You’re Not Smart, You Have A Growth Mindset

This past summer I gave a class on Growth Mindset. To prepare for the presentation, I read Carol Dweck’s book, “Mindset, The New Psychology Of Success.” In her book, she encourages parents to refrain from making judgment statements about other people’s innate intelligence. This includes other children.

Our judgements may be negative or positive:

Negative:
“He is such a born loser.”
“That kid is never going to learn.”
“That family always makes stupid decisions.”

Positive:
“She is a natural genius.”
“That kid is so bright!”
“Your friend must be the smartest kid in the class.”

Dweck says that these both the positive and negative judgement statements are fixed mindset comments. What’s a fixed mindset? It is when kids and even adults believe that it doesn’t matter how hard you work, how much effort you expend, intelligence and talents are static traits. You do not have control over whether or not you succeed. A growth mindset is the belief that you can effect change, you can learn almost anything with dedication, effort and persistence. A growth mindset sows the seeds for true success and a love of learning.

So now every time one of my family members makes a comment, like, “John is so smart!” or “Sara is brilliant!”, I say, “Oh, do they have a growth mindset? Do they put effort in the work and persevere in the face of challenges?”

I know, it sounds annoying and my family thinks that it is annoying but I want to get my very important point across. Everyone has a chance of success if they work hard and push through the struggles them may have. Everyone can do it if they have a growth mindset.