In many ways, growth mindset is more neurologically 'accurate' than fixed mindset.
A growth mindset reflects the idea that we can build and evolve our abilities and intelligence.
A fixed mindset is the idea that we have "fixed" amounts of intelligence and ability.
Out of these two, Growth Mindset is much more supported by modern neuroscientific understanding of the human brain*.
*with nuance (of course, and always) - for various aspects of our biology that are not, or are less changeable and acquirable than others
Why?
Because brains are experience and learning-dependent feedback systems.
What we do with our bodies and thoughts changes the activation patterns in our brain.
And with enough consistency, those patterns translate into new structures and networks that can continue to become more efficient.
The result is a self-regulating, self-organizing system that learns.
Learning is a human superpower
The ability to learn IS the superpower of the human species.
Recognizing the ability of our brain to change and adapt is part of a Mindset... or what is also called a Paradigm.
'Growth mindset' is a paradigm that emphasizes the brain's ability to adapt and learn.
The way we see the world through these paradigms affects how we behave.
If we believe we can change our brains, we behave in ways that honor that principle.
Paradigm as a leverage point
"Paradigms are the sources of systems. ... There’s nothing necessarily physical or expensive or even slow in the process of paradigm change. In a single individual it can happen in a millisecond. All it takes is a click in the mind, a falling of scales from eyes, a new way of seeing. Whole societies are another matter. They resist challenges to their paradigm harder than they resist anything else.
(Meadows, 1999, p. 18)
-Donella Meadows, Thinking in Systems
In her systems thinking theory, Donella Meadows lists Paradigm as the second most powerful Leverage Point to Change.
(Transcending paradigms is the most powerful. I'll get to that one in a future post.)
It's important for us to know that we are operating within certain mindsets or paradigms.
They influence the parameters and logic models our mind-brain-body uses to create algorithms, predictions and behaviors.
One of the most powerful, neuroscience-informed mindsets we can have is the belief that evolution and growth are possible.
The belief that we can be in a place of undesirable, even unhealthy results...
and slowly and incrementally,
with struggle and effort,
grow and adapt and evolve...
Wishing you room to notice a paradigm you're operating inside of this week.
With Love,
Stefanie
Mindset is a prediction system. Prediction systems can be updated.
Your brain runs predictions as a way to move through the world. Those predictions are firing patterns, built from our experiences.
Mindsets are a brain activity pattern that has been 'practiced'.
Mindset affects how different physiological cascades then affect our performance, our next move.
Sometimes we need help in understanding how and why to shift our predictions.
In the Teach Mindset Science Framework, you'll be able to:
- Explain how our interpretation of a moment shapes what our body does next
- Give clients, students, a biological reason as to why their effort matters
- Show someone why a limiting belief has real physiology behind it, and why that physiology can be retrained
Many practitioners can say growth is possible. Not as many can explain the actual mechanisms behind all of it.
Explaining those mechanisms is precisely why Mindset Interventions work (I'll share more in the next article), and is the catalyst for people actually changing their behaviors (for the long run).
→ Grab the framework and learn the mechanisms here
References and further reading:
Dweck, C. S. (2016, January 13). What having a "growth mindset" actually means. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/01/what-having-a-growth-mindset-actually-means
Meadows, D. H. (n.d.). Leverage points: Places to intervene in a system. The Donella Meadows Project, Academy for Systems Change. https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/
Meadows, D. (1999) Leverage points: places to intervene in a system, Hartland, VT: The Sustainability Institute. Available at: https://donellameadows.org/ archives/ leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/
Meadows, D. H. (1999). Leverage points: Places to intervene in a system. The Sustainability Institute.
And since you quote the book in the body, you may want this one too:
Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in systems: A primer (D. Wright, Ed.). Chelsea Green Publishing.
