Carol Dweck’s research on mindset as presented in her book “Mindset – The New Psychology of Success” is both ground-breaking and paradigm-shifting… if you can implement it in your own life.

Background

Mindset is presented as fixed vs. growth. Fundamentally fixed-mindset people tend to believe that skills and attributes are set, while growth-mindset people tend to believe that these things can be improved over time. As a result, for fixed-mindset people failure can be a personal and sometimes character statement – if you aren’t immediately good at math or soccer, or violin, then you must not have the built-in skill for that topic. Obstacles can become insurmountable, not because they can’t be overcome but because they wouldn’t be there to begin with if you were better, and effort itself can be seen as a failure; after all if you have to work at it, you must not be a ‘natural’.

The growth-mindset, meanwhile, says that what you do isn’t who you are, and that if you are willing to honestly and realistically evaluate your work and your progress then you can get better with effort. It leans on honesty and hard work, as well as disentangling character from events.

Notes on Criticisms

Not everyone in the field necessarily agrees with doctor Dweck’s work. Work is being done to replicate her findings, and additional research is ongoing. 

That said, Jo and I have both, after reading the book, been able to review many life events and tie them in to these basic outlooks on life. When I was growing up it was said that IQ didn’t change as you aged. Whatever it showed at 14 was as “smart” as you would ever be. As a depressed kid who seemed smart but got poor grades (another measure of intelligence), I didn’t think I could get better so I didn’t work like I could have. My early life was clearly “fixed-mindset”, and I can point to the years where I changed that around as a turning point in my life. The mindsets may not sit well with everyone, but they work very very well for me.

Implementation

Background and caveats aside, we still need a way to implement mindsets. Dweck says many times “subjects were placed in a <fixed or growth> mindset and then…”, but we kept wondering, how is this done?

In many cases this was a reading that spun the following event in a certain direction. Perhaps the event was a set of puzzles. One reading might be that a person’s ability with puzzles is set, and the test subjects will only do as well as their natural ability. The other reading might be that the harder they work at the puzzles the better they will get at it.

Background and caveats aside, we still need a way to implement mindsets. Dweck says many times “subjects were placed in a <fixed or growth> mindset and then…”, but we kept wondering, how is this done? 

In many cases this was a reading that spun the following event in a certain direction. Perhaps the event was a set of puzzles. One reading might be that a person’s ability with puzzles is set, and the test subjects will only do as well as their natural ability. The other reading might be that the harder they work at the puzzles the better they will get at it.

The idea here is to set the subject’s view on the skill they are going to perform by presenting them with “facts” about the skill. For most people this can suffice for the short term, but it should inform how to start implementing the growth mindset in our own lives.

Beware the affirmation

While positive self-talk and affirmations can help, we have to be careful about how this is performed. Dweck’s research indicates that children given reinforcement about their abilities (“You are so smart. You are a natural. You make this look easy.”) tend towards a fixed mindset. Thus when they inevitably stop doing as well (nothing is always easy after all) they stop feeling capable. Meanwhile, children given reinforcement about what they do (“You worked so hard at this and it paid off. You’ve been practicing that move and it worked well. You didn’t win this one but let’s see what we can learn from it and work on for next time.”) tend to have a growth mindset where they see failure as a learning experience. 

Self-talk and affirmations are often built around character attributes. In order to not talk ourselves into a fixed mindset, let’s ensure that these are positively aimed. “I welcome obstacles as opportunities to learn. Challenges are great ways to get better. I didn’t succeed this time, but I learned what I need to work on to get closer next time.”

Way of the Intercepting Thought
(or “Cognitive Therapy for Mindset”)

The Way of the Intercepting Thought (similarity to JKD intentional)  is what I’ve used for years to control depression, and so far it seems to work for mindsets as well.

This method is basically “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy”, a process where you learn to identify certain thoughts, view them objectively, and replace them with objective truths and positive thoughts. CBT has a wealth of research indicating its helpfulness in treating anxiety and depression, and I’ve used it personally to make a huge difference in my life. 

Medical Disclaimer: If you have depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or other debilitating thoughts, please see a licensed therapist. This therapy can take months of practice to fully implement, and for medical issues medication can be extremely helpful. This article is a loose description of how I’ve used it for mindset, not a substitute for practice, training, and medical intervention.

The OODA Loop…

The OODA loop was formalized by Air Force fighter pilot John Boyd in the 1970’s. There’s a lot more to this than we will cover here; if you want an in-depth discussion check here or here. It is discussed as a decision-making tool.

In short, the OODA loop consists of:

Observe – What is going on? What is the situation? What has recently changed in the situation that might require a different response?
Orient – What is my mindset? How am I positioned? Where is my opponent, if there is one? How do I feel? What do I know about my opponent or my goal?
Decide – Based on my observation and ‘position’ right now, what should I do to achieve my goal? (Interestingly, this is sometimes called the ‘hypothesis’ – what do I think I can do in this situation to achieve the goal?)
Act – Implement. Actually perform the action. (This meanwhile would be the ‘test’ of the hypothesis – If I act on the decision, what actually happens?)

Then the loop – this is an ongoing chain that feeds back into itself for the next observation and test.

… as it Pertains to Mindset (and Cognitive Therapy)

While this is normally a decision cycle, meaning a framework for making decisions and testing outcomes, we can utilize pieces of this, even if we already know what the decision will be. In fact, there are conditions (see bulletpoint #2) where you want the decision to be made ahead of time rather than leaving yourself in a position of making decisions under duress. There are a number of articles about Michael Phelps’ visualization practices that helped him be prepared – and win – in unexpected, imperfect situations, partly due to having already reviewed so many possible situations.

Our decision in this case is pre-made: we will choose a growth mindset over a fixed mindset. We intercept our fixed-mindset thoughts and replace them with growth-mindset thoughts, and we will continue doing this until it is part of our nature.

The OODA loop in military applications is a moment-to-moment re-evaluation of the situation around you. In this case it is a slower process, usually evaluating a different kind of stimulus such as a test in school, a presentation at work, or responding to a perceived failure at something, whether it be athletic, academic, social, or work.

Observe – Observe the situation and your own thoughts. Don’t let yourself immediately react to a perceived issue. What actually happened? Try to make sure this objective, and be careful not to place additional context around it that may not be there (“they cheated, I was doomed to begin with, I’m not good at this…”). Instead try to identify the reality of the situation (“I didn’t study like I should have. I went out last night instead of finishing the report. They were much more prepared and experienced.”)

Orient – Recognize where your mind is naturally positioning you. Are you making excuses? Placing blame? Do you feel good because of your ‘natural talent’ or your inherent intelligence? 

Decide – Once you’ve observed the reality of a situation, whether good or bad, and recognized your natural response to it (your orientation in this case), your decision is already made – growth is the answer.

Act –  Feed your brain with intentional, thoughtful words, leading it in the direction of growth, learning, and flexibility. 

Loop – Keep watching, observing your own behavior and resolving it in the direction of positive growth.

Closing Thoughts

The growth mindset isn’t universally accepted, but for those who can see this functioning it is an invaluable tool. There are plenty of resources available on how to implement the growth mindset for different people and thought processes; this just happens to be one that works for me – hope you can get some value from it too.

The book is available in softcover, hardcover, audiobook, and audioCD.

For additional information, visit Carol Dweck’s web site here.

Paperback
Kindle
Audiobook

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