So you know how I always say I cannot draw to save a life? (check out 30 days writing challenge for more random things about me) well turns out I was wrong, I can draw! For one of my psychology classes, we were required to watch this ted talk titled “why people believe they can’t draw- and how to prove they can”. The main idea of this video was to show how one’s mindset about their skills and abilities does affect the qualities of the abilities.
Mindset is the cognitive view that individuals develop for themselves. Carol Dweck, a psychologist who studies human motivation established that they are two main mindsets that influence our motivation and actions- growth mindset and fixed mindset.
Growth mindset
The belief that one’s abilities and qualities are flexible and can be changed and improved through effort. This mindset embraces challenges, learns from criticism, persists in the face of obstacles and sees efforts as useful and a path to mastery. This generally leads to a higher level of achievement and growth as the name implies
Fixed mindset
The belief that one’s abilities and qualities are rigid and cannot change. An example would be when someone fails an exam and the explanation is “I’m just not good at Math”. This mindset gives up easily, ignores criticism and sees efforts as futile.
Why does it matter?
It is very possible to have different mindsets in different settings but ultimately, the mindset does determine one’s performance. Mindset influences the amount of effort one puts in their tasks, how they approach difficulty, deal with failure and so much more.
In a fixed mindset students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that’s that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb. In a growth mindset students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. They don’t necessarily think everyone’s the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.
—Carol Dweck, Stanford University
So next time you’re about to rant on how you can’t do something, pause and remind yourself that you can and just need to learn how to. Deal? deal
P.S You should really take a look at this talk and try out the exercises, it was fun! Here’s a picture of mine 😀 For someone who really believed she just could not draw anything, I’m pretty proud of how they turned out! (apologies for the poor image quality)
You can read more on this topic here : carol dweck mindset
Thanks for reading. Let’s chat below! Has there been something you thought you couldn’t do but then tried and found out otherwise? What mindset do you tend to approach matters with?
People reacted to this story.
Show comments Hide commentsHahaha… the drawings are nice and you definitely have a point. Alfred Adler made points of this in general when proposing individual psychology. We are who we conceive ourselves to be and we choose what we conceive ourselves to be
Spot on! Thank you Michael
It’s interesting to read this morning about mindset. I have been reading and learning a lot about intermittent fasting and what strikes me most about it is how much is linked to helping a growth mindset. Its more of a mind thing. I hope more people read this and know that everything starts with the mind.
Thanks Adeola for this.💜💡
Everything truly starts with the mind. Thank you Anu!
Please share so more people can read it too!
Yes!! I actually hated Maths back in High School because I was going through a lot of depression from the craze that ran through my home, and well, because the Math tutors seemed to pick on me anytime I gave it a trial and failed. I felt I could never study anything related to Maths and… Guess what? No, I’m not studying Mathematics😂, I’m doing very well in a field where the need for skills in analytics and statistical analysis (strong math-related skills), is the core!. I also needed to study encryption and programming for this field of Cybersecurity and I had to fave my Maths demons😂.
For one who’s about to graduate in this field, I’d say it’s really a mindset thing. This is a good read!.
Thank you Dammy!
I love the drawings tho
Hehe thanks!
I’m proud of you Joey!! Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts.
Indeed, mindset can affect abilities.
Thanks for reading!
An awesome one, Adeola!
Thank you Demilade!
I still don’t think I can draw shit 😭
LOL girl, that’s what I thought too. Watch that video!! It’s really good and you’ll see how you’re wrong 😀
[…] it? In my last post, I talked about what growth mindset is and how that impacted me, check it out I can draw! Now that you know what a growth mindset is, the question is how do you develop one? Here are a few […]