If there is one lesson that every kid should learn, it is that with time and work, they may improve in many different aspects of life.
Although it seems easy to believe, doing so has significant consequences.
The “growth mindset” is a concept popularized by psychologist Carol Dweck that refers to the idea that you may better yourself through effort rather than having fixed potential and ability.
Describe a development attitude.
Dweck claims that there are two main categories of individuals in the world: those who have a fixed mentality and those who have a growth mindset in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
Your place in the category may have a significant impact on the level of success you will achieve in life.
“When people are in a fixed mindset they believe their basic qualities, their talents, abilities, intelligence are just fixed traits, they have a certain amount and that’s it. When they’re in this mindset they often become concerned with how much they have. “If I do this will I look smart? Will I feel smart? Will people think I’m talented or not?”
“When people are in a growth mindset, they look at their talent and abilities as things that can be developed through hard work, good strategies, or help and input from others. They’re more willing to jump in, take a challenge, and roll with the punches because they’re not seeing everything as reflecting on their deep permanent ability.”
One of the most crucial indicators of life achievement is the development mentality.
So the issue is, how can you help your kids develop a development mindset?
Here are 7 essential pointers:
1. Don’t praise them for their intelligence or natural talent
The idea that “praising children’s brilliance undermines their motivation and it damages their performance” is one of the “clearest results,” according to Carl Dweck.
Why?
Carl Dweck contends that rewarding skill and intellect fosters a fixed worldview.
Despite the fact that youngsters “particularly love to be commended for their brains and talent…the minute they find a hitch, their confidence flies out the window and their drive hits rock bottom.” If success denotes intelligence, failure implies stupidity. The entrenched thinking is that.
Children start to fear not being brilliant as soon as they can judge themselves, according to Dweck.
“I’ve examined thousands of individuals, starting with toddlers, and it’s astounding how many pass up the chance to learn.”
So, what exactly should you congratulate?
According to Dweck, you should combine strategy, options, and effort.
This demonstrates to the youngster that improvement comes from hard effort rather than inherent talent.
“Remember that praising children’s intelligence or talent, tempting as it is, sends a fixed-mindset message. It makes their confidence and motivation more fragile. Instead, try to focus on the processes they used— their strategies, effort, or choices. Practice working the process praise into your interactions with your children.”
2. Tie the outcome to the effort
It’s a frequent myth that you should only praise your kids for their effort and not their accomplishments in order to encourage a development attitude in them.
Dweck, however, advises against ignoring the result. In fact, it’s crucial to share achievement with your kids as long as you can link it to your use of resources and tactics.
“It’s not “ignore the outcome,” it’s “tie it to the outcome.” Sometimes parents will say, “I’m so tempted to be happy when my child succeeds or masters something difficult but I know I shouldn’t,” and of course you should. Just tie it to the process, that what the child is supposed to learn is that a good process results in progress.”
3. Teach them to respond positively to failure
Recognizing their children’s errors might be difficult for parents since it could demoralize them. But according to Dweck, this is incorrect.
Actually, failure is a crucial opportunity to educate them to take what they’ve learned and keep trying.
In line with Dweck:
“What we’re finding is that it’s the parents who really respond positively to the child’s mistakes that show how they’re an opportunity for learning. Then the child sees that these setbacks are part of the learning process, and you can capitalize on them. They’re not something that should engender anxiety or make you feel inept.”
It’s crucial, according to Dweck, to instill in your kids a love of difficulties and an interest in making errors.
“If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.”
4. Don’t just say “try hard”. Help them set goals
Yes, it’s crucial to recognize effort, but that alone is insufficient.
Dweck contends that encouraging youngsters to put in extra effort is not a development mentality and is instead more akin to nagging than education.
It’s crucial to educate them on objectives and methods instead.
“In general, goals should be challenging but doable and there should be steps along the way so that the child can see that what they’re doing is bringing progress. It’s very rewarding to see yourself progressing toward the goal. Then when the child reaches the goal, the parent can review what it was that the child did, that whole process that led to the learning.”
5. Teach them that the growth mindset applies in all areas of life
In one aspect of life, like sports, it’s typical for youngsters to have a development attitude, but not when it comes to arithmetic.
However, Dweck contends that youngsters must understand they may improve in all spheres of life:
“One thing to keep in mind is that if a coach teaches a growth mindset with respect to athletics it may not go anywhere else other than athletics. These mindsets can stay very anchored to a particular situation.
“We see many athletes who are tremendously persevering and risk-taking and learning-oriented in athletics but not in their academic work and vice versa. If we want our growth mindset teaching to have a maximum effect then we should tie it to other things.”
6. Talk about your own experiences of failing and learning
It is crucial that you discuss occasions when you failed but were able to achieve as a result of work and planning since kids learn from their parents.
Make a “growth mindset” topic of discourse at the dinner table, suggests Dweck:
“We should ask ourselves every day “What do I want to learn today?” and “What do I want to teach today?”, or “What do I want to facilitate in others?” That just keeps us in a learning mode. We’re all so busy, we have so many responsibilities and we have to keep learning the idea of learning in the front of our minds. Then, even at the dinner table, parents can talk about things they struggled with, mistakes they made and learned from and that could become part of the dinner conversation.”
7. Every word or action is an opportunity to teach them about the growth mindset
You may live your life with either a fixed attitude or a development mindset, and every opportunity is a chance to instill the growth mindset in your children.
You don’t have to categorize them and assess them based on a predetermined set of features. Instead, you reassure them that regardless of the situation, they have the capacity to develop and change.
Every moment is a chance to communicate, according to Carol Dweck:
“In fact, every word and action can send a message. It tells children—or students, or athletes—how to think about themselves. It can be a fixed-mindset message that says: You have permanent traits and I’m judging them. Or it can be a growth-mindset message that says: You are a developing person and I am interested in your development.”