“No matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.”
Do you ever find yourself telling your child that they can be anything they want to be but deep down you don’t believe it? Billy across this street is a naturally impressive baseball player and you thought to yourself that your son will never be that athletic and so it’s better for him to focus on things like piano or chess. Those games are more in line with his natural gifts. It’s almost as if each person is born with a set of gifts, and it is our duty in life to figure out how to best use them. What if I told you that is a lie that you have told yourself for a long time in order to hold yourself back from doing or learning something new. Now you are pushing that same belief on your child without consideration that Billy is 4 years older and his father spent countless hours with him. We all suffer from periods of growth and fix mindset. If you are unfamiliar with the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset then you are like me before reading this book.
If you can bear to pull yourself away from Netflix to purchase a book and dust off the reading glass, I recommend MindSet by author Carol Dweck. The book does a wonderful job explaining the difference between a growth mindset, and a fixed mindset.
A fixed mindset is characterized by the negative belief in the limitation of human ability or the idea of being born with a special ability. For example, it is the idea that some students are born smart, some are born athletic and some are born out of luck. Having a fixed mindset is not necessarily a bad thing because in certain situations it provides you the level of conviction necessary to reach the next level. If a child who grows up in a house where education is not prioritized believes that they are naturally gifted, they may take that belief and do something spectacular. They can go on to be the first in their family to go to college. In the future because that child believes they are gifted, they may take on a task or achieve an accomplishment that is never been done before. Another child with a fixed mindset who believes that being smart is a gift may never apply themselves in schools because they think they’re not smart. It is question of which side of fixed mindset you fall.
A growth mindset is rooted in the idea that human ability can be changed, upgraded, through hard work overtime. Growth mindset shifts the reason for the outcome from a natural gift to the idea that work, and dedication makes it happen. A life of learning coupled with persistent effort Leeds to outcomes above and beyond where you started.
Carol Dweck does a wonderful job in Mindset by highlighting people like Jackie Joyner Kersey, Michael Jordan and Lenny Dykstra that use the tools of a growth mindset to elevate themselves to the top of their sports. On the other hand, she highlights people like John McEnroe who did not have a growth mindset and as a result never achieved their potential. Throughout the book, she calls on stories in academia and business to highlight the importance of a growth mindset and the limitations of a fixed mindset. While she has a view that a growth mindset is better than a fixed mindset, she highlights the specific cases where a fixed mindset is good.
It is important that parents identify and enroll their children in programs that embody the growth mindset. All of the work being done by KB gymnasium is predicated on the philosophy of a growth mindset both for the parent and for the child. Its important parents believe their children have the capacity to improve in all facets of their life ranging from social, to academic, and to sports. Children are born naturally with a growth mindset, and a high level of inquisitiveness that allows them to learn quickly during their formative years. KB Gymnasium capitalizes on this natural occurring growth mindset but it’s important that the parent doesn’t impede this.
I invite everyone to take some time to order and read the book. Try to implement some of the lessons as you go about doing work teaching from home.
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