Fixed-Mindset Triggers

Fixed Mindset Triggers
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A mindset is a combination of beliefs and attitude held by someone I regard to their abilities, talents, their intelligence, and personality. This defines how they handle various life situations and events that they come across. Statistics show that there is a certain section of people who hold growth mindset and those that hold fixed mindset. In a growth mindset, individuals believe that the inborn abilities can be improved and developed through determination and self-dedication. A fixed mindset believes that the abilities, talents, and level of intelligence that one has are static. They assume that those inborn abilities are unchangeable and they define one’s success in life (Vandewalle, 2012). Unlike the growth mindset which thrives in an environment with challenges and takes failure as room to keep on improving, fixed mindset expects the abilities to equally measure up against all the challenges that come along the way.
There are times I have experience or heard the fixed mindset voice speak to me while in school and at my workplace. In school, every time the class teacher introduces a new topic, the fixed mindset crosses my mind for two reasons. Sometimes it’s a positive mindset like indicating this that the new topic is an extension of the previous so I don’t need to work extra hard to understand the content. In other cases, the fixed mindset voice gives me a negative thought, like telling me that the new topic is going to be a complicated one with difficult challenges and too much work that is not within my capabilities.

At my workplace, the employer has set targets to review the performance of every employee. Since we work as a team at the month when we have not attained the target a fixed mindset makes me feel that it’s not my fault that we failed but the mistakes made the others. The fixed mindset voices warn me not to be responsible (Vandewalle, 2012).
The most dominant fixed mindset with my character is the “don’t try and fail, protect your dignity by not trying to do it” I counter this fixed mindset voice by telling myself that failing to make a trial doesn’t change anything. I will be a failure if I don’t try to venture into an initiative where am given a chance to show my abilities. Taking challenges gives me experience and exposure to face more tough challenges in future. The dignity is never threatened by failure instead it’s tested and highly motivated especially when there is a success over the challenge. This growth mindset will always trigger the act of trying and creativity to develop a lasting solution where the challenge seems to be tricky to those with a fixed mindset.
Recently I joined the social media platforms, my main aim was to build a brand name and become famous in my country and the whole world. I know that to achieve that I need to have many followers and have a command over those who are my fans on the social media pages (Vandewalle, 2012). I don’t want to be misguided by the fixed mindset voice that is telling me that only the celebrities and other famous people can achieve that. The growth mindset in me is telling me that I am capable of fulfilling my dreams by developing and posting contents articles that will get the attention of those to be followers. The few success factors I don’t know about becoming a social icon, I will learn them with time. I don’t mind the negative critics from people because am determined to realize my dream. I am not afraid of failing to achieve my target because I know even the most successful; people known today experienced several failures in their projects. I choose to heed the growth mindset voice but also does consider the fixed mindset voice.

References
Vandewalle, D. (2012). A growth and fixed mindset exposition of the value of conceptual clarity. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 5(3), 301-305.