Life is as good as your mindset

What is a mindset? Mindset can be defined as set of established attitudes held by a person that holds the key to a person’s success or happiness. Psychologists have recently identified two types of mindsets – Fixed and Growth. A person with a fixed mindset believes that his or her talents are innate gifts and no amount of hard work can change the outcome where as a person with a growth mindset believes that his or her talents can be worked on with the help of hard work, strategies, and taking suggestions and inspirations from the situations and people.We must be optimistic but also be prepared to face any adversity, in Maya Angelou’s words,“Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between”. Having a positive outlook does not mean that you have a growth mindset. An outlook that is ready to capitalize on setbacks and take risks knowing that some risks may not work out will help in developing the growth mindset. 

According to Carol Dwek from Stanford University who is known for her work on the mindset psychological trait:

In a fixed mindset, student believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that's that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb. In a growth mindset, student understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. They don't necessarily think everyone's the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.

She also refers to the hare and tortoise story that you must have read and listened to over a hundred times in your kindergarten, where the hare depicts people with fixed mindsets and tortoise depicts people with growth mindsets.

In fixed mindset, the mind is set on the outcome. If the result is not favourable, the work done is considered as futile. In growth mindset, ‘journey is the destination’. The aim is to be focused on the process and not the result as it is said in Bhagvad Gita:

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन |
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ||

which translates to “You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction”.

In the book ‘Atomic habits’, James clear points out that with outcome-based habits, the focus is on what you want to achieve- the result- for example – a perfect weight, a job or a car. With identity-based habits, the focus is on who you wish to become -for example, a person who exercises daily, a person who improves himself to get his dream job, or a person who saves religiously to buy the car. He rationalizes that when we fall in love with the process rather than the product, we don’t have to wait for something to happen to be happy- “You can be satisfied anytime your system is running”.

Every time there is a failure, or a detour from original path, an obstruction in attaining what you want to achieve, you learn from the situation and become a refined self. In a spiritual perspective may be that’s what is intended for you. As Ryan Holiday quotes in his book ‘The Obstacle is the way’, “Each time, you’ll learn something. Each time, you will develop strength, wisdom, and perspective. Each time, a little more of the competition falls away. Until all that is left is you: the best version of you”. The fixed mindset people believe that nothing can be done about their inherent qualities, people and circumstances of life. Whatever is achieved by them is by their innate traits and consider themselves to be doomed if the desired outcome is not attained. The growth mindset people believe that the abilities they have can be honed through perseverance and hard work. Auvaiyar, ancient tamil poetess has said,

கற்றது கைமண் அளவு, கல்லாதது உலகளவு

which translates to - what one knows is only a fistful of sand, whereas the unknown is the size of the world. Learning is a lifelong journey where known is a drop and unknown is an ocean. If there is no innate talent in you, hard work will support. In Kevin Durrant words, "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard". 

Fixed mindset tells you that everything is fixed. Growth mindset helps you to understand that change is constant and in this world, everything evolves with time. You never feel stuck in a growth mindset. It helps you to learn from your mistakes, take better informed decisions, accept people for who they are, and acknowledge that not everyone knows everything. That is what gives the positive outlook to life. Come what may, things may not go as planned, life may throw a curved ball, but you cannot control the situations of your life, but you can decide how you react and respond to them.