How have you coped during a tough project? After a disappointing performance review? Following a lost opportunity? While hearing hard-to-take feedback? Obstacles and challenges will always arise. They are a part of being human. But so is being able to bounce back and rise.
Enter growth mindset and grit.
Growth mindset and grit are powerful ways of thinking, being and doing for well-being and success. Growth mindset and grit can help you persevere in personal and professional pursuits in the face of setbacks.
In every area of school and work—from child development to management to leadership—growth mindset and grit are more powerful predicators of success than IQ, socio-economic background and natural talent.
So what are growth mindset and grit? And how can you develop them?
Fixed versus growth mindset
Coined by psychologist and researcher Carol Dweck, a growth mindset prioritizes “healthy attitudes to risks, challenges, mistakes and failure.”
Of course, many of us don’t default to a growth mindset. Instead, we have something called a “fixed mindset.” According to Dweck, “[people with] a fixed mindset believe their intelligence is simply an inborn trait—they have a certain amount, and that’s that.”
With a fixed mindset—feeling “naturally” smart or successful—comes a resistance to effort. Challenges can even throw off how we see ourselves. We might have thoughts like “This should be easy” or “I thought I was smart, but if I were, I would be nailing this.”
Put simply, a growth mindset values effort. Dweck notes that someone with a “growth mindset may tackle [hard] work with excitement, whereas [those] with a fixed mindset may feel threatened by learning tasks that require them to stretch or take risks.”
A growth mindset urges us to see failures as a necessary and positive part of learning. It leads to receiving setbacks with grace and regarding criticism as motivating. Improvement trumps perfection.
True grit
This is where grit comes in, brother to growth mindset.
Grit has been championed by psychology professor Angela Lee Duckworth. She co-authored a paper that defined grit as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals” and suggested that “one personal quality is shared by the most prominent leaders in every field: grit.” To be gritty is to be dogged—even tenacious.
John Hannah is the director of special projects in student affairs at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, and the creator of Ryerson’s Thrive RU program, which helps students flourish. Reflecting on his own experiences as a father and post-secondary professional, he says, “To say, ‘I’m just not good at that,’ is a phrase of surrender, a phrase that justifies a lack of effort and imagination.”
By contrast, Hannah says that grit and growth mindset demonstrate “the importance of persistence in the equation of success. Good ol’ stick-to-it-iveness is now supported by a robust body of research.”
How can you start cultivating grit and growth mindset? Keep curious and take a chance on your ideas. Recall your initial goals frequently, and always embrace feedback. Finally, try, and try again.