What is Mindset?
By worldly definition, “Mindset” is defined as, “the way of thinking, the established set of attitudes held by someone”.
Further defining it in detail means that “how a person or a group of people perceive an idea how they react to it, the way of absorbing and processing information“.
Mindset establishes how people or groups will continue to adopt or accept prior behaviors, choices, or tools. Mindset plays a vital role in our success and failure because it is a belief system and our beliefs determine whether we will achieve it or not.
There are two types of mindsets defined
- Fixed mindset
- Growth mindset
Fixed Mindset
A “fixed mindset” assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens that we can’t change in any meaningful way, and success is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence.
Growth Mindset
A “growth mindset,” on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities.
In one world, the effort is a bad thing. It, like a failure, means you’re not smart or talented. If you were, you wouldn’t need effort. In another world, an effort is what makes you smart or talented. A growth mindset creates a passion for learning rather than a hunger for approval whereas a fixed mindset demands continuous affirmation, praise, and validation.
What’s the Difference between the two Mindsets?
The key difference between the two mindsets — for those with a growth one, “personal success is when you work your hardest to become your best,” whereas for those with a fixed one, “success is about establishing their superiority, pure and simple. Being that somebody who is worthier than the nobodies.” For the latter, setbacks are a sentence and a label. For the former, they’re motivating, informative input — a wake-up call.
The growth mindset says all of these things can be developed. All — you, your partner, and the relationship — are capable of growth and change. In the fixed mindset, the ideal is instant, perfect, and perpetual compatibility. Like it was meant to be. riding off into the sunset, “they lived happily ever after.”
How Mindset Effect Relationship
One problem is that people with a fixed mindset expect everything good to happen automatically. It’s not that the partners will work to help each other solve their problems or gain skills. It’s that this will magically occur through their love, sort of the way it happened to Sleeping Beauty, whose coma was cured by her prince’s kiss, or to Cinderella, whose miserable life was suddenly transformed by her prince.
In a relationship when people with a fixed mindset talk about their conflicts, they assign blame. Sometimes they blame themselves, but often they blame their partner. And they assign blame to a trait — a character flaw. But it doesn’t end there. When people blame their partner’s personality for the problem, they feel anger and disgust toward them. And it barrels on: Since the problem comes from fixed traits, it can’t be solved. So once people with the fixed mindset see flaws in their partners, they become contemptuous of them and dissatisfied with the whole relationship.
Those with the growth mindset, on the other hand, can acknowledge their partners’ imperfections, without assigning blame, and still feel that they have a fulfilling relationship. They see conflicts as problems of communication, not of personality or character. This dynamic holds true as much in romantic partnerships as in friendship and even in people’s relationships with their parents.
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” — George Bernard Shaw
The Difference between Mentality and Mindset
When used as nouns, mentality means a mindset, whereas mindset means a way of thinking. Mentality as a noun: A mindset; a way of thinking.
Mindset Formation
Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck Ph.D. began her research on this topic by tackling a question: What happens if you give kids a difficult problem to solve? Some children viewed the problem as a challenge and learning experience. Other children felt that it was impossible to solve and that their intelligence was being held up for scrutiny and judgment.
The kids in the first group had growth mindsets. When faced with something difficult, they believed that they could learn and develop the skills they needed to solve it. The second group of kids had fixed mindsets. They believed that there was nothing they could do to tackle a problem that was out of the reach of their knowledge and abilities.
Fixed Mindsets
- Children who are taught that they should look smart instead of loving learning tend to develop a fixed mind-set.
- They become more concerned with how they are being judged and fear that they might not live up to expectations.
Growth Mindsets
- Kids who are taught to explore, embrace new experiences, and enjoy challenges are more likely to develop a growth mind-set.
- Rather than seeing mistakes as setbacks, they are willing to try new things and make errors all in the name of learning and achieving their potential.
Having a fixed mindset involves believing that they cannot do it because they are not born Einstein or Mozart. Whereas the growth mind-set is about living up to one’s possible potential. This potential, however, is never really knowable. Who knows how far a person can go if they set their mind to it?
“Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible.” – Claude T. Bissell
