Good or Great: The Growth Mindset Can Change Your Life.
By: Giau Ta
Tags: College, Mindset, Blogging, Growth Mindset, Education

Photo by Raul Varzar on Unsplash

You want to be good or great? Many people including me will say GREAT! If we have a chance to be better why we do not choose it. But is it possible? And how? Yes, we can. The way I mentions right now can sound simple, but for me it works effectively, and I hope you will find something helpful for yourself. That is changing our mindset. So what is mindsets?

In “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” Professor Carol S. Dweck discusses about two types of mindset: fixed mindset and growth mindset. She describes that fixed mindset is a type of thinking, and a person with this trait often has a negative view of the surrounding. They want to prove themselves, but they are afraid of difficulties and challenges. In the face of failure, they often blame themselves or for other factors. While fixed mindset leads people to the negative perspective, the growth mindset gives them a positive attitude. Growth mindset people love challenges; they consider difficulties as a chance that they can learn from and develop themselves. They try to find the way to solve the problem, even if they lose, they never give up, and feel disappointed. For them, it just an experience that they use to practice themselves to get their goal. Professor Dweck claims that our mental mindsets can and must be changed. I totally agree with her because that is a personal perspective that can be changed, we should change to benefit ourselves and those around us. Although there will be many who disagree; they might think it is hard to change or not to change because the fixed mindset also has its own benefits. By my own experience and with the analysis from Dweck, I didn’t think so.

I agree with Dweck’s point of view that our mental mindsets can change because mindset is just the way we look at life; the problems we encounter should inevitably change. As Dweck said in “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”: it is not due to the genes, it can be changed. She gave many stories as evidences to show that the same thing but with a different perspective, the solution as well as the results will be different. Like the story of little boy Jimmy in “Mindset” book, he used to think that he was really stupid and this was irreversible because it was his nature. Until he was said that intelligence can be nurtured, and if he changes his mind and acts, everything will be different. He has changed and received good results in his studies. I’m also a similar case. I liked to draw but have never painted anything really great, and I always thought that I can never become a painter because talented painters have innate talents. Until I met Kim, a high school friend. She was attending a drawing course, and she said that her current talent was due to learning and practicing properly and regularly. I also started taking the same class. And I’m really surprised that I can draw and be able to become a painter, so these talents are not innate., that we can do and change when we change thinking and action.

Photo by David Pisnoy on Unsplash

This change brings us more positive thinking, energy works better. Meeting problems is also easier to overcome. Therefore, success also comes from there. As Dweck has said: people with growth mindset prefer challenging and thinking positively before the challenge, they try to find ways to solve the problem instead of blaming and avoiding. I myself can be an evidence for this claim. I used to be considered a student with low learning. No one even I did not believe I can change because we though that it belongs to the nature that cannot change. Every time I got a bad point, I thought that because I was slow to understand, I was not as intelligent as other friends. Until the day I met Ms. Thao, my high school English teacher. She is a very active, enthusiastic young teacher. I never forget the first time she and I talked to each other about my study results. She sat right in front of me with a stern face and asked me why I submitted the white paper for the test. I could not say anything instead of crying. “I’m a slow learner. I don’t know what to do with these questions. I don’t know where to start.” I thought she would start scolding me, but she didn’t. She started with a word of encouragement, saying: The bad point is not the worst. It only tells us where we are to strive. The worst thing is when we know our shortcomings but not trying to be different. I looked at her with surprise and gratitude. She continued by giving me a piece of paper and asking me to repeat the test with her. She pointed to errors and corrections. Finally, she gave us the test we had to work together for and said: when you’re having trouble stay calm, instead of sitting there blaming yourself or the situation, you have to change your mind, how do to find a solution. Every difficult problem has an answer just waiting for us to search. Finally, she gave us the test we had to work together for and said: when you’re having trouble stay calm, instead of sitting there blaming yourself or the situation, you have to change your mind, how do to find a solution. Every difficult problem has an answer just waiting for us to search. No one is perfect, everyone is better at learning and practicing. Her words of encouragement followed me until later. thanks to that, every time I have difficulty I think about what she said. My life is better from that time

Moreover, this change not only benefits us, but also people around us. As Dweck said: a relationship needs to have the efforts of both, accept each other’s shortcomings and repair together. By changing the mindset, or in other words, changing the way we view and solve the problem, we can build a good relationship or improve the old relationship in a better way. This will bring benefits to our partner and our children. Taking the story of Ted and Karen in “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” as an example. While Ted is a cautious person, Karen is a free person. At the first time, they are attracted by each other due to the difference of each one. However, day after day, this difference creates a real problem for their relationship. They have to ask the help of Aaron Beck, a psychiatrist. What they learn from him is accepting the flaws of the partner, and solving them together instead of being angry and blaming for each other. The result for this change has saved their relationship, and benefit both of them. Likewise, my parents’ relationship used to have its own problems, and they had to confront with the risk of divorce. By discussing and changing their attitude and behavior, my parents finally found their love again. Luckily, I saw this experience of my parents, and perhaps thanks to that, I feel the value of this change deeply. It effected not only my parents, but also me and my siblings.

Some people will assume that there is no need to change if someone is a fixed mindset person. Because the fixed mindset also has its goodness, it makes people constantly strive to prove themselves. People with fixed mindset can become better and more developed. I agree that the fixed mindset is good in some cases because it helps people to go up in such a way. Yet they do it to prove themselves not to learn. Maybe they will go up, but if at some time they are unable to overcome some difficulties, they will be easily discouraged and easily assume that they are stupid because they did not get through. In contrast, the growth mindset gives people a better attitude. Growth mindset people may fail, but that failure cannot defeat them; it helps them to see shortcomings from which to continue to repair, draw experience and strive. If we can improve with stress or with optimism, why don’t we choose optimism. In other words, the change of mindset for better results.

I believe that many of us who read the “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success “ will sometimes see themselves in a certain way, and there will be many questions as well as people who disagree with the view of author. I personally agree totally with the author’s point of view that changing our mindset can be possible and benefit us too much. I think everyone wants to succeed and is always looking for ways to succeed. This may also be a way for us. So why don’t we try changing the mindset to see whether it works before subjectively evaluating that it’s useless.