Growing Through Challenge

Obstacles and challenges will always arise. They are a part of being human. But so is being able to bounce back and rise. The great news is that growth mindset and grit are skills that can be learned, and can lead to persistence and resilience.

Challenge as healthy

More important than adopting a glass-half-full attitude or donning rose-coloured glasses is to develop a growth mindset. Coined by psychologist and researcher Carol Dweck, a growth mindset prioritizes “healthy attitudes to risks, challenges, mistakes, and failure.”

Effort over ease

According to Dweck, individuals with “a fixed mindset believe their intelligence is simply an inborn trait—they have a certain amount, and that’s that.” With a fixed mindset—feeling “naturally” smart or successful—comes a resistance to effort. Experiences of challenge can even throw off how we see ourselves with thoughts such as “This should be easy” or “I thought I was smart, but if I was, I would be excelling.”

Savouring struggle

Practising a growth mindset encourages seeking out and committing to meaningful pursuits, including accompanying struggles. Improvement trumps perfection.

In an interview with John Hannah, director of special projects in student affairs at Ryerson University, creator of Ryerson’s ThriveRU program dedicated to helping students flourish, and father of two boys, he described growth mindset as “the belief in the plasticity of our intelligence.”

He sees, again and again, that when students can bring a growth mindset to a difficult essay, failed exam, and challenging group work, they turn stress and thoughts of giving up into “hopeful effort toward achievement.”

Put simply, a growth mindset values effort. According to Dweck, someone with a “growth mindset may tackle [hard] work with excitement, whereas [those] with a fixed mindset may feel threatened by learning tasks that require them to stretch or take risks.”

Trying trumps talent

Flying in the face of so-called “natural talent,” adopting a growth mindset urges us to see failures as a necessary and positive part of learning. It leads to receiving setbacks with grace and regarding criticism as motivating.

Opening to grow

Andrew Lorrison, father of three girls, a master’s student, and a full-time high school math teacher in Toronto, describes growth mindset as “open-mindedness.” He describes how, instead of giving up in the face of misfortune and dead ends in his professional pursuits, he kept going, kept trying, kept at it.

“I took more courses, reached out to past employers, asked for feedback on interviews, started a portfolio, and opened myself to all feedback and insight.” Through developing a growth mindset, Lorrison says he now more readily takes risks.

“Whether it’s in the classroom or a departmental meeting, or in the discipline of doing an hour of lesson-planning and marking, then an hour of graduate work every night after my girls go to sleep, or in my parenting, I am increasingly willing to experiment with new ideas. More and more, I see mistakes as a way of growing.”

The hope in hurdles

Was there an opportunity that you feel passed you by? A health issue that called upon persistence? A relationship that needed extra tending? Having a growth mindset dismisses the urge to prioritize the appearance of ease or success.

Fostering a growth mindset can empower us to see hope in hurdles and to acknowledge and accept all aspects of ourselves, including those that are not strengths, rather than hiding or denying them.

The grit of growth

This is where grit comes in, brother to growth mindset. Grit means strength of character, or fortitude. To be gritty is to be dogged, tenacious even. It is “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” Grit has been brought to the fore by psychology professor, Angela Lee Duckworth.

Praise for persistence

Hannah illuminates how Dweck’s growth mindset and Duckworth’s grit come together, reflecting upon his own experiences as a father and post-secondary professional: “To say, ‘I’m just not good at that,’ is a phrase of surrender, a phrase that justifies a lack of effort and imagination.”

Instead, Hannah sees the hopefulness within grit and growth mindset: they “counter the determinism of talent by demonstrating the importance of persistence in the equation of success. Good ol’ stick-to-it-iveness is now supported by a robust body of research.”

Duckworth asks, “Who … stays the course, running the race we committed to rather than choosing a different, new pursuit, after stumbling and losing ground? Who lives life as if it were a marathon, not a sprint?”

Proof of perseverance

“If you make a mistake,” explains Lorrison, “and can view that mistake as helpful, it builds up persistence. You think, ‘Well, if that didn’t work, I’ll try it a different way. And if it still didn’t work, I’ll try another. And another.’

“If you’re in the midst of a mistake, if you’re confused, if you’re persevering, it’s a sign, at the very least, of being all in. Of being totally engaged. What’s more, the ability to persevere is transferable. If you persevere in one area, this proof can carry over to other challenges.”

Growth mindset shows how individuals can change, learn, and grow, instead of being rigidly stuck and stable. In-born traits and attributes are less important than what is malleable or learnable, through effort. This can help us not just reframe but deeply learn from setbacks by regarding them as opportunities. And this mindset can improve our day-to-day, family, career, and health experiences.