Kotaro Fujimoto - 1(NIT (KOSEN), Oshima College)

The Growth Mindset Challenge
Kotaro Fujimoto (NIT (KOSEN), Oshima College)
Today I’d like to talk about The Growth Mindset Challenge that I’ve been working
on for the past year. “Growth Mindset” is a concept proposed by Dr. Carol Dweck, a
psychologist at Stanford University. According to her, there are two types of mindsets:
Growth Mindset and Fixed Mindset. Fixed Mindset is a way of thinking that regards
failures as shameful things because human ability is determined by innate qualities.
On the other hand, Growth Mindset considers human abilities to be created throughingenuity and effort.
A year ago, I became interested in Growth Mindset through her Ted Talk. Since
then, I've been trying to make myself face challenges that are a little more difficult forme. I call it The Growth Mindset Challenge.
The challenge consists of three steps. First, choose a task that you cannot do now.
Second, document your strategies and efforts. Third, reflect upon the record. The firstthing I undertook was to improve my ranking in school. Then, I continued this by taking
the math test, TOEIC test, and even a physical education test that I was not good at.
Furthermore this summer, I took the University of Tokyo’s transfer exam and passed it.
The purpose of this challenge is to overcome the feeling of wanting to give up when
you fail, and thinking, “I can do it, I just haven’t done it yet”. Therefore, it is meaninglessif something is easy to accomplish. Keeping a record of the strategies taken and theamount of effort you expended is good for motivation and analyzing “why” the result
happened. When the results are not encouraging, we can reflect on which strategies werewrong and whether enough effort was expended, which will lead to the next challenge.
Before I learned Growth Mindset, I had a typical Fixed Mindset. Consequently,
every time I failed doing something, I was always in denial about myself. When I was inelementary and junior high school, I used to practice kendo all the time. However, everytime I lost a match, I thought that if I couldn’t win even after trying so hard, I must nothave any talent. It never occurred to me that I might be stronger by devising a betterway to practice and changing my fight style. In addition, my relationship with myparents was not going very well. I thought changing the relationship was impossible.
Therefore, for fear of failing further in kendo, and believing that my relationship withmy parents could not be improved, I entered my current school as a dormitory student
to escape from everything. At that time, I was more afraid of failure than anything else.
However, with a Growth Mindset, I’ve been able to face difficulties with excitement
and without fear of failure. I was able to pass the entrance exam, which no one from myschool had yet taken, and open up my own career path. My relationship with my parents
also improved through “ingenuity and effort,” and now I have left the dormitory and havebeen commuting to school.
Growth Mindset will turn difficulties into opportunities and failures into learning.
If you’re obsessed with a Fixed Mindset, try the Growth Mindset Challenge. That willchange your worldview completely!