Do yo have a Fixed or Growth mindset? Find out!

[Polarbeans]

So I stepped on a video on Ted Talks that discusses Grit. Widely known here on the forum and elsewhere as:

• the grind
• grinding
• courage
• determination
• firmness
• fortitude
• guts
• hardihood
• heart
• stamina
• tenacity
• toughness
• will
• willpower

What is grit?
Grit in psychology is a positive, non-cognitive trait based on an individual's passion for a particular long-term goal or endstate, coupled with a powerful motivation to achieve their respective objective. This perseverance of effort promotes the overcoming of obstacles or challenges that lie within a gritty individual’s path to accomplishment, and serves as a driving force in achievement realization. Commonly associated concepts within the field of psychology include "perseverance", "hardiness", "resilience", "ambition", "need for achievement" and "conscientiousness". These constructs can be conceptualized as individual differences related to the accomplishment of work rather than latent ability.

I want to watch that video!
Of course, here it is: Angela Lee Duckworth: The key to success? Grit

Quick, what is a Fixed Mindset?
People with a fixed mindset believe that their traits are just givens. They have a certain amount of brains and talent and nothing can change that. If they have a lot, they’re all set, but if they don’t... So people in this mindset worry about their traits and how adequate they are. They have something to prove to themselves and others.

Quick, what is a Growth Mindset?
People with a growth mindset, on the other hand, see their qualities as things that can be developed through their dedication and effort. Sure they’re happy if they’re brainy or talented, but that’s just the starting point. They understand that no one has ever accomplished great things—not Mozart, Darwin, or Michael Jordan—without years of passionate practice and learning.

Personal observation of a Growth Mindset in an 'everyday' situation
I had a chat with a chief doctor for a local hospital. The hospital is a specialist clinic that performs knee surgery.

He told me that a few years back, he was in a process to sign an insurance company that wanted to create a contract with his hospital. The goal was that the insurance company would be able to send insurance holders, that utilized their insurance after an accident, to the hospital.

But the insurance company was not satisfied with the hospital since they felt that there was sufficient standards. Above all else there were no television sets to each room.

The doctor's response to this was, "No problem, we fix TV in every room, but it will cost you $ 2,400 extra per patient."

The insurance company could not understand why they had to buy so expensive TV sets?

They weren't, but the doctor knew that if patients spent more time in the hospital bed, and did not need to stand up to go to the room with a TV, dining hall, etc. Their rehabilitation time would to increase by 1-2 days, which also increases the cost to the patient.

The insurance company signed the contract.

How to test my mindset?
The "inventor" of growth mindset, Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of motivation and is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. At the end of the test you are offered to buy the book. I have nothing to do with this and I have not read the book myself, I just thought the test was a cool touch

Test Here​

James Altucher has a lot of great lessons to teach and he has said the following, which I think fits very well with the mindset of things:

Try what you want
If you want to be a writer, or a businessman, or a programmer, you have to write a lot, start a lot of businesses, and program a lot of programs.

Things go wrong. This is why quantity is more important than quality at first.

The learning curve that we all travel is not built by accomplishments. It's only built by quantity.

If you see something 1000 times, you'll see more than the person who sees the same thing only ten times.

Don't forget the important rule: the secret of happiness is not "being great" - the secret is "growth".

If you only "try" you'll get to your level that is natural for you. But growth will stop and you won't be happy.

Study What you did

The other day I threw everything out. Everything. I threw out all my books (donated). I threw out all my clothes.

I threw out old computers. I threw out plates I never used. I threw out sheets I would never have guests for. I threw out furniture (four book cases) and my TV and old papers and everything.

I wanted to clean up. And I did.

I found a novel I wrote in 1991. 24 years ago. It was horrible.

For the first time in those 24 years, I re-read it. I studied what I did wrong (character unrelatable. Plot too obvious. Deus ex machina all over the place).

Someone told me a story about Amy Schumer, one of my favorite comedians. She videotapes all her performances.

Then she goes back to her room and studies the performance second by second. "I should have paused another quarter-second here," she might say.

She wants to be the best at comedy. She studies her every performance.

When I play chess, if I lose, I run the game into the computer. I look at every move, what the computer suggests as better, I think about what I was thinking when I made the bad move, and so on.

A business I was recently invested in fell apart. It was painful for me. But I had to look at it and see what was wrong. Where did I make a mistake. At every level I went back and wrote what happened and where I might have helped better and what I missed.

If you aren't obsessed with your mistakes then you don't love the field enough to get better.

You ask lousy questions: "Why am I no good?" Instead of good questions: "What did I do wrong and how can I improve?"

When you consistently ask good questions about your own work, you become better than the people who freeze themselves with lousy questions.

Example: I hate watching myself after a TV appearance. I have never done it. So I will never get better at that.

Do it a lot

What you do every day matters much more than what you do once in awhile.

I had a friend who wanted to get better at painting. But she thought she had to be in Paris, with all the conditions right.

She never made it to Paris. Now she sits in a cubicle under fluorescent lights, filling out paperwork all day.

Write every day, network every day, play every day, live healthy every day.

Measure your life in the number of times you do things. When you die: are you 2 writing sessions old? Or are you 50,0000?

Happy "Gritting"!

 

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[Luffy]

I personally think that while it's good to have a combination of both because we all have certain strength and weakness that are fixed to an extent so we should build on that while enjoying the process.

 

[arfadugus]

Been reading this book for the past week.. Kinda a boring read though. But good content non the less.

 

[Michał Kóska]

You agreed with 1 of Fixed Mindset statements and 8 of Growth Mindset Statements.

True.

 

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[Digamma]

Wut the test is made of two questions phrased in different ways over and over.
No shit I agreed consistently with Growth Mindset.

 

[Mattie]

I found that over a year ago. It is interesting that some people are fixed. Thought that was interesting. I get fascinated how people keep trying to put themselves in the Meyers & Brigg's personality test. I can say it's accurate in many ways, just seems human nature the different back stories, environments, and people you hang around also influence things with fixed or growth. Multiple variables.

Nice thread!