The Fixed Mindset or Growth Mindset, which are usually acquired during childhood, has spillover effect on our attitudes towards success and failure in our personal life and career, which in turn affects our level of happiness.

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“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

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You may have read the above quote somewhere. It rings true.

According to Stanford psychologist Professor Carol Dweck, there are fundamentally two types of belief systems - the Fixed Mindset and the Growth Mindset.

After twenty years of research with children and adults on this topic, Dweck found that our beliefs about our own intelligence and abilities have wide-ranging impact on our lives.

These two mindsets, which are usually acquired during childhood, has spillover effect on our attitudes towards success and failure in our personal life and career, which in turn affects our level of happiness.

In one of Dweck’s widely-published experiments, praising children for their intelligence instead of effort discourages them from attempting more challenging tasks. More noteworthy is that 40% of the students who were praised for their intelligence inflated their test scores to their peers.

Here is a look at the fundamental difference between Fixed Mindset and Growth Mindset.

Fixed Mindset

Dweck explains, “Believing that your qualities are carved in stone – the Fixed Mindset – creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over.”

Fixed Mindset is the mentality that our intelligence and other abilities are innate qualities that cannot be changed, and our success (or failure) is a manifestation of these cast-iron qualities that we are born with.

For people with this mindset, success is about being validated as smart. And they are averse to challenges and risks, for fear of exposing their inadequacies, thereby losing their ‘smart’ label. They believe that if they have to put in effort, it means that they are neither smart nor talented.   

Growth Mindset

On the other hand, “The Growth Mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts.”

Growth Mindset associates success or failure with effort, not intelligence.

People with Growth Mindset believe that success can be attained, and talent can be developed through deliberate practice and perseverance. In fact, they believe that effort is what makes them smart or talented. Therefore, they invest in developing themselves.

The good news is that people with Fixed Mindset can learn to adopt the Growth Mindset through conscious effort.

In this new year, let us create a better, happier future for ourselves by embracing the Growth Mindset, to break free from any limiting beliefs, and maximise our potential.

Watch Carol Dweck explain about Fixed and Growth Mindset on TED Talk here: http://bit.ly/14feP88

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