts toward change would be most valuable.
The Growth Mindset vs. Knowing Your Strengths
That very last sentence from Dweck is the challenge. How do you know which areas in your life you should invest time in growing? You don’t have time to apply the growth mindset to everything. This is why I fell in love with the strengths based coaching approach. This approach provides a simple answer to this complex question. As psychologist Don Clifton and Gallup’s “StrengthsFinder” system suggest, its far more time efficient to grow strengths than to fix weaknesses.
For example, let’s take the skill of writing. No one is born a good writer. However, some people are born with a love of writing. I’m one of those people. There are many other things I could work to improve other than writing. I could work on getting better at cooking, graphic design, or carpentry skills. But I don’t love doing those things. Moreover, since I don’t love those things, it would take me longer to improve my skills in those areas than it would for me in something I love doing like writing.
The reality is I would need some form of external motivation to grow my skills in areas I don’t enjoy. On the other hand, I need no external motivation to work to grow my writing skills because I innately enjoy writing.
Investing time to Grow in an Area of Passion is Combining the Growth Mindset with the Strengths Mindset
Investing time to get better at what you love to do is the essence of the “strengths” mindset. This is also the main reason why using the strengths mindset discourages the fixed mindset and encourages the growth mindset. The fact is no one is born with a strength. A strength is the product of hard work over time.
Deciding whether to develop a strength by applying your time working hard to an area that naturally interest you or to an area that requires external motivation is the question. When you use the strengths mindset, the answer to this question is easy.
When you have self-motivation because you naturally love to do something, it’s by far easier to work hard. Therefore, is far more likely to reach your potential working hard in these areas. That is why these areas are your strengths.
Spending as little time and energy as possible in areas of weakness is a matter of time management not a fixed mindset. With only so much time in life to pursue your potential, your best bet is to find that potential by working hard to grow your skills in the areas of those things you love.