Mindset -- is your fixed or growth?

I've been thinking about last week's newsletter, and Katie's comment about how good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment.  In addition to being a good laugh, it's powerfully true, but it's important because it reflects a certain mindset -- a growth mindset.

The idea is that your skills, your potential, and your outcomes are not fixed, but growing --full of potential.  I've been reading about this concept in Mindset by Carol Dweck  It's easy to look at a mistake and its unhappy outcomes and think, "I'm an idiot, I make bad decisions."  With a different mindset, we can instead say, that was not my finest moment - I'm going learn from it - chalk it up to experience, and work hard to make it right.  Dweck has studied people in the two different mindsets, and she believes it's a powerful indication of success and happiness. 

I see it in the shop all the time.  Two women walk in,  see the yarn and are excited by the colors and textures - a fairly universal response.  After that, it's immediately clear whether they have a fixed or growth mindset.  The fixed mindset person will say, "I can't do that.  Never could.  My mother tried to teach me when I was 5 and I just never got it.  I'm not crafty.  I'm not creative."  She thinks that when it comes to talent/skill/creativity/capability, you have what you have, you are what you are, and nothing can ever change it.  She thinks  she cannot, and so she doesn't. 

Her friend will say, "I don't know how to knit or crochet, or do any of that stuff, but I want to.  I'm going to learn how. "  She welcomes the challenge and is not afraid of failure because failure means experience and learning.  She knows that you can learn to do anything you want, given time and effort.  She knows she can, and so she does. 

We aren't all one or the other, of course, and often move between the two, but it's important to remember that whatever it is, our potential is absolutely unlimited.  Patience, effort, persistence, and belief in yourself will take you wherever you want to go in every aspect of your life.  Knitting is a perfect place to prove it to yourself.  Whatever it is, you can do it.  What you don't know is a challenge; a mistake is an opportunity to learn.  You'll be surprised at your infinite capacity to learn and grow.  I know because I've been on both sides, and I've seen amazing results right here around the table.  Come join us.  We are here to help you as you learn and grow. 

I look forward to seeing you soon.  You are always welcome here. ~Ellen

Back to 31 July 2018 Newsletter