“If you change the way, you look at the things, the things you look at change”~ Wayne Dyer
Let’s look at the example of this young man who has developed a highly growth-oriented mindset.
Joshua Waitzken, an American chess player, was a child prodigy. At the very young age of six years, he started playing chess. At age 11, he and one fellow prodigy were the only two children to draw with World Champion Garry Kasparov in an exhibition game where Kasparov played simultaneously against 59 youngsters. Two years later, he earned the title of National Master, and at age 16 became an International Master.
He is an eight-time National Chess Champion in his youth, and was the subject of the book and movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer.” At eighteen, he published his first book, Josh Waitzkin’s Attacking Chess. Since the age of twenty, he has developed and been a spokesperson for Chessmaster, the largest computer chess program in the world.
But you will be surprised to look at his career trajectory and drastic major career shifts he chose to make. His decisions show a perfect example of carrying a growth mindset. He was such a believer in learning that he chose his next sport which was outrightly different from the one he mastered earlier.
What direction did he go?
He chose now to learn martial arts.
He proved his mastery in martial art very soon too. Now Josh Waitzkin, is a martial arts champion, he holds a combined twenty-one National Championship titles in addition to several World Championship titles.
You see the two altogether different sports and how he was able to achieve the mastery in both. This all is the power of the growth mindset.
In his next book “The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence,” he explains the reasoning for choosing an altogether different sport. He stated that he wanted to test his potential as a human being. He wanted to validate his belief that human mind can learn and master anything, it wants. He never believed that the capabilities or competency of human beings is casted in stone from the birth.
Giving his example of chess, he states that winning every next game of a level superior to the first one itself proves that the mind has immense potential to learn and grow to any extent. The power of mindset can lead the man to think beyond imagination. With this strong belief, he chose to get into something altogether different, from a mental game to a sport requiring great physical strength and alertness.
“The barrier between success is not something which exists in the real world: it is composed purely and simply of doubts about ability.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
Joshua had a strong belief that our minds are malleable and can be changed. Moreover, science has already proved the concept of neuroplasticity, which means that our minds can be changed by the influence of the external environment. If we expose our minds to the progressive environment i.e. social circle, physical environment etc. our minds react to them positively and we can make our mindset growth oriented.
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On the contrary, most of the population is plagued with a fixed mindset. Let’s get deeper into these different types of mindsets.
According to psychology researcher Carol Dweck, there are two types of mindsets: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. The nomenclature ‘fixed’ and ‘growth’ itself are giving some indication of what are these. But let’s understand it in a bit detail.
In a fixed mindset, people believe their intelligence or other mental abilities are the fixed traits and therefore cannot change. These people strongly believe that their intelligence and talents are like carved in stone, rather than working to develop and improve them. They also believe that talent alone leads to success, and effort is not required. A fixed mindset person thinks that if something is difficult and he is required to put some effort on it, then it means that he does not have that talent or capability. Putting effort into something means already a failure.
Alternatively, in a growth mindset, people have an underlying belief that their learning and intelligence can grow with time and experience. When people with such mindset believe they can get smarter, they realize that their effort has an effect on their success, so they put in extra time, leading to higher achievement.
Carol Dweck, the researcher at Stanford University, introduced these ideas and wrote a book to describe each mindset in more detail.
Dweck goes on to state that when some students have a fixed mindset, they believe that their basic abilities, intelligence, and talents are fixed traits. They think that you are born with a certain amount and that’s all you have. The goal for people with a fixed mindset is always to look smart because they believe that they were born with that ability. These people have a fear of looking dumb to people because they do not believe that they can redeem themselves once other people look at them as being unintelligent.
In a growth mindset, however, students believe their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, learning, and persistence. Their basic abilities are simply a starting point for their potential. They don’t believe everyone is the same, but they hold onto the idea that everyone can become smarter if they try. It requires hard work and determination to develop the growth mindset. But once you are done, then everything is possible.
“You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there; you can move mountains” ~ Steve Jobs.
I was curious to get into the mindset of successful people about what made them win bigger, while most of the people are not able to make both ends meet.
I kept on wondering how people like Elon Musk are able to think of setting up a colony at Mars to inhabit a million people, while the majority is struggling to go to their day jobs and succeed in that.
All these curiosities and wondering led me to write my book, “THE MINDSET MAKEOVER”, wherein I have put the crux of my research about how one can get rid of the fixed mindset and develop a growth mindset.
So, What you can learn from The Mindset Makeover?
In THE MINDSET MAKEOVER, you’ll discover:
- The vastness of human thinking and possibilities, even space might seem to be your next vacation point.
- You will be able to identify if you are fixed minded or growth minded. You will come to know if you are other’s approval oriented or result oriented.
- How Richard Branson and KFC build their fortunes with the power of mindset.
- Scientific research-based evidence to establish that you can change your mindset regardless of your age or any other factor.
- How can one simple sleeping and waking routine help you gain clarity about your life in few weeks?
- How you can start reprogramming your brain and develop growth mindset by developing some simple habits followed by Billionaires.
- You will get the scientific tools and resources to do assessment of your strengths and identify your Eulerian Destiny (Your Unique Strengths)
- How Gratitude practice sets your brain to stay away from all negativity and rather attracts more opportunities in your life.
- You would be surprised to know the scientific research on how laughter and dancing accelerate the development of the brain and improve your intuition to attract the next best possibility for you.
THE MINDSET MAKEOVER is for ANYONE and EVERYONE. Whether you are a student, knowledge work, professional, entrepreneur or stay-at-home-parent, you need to become an A player in the Mindset Game. The neuroscience-based research and the proven ways suggested in this book will help you to gain Mindset Mastery.
You can grab your copy of “THE MINDSET MAKEOVER” by clicking Here.
(Cover Image courtesy by Joshua Earle on Unsplash)
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