Have you ever convinced yourself you’re just naturally not good at something? Or you never can be able to achieve a certain goal? We have all had these thoughts at times, but this mindset leaves us stuck.
What is a fixed and growth mindset?
A fixed mindset is where you believe you are naturally not able to do something. For example, if you struggle to play a new instrument and you define ‘I’m terrible at Art, and always will be.’ This causes you to fall in a fixed position as there is no ability to improve simply because if you don’t believe you don’t achieve.
A growth mindset is realising that everything all the time isn’t going to be easy, things will be complicated and you’re not able to get everything correct at first. Someone with a growth mindset would come across challenges and push harder.
For example asking someone more experienced for help learning how to draw or spending more time going over learning how to do the basics first before trying to paint a hyper-realism. It’s about believing you’re not there…. Yet. But you will be able to.
The Power of ‘Yet’
- I am not able to draw this… yet
- I can’t play the piano… yet
- I am not good at swimming… yet
Notice the difference it can make? The power of challenging your negative thoughts against your abilities with the word ‘yet’ is enough to transform yourself to be able to grow and improve.
Truthfully, what you don’t believe you won’t achieve. Successful athletes, songwriters, scientists, artists haven’t always been successful. They just acknowledged that they can’t do it yet… but will be able to in the future. Next time, you find yourself lacking your abilities and want to give up recognizing, no. It’s just that I am not able to do it… yet.