Let’s begin with a quote by the brilliant scientist, Albert Einstein.
“Genius is 1% talent and 99% hard work.”
So what’s it that makes some people brilliant and others “not so brilliant”. Are we born this way? About 30 years ago, a research was conducted on the mindsets with which we learn. Dr Carol Dweck coined two terms – Growth Mindset and Fixed Mindset. The growth mindset helps you prosper and achieve new skills, while the fixed mindset keeps you stuck with the ‘skills you were born with’. The good news is, no one is as such born with a growth mindset or a fixed mindset, but this is something that can be imbibed in us either through the very knowledge of it or through something as simple as appreciation.
Our brain is made up of an incredible connection of neurons that changes and adapts every day to the situations that surround us. This ability of our majestic brain to adapt, change and evolve as per different situations is called as ‘neuroplasticity’.
What are fixed mindsets and growth mindsets?
With a fixed mindset, an individual assumes that their intelligence cannot be enhanced. Sure, a person with a fixed mindset might be great at a lot of things, or might as well be the topper of their class, but a fixed mindset forbids them from improving further. Why settle for ‘best’, when you can be the ‘bestest’?
Meanwhile, someone with a growth mindset could be failing at almost everything they try, but the very belief that their intelligence can be enhanced can make them go much beyond than the ‘topper of the class’.
Ask this to yourself, what would make you happier- Months of training to run 100 metres in 10 seconds or being born with superfast legs that can achieve it with no training? Which achievement would make you more proud? Perhaps, those superfast legs could have been trained to run 100 metres in 9 seconds!
So, besides all those eatables made by your mom, pack your bags with a plenty of ‘Growth mindset’ while coming to college. Do not sulk over the skills or the intelligence you think do not ‘have’. Hard work, perseverance and the belief in yourself is all you need to develop those skills.
