Growth Mindset

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.” Perhaps you’ve heard this saying, and many similar ones, throughout your life. If so, you should feel lucky to have been surrounded by so many supportive people. As cheesy as these phrases may sound, they remind us that there is always room for improvement, encouraging us to persevere.

This is the idea behind a growth mindset: a belief that human qualities such as intelligence and creativity can be developed over time.¹ Growth mindsets are one end of the spectrum of how we think about ourselves, with fixed mindsets on the opposite end. Having a growth mindset means we are eager to learn, adapt, find value in embracing challenges, and believe that putting in effort can improve certain skills. Having a fixed mindset, on the other hand, means that we believe our abilities are unchangeable.

Both growth and fixed mindsets are components of a larger concept called mindset theory, which centers on the malleability of abilities and how we understand responses to challenges and setbacks.¹⁶ Broadly speaking, our mindset influences and shapes all aspects of our everyday lives ranging from family to work, and helps us to interpret our past experiences, current situations, and future possibilities. Over the past 30 years, the power of mindset has become a hot topic across several fields including psychology, education, business and management, and personal development.