A Champion's Mindset: The Thinking that Wins

Carol sat in her sixth-grade class feeling uneasy in her stomach. Mrs. Wilson, her teacher, strongly believed in IQ and that IQ scores told the whole story of her students’ potential. The children were seated in IQ order. Only the highest-IQ students had the privilege of doing teacher-assigned tasks such as carrying the flag, using the erasers, and carrying notes to the principal.

?That day, Carol was expecting a stomach ache as usual, but instead, she felt sweat on her forehead. ‘It’s a cool day, and here I am breaking into a sweat,’ she told herself. “Look smart,” she kept reminding herself; “you don’t belong to the dumb group.”

?Carol Dweck was part of an education system that believed that people’s IQ scores tell the whole story of who they are. Having experienced the mindset that characterised the education system of her school days, Carol Dweck wanted to make a difference for future generations. This was behind her research and long years of study. She became a psychologist and later, a professor at Stanford University. Today, she is well known for her work on motivation and mindset.

?Her work on growth mindset emphasises that abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort, learning and perseverance. This differs from the fixed mindset that Carol’s teacher, Mrs. Wilson, practised decades ago, which believed that abilities are fixed and unchangeable.

?We have all heard of Michael Jordan the legendary basketball player who won two Olympic medals for his country, the USA. As a high school student, Michael dreamed of being part of the school team. However, when the list came, his name wasn’t on it. We can imagine the disappointment he felt. However, he did not give up. He kept training to be better. The following year, he was included in the team. ?It was his mindset that helped him overcome the challenge he faced.

?His quote says how important the right mindset is: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I have been trusted to take the winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over again in my life. That is why I succeeded.”

??From this, we can see that Michel Jordan never gave up and trusted himself to overcome failure. He embraced failure and saw it as part of the journey to success.

?Why should we adopt the growth mindset? This is a life-changing belief that we can cultivate our abilities. Once we have this belief, it leads to various thoughts and actions, leading us to develop a passion for learning. This mindset spurs us to stretch ourselves and reach our full potential.

?The best examples of a growth mindset are seen in babies. They don’t worry about making mistakes. They walk, they fall, they get up. With every step, they keep moving forward. They don’t worry about failure.? It is their resilient attitude that leads them to succeed.

?The growth mindset is very relevant to parents and educators. They can support children by praising their efforts rather than their talent. Instead of saying ‘You are smart”, it is better to highlight the child's effort by saying, “I can see how hard you worked. This is a great effort.” They can praise their persistence and resilience: “I love how you kept going even when it was challenging.” By focusing on effort and perseverance, the message that children get is that intelligence and abilities are not fixed but can be developed through hard work.

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The growth mindset tells us that it is all a matter of consistently doing the activity you wish to excel in. Michael Jordan and Carol Dweck stretched themselves and did not let setbacks define them. They believed that with effort, they could turn their challenges into successes.

Their consistency and faith in learning and growing made them excel in their chosen fields. Adopting a growth mindset allows us to embrace challenges, persist through setbacks and reach our fullest potential.

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?Hema Vinod is an Author of four books for parents and teens. Her books and website can be accessed on the link below:

https://linktr.ee/authorhemavinod?