Growth vs. Fixed Mindset - Video Transcript

Hey guys, I'm Kristen, the anxiety therapist, thanks for checking out my blog today, I'm going to be talking about the growth mindset versus the fixed mindset and this was a concept first researched by Carol Dweck and it's gained a lot of momentum and has been used in business practices, the olympics, the NBA,  etcetera.

Um so if you think of it along a continuum, at one end is the growth mindset and at the other end is the fixed mindset and um most of us fall somewhere in the middle, but we probably gravitate toward one end or the other. Um and there are two components to mindset, so the first one is belief and if we have a growth mindset then we believe that skills are built and that we can constantly learn and grow.

So then the second component is focused, so with that that belief system in the growth mindset are focused then is going to be on the process and getting better and improving now with a fixed mindset, the belief is that we are sort of born with a particular skill set and there's not much room for growth or learning, so therefore the focus is going to be on performance outcomes and not looking bad in front of other people, right? Because we think things are pretty concrete, pretty fixed and so there was not a lot of flexibility there and there are four key ingredients when it comes to this mindset work.

Um the first one is effort, so with a growth mindset we see effort as being useful because it leads to growth, right? Whereas with a fixed mindset we think, okay if we're born with this fixed set of skills then effort is going to be kind of useless because we expect to be competent and perfect in those skills already, so we don't see any usefulness to effort. Um the second component is challenges.

So with the growth mindset we sort of embrace challenges, we persevere and we've framed them as an opportunity, whereas in the fixed mindset we tend to avoid challenges and they're viewed more as a threat. Um the third component is failures and I know this is kind of a sticking point for a lot of the clients I work with who tend to be more anxious and perfectionistic.

So with a growth mindset failures are viewed as an opportunity to learn. Whereas with a fixed mindset failure, you know, people with a fixed mindset hate failures and they will avoid them at all costs. They get very discouraged and a lot of times they won't even pursue an opportunity because of that fear of failure. And then finally feedback.

So if we have a growth mindset, we welcome feedback, we appreciate it and we use it, we use it to improve and to get better. Whereas with a fixed mindset we can get really defensive and we might take it personally and feel like it's someone is criticizing us as a person or criticizing our character as opposed to um providing feedback on some sort of output or um or task that we did something more more behavioral.

So the way this relates to anxiety and perfectionism is that a lot of times with anxiety and perfectionism, there is this polarized thinking. So we kind of see things in black and white and if we're looking at the mindset stuff that would be fixed versus growth, so we tend to get sort of caught up in this fixed mindset um and see that as being more concrete and sort of unable to be changed and we just tend to be less flexible which really holds us back right and in a lot of ways.

And so it's really important to understand that it is a continuum. There might be certain situations in which we might have a more fixed mindset but there are also other situations in which we have a growth mindset and that um you know enough, nothing is set in stone. We are constantly learning and growing and um the brain is very plastic and can be modified throughout our entire lives.

So I hope this information was helpful and you know just take note and kind of try to figure out where you lie along the continuum and um feel free to ask a question, leave a comment whatever you want. Um or you know go to my website for more information order to see how we might be able to work together so that I can help you out with some of this mindset stuff.

So visit um cathartic space counseling dot com, and I will see you guys next week with more content. Take care.