I Know I Can
Especially if I have “The Growth Mindset”
By Susan Langlois
Is there something you can do really well? Would your friends say you have an excellent memory, make great pancakes, or always know the best movies to see?
Photo: © Can Stock Photo / herreid
Do you know why you do this so well?
Many people believe a talent is something they were born to do well. But, in reality, most talented people who are great at what they do achieved that level of excellence because they practiced—and they practiced a lot. They also learned from their mistakes and realized that practicing and learning are what it takes to get even better. They also enjoy that they became so good because they earned it! Olympic runners, concert pianists, heart surgeons, and spelling-bee champions invest hours of practice, recognize their improvement from that practice, and work even harder because they believe that learning and effort will help them get even better.
Yes, there are a few geniuses in this world (maybe one in 100 million) who can play a piano concerto by ear at age four or solve a calculus problem by age seven, but more often the most successful people have developed “The Growth Mindset.”
Free To Falter
“The Growth Mindset” is the unwavering belief that mastering a skill is in anyone’s reach, and it will happen through learning what works and continuing to practice, even after making mistakes. A great example of not letting mistakes stop a person is Michael Jordan, one of the greatest professional basketball players ever, who, as a high school sophomore, was cut from his varsity basketball team. Even with all of his MVP awards and NBA championships, he explains that his great success was due to making mistakes. “I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
If you’d like to have this mindset so you can become a great basketball player, solve word problems in math class, play your favorite song on the guitar, or become a valued and loved camp counselor, there are steps to train your brain not to stop after you make a mistake. Dr. Carol Dweck, a Stanford University researcher in mindsets, has discovered how to help people learn the growth mindset. She encourages people who don’t make a team or don’t earn a passing grade to label it as, “Not yet.”
Mistakes Are Temporary
There is something we humans all have in common at birth—natural curiosity. During the first year of a baby’s life, this natural curiosity receives lots of encouragement. In fact, that praise and applause for taking those “first steps” can be so loud that it sounds more like the cheers for hitting a homerun to win the World Series. A baby who hears this ovation (even if those first steps end with a stumble or maybe a fall and a bump on the head), wants to try again—and why not? There are rewards with even more praise. And “Not yet” isn’t on a baby’s mind. A baby doesn’t know that falling down is a mistake, and no one said to give up. A baby is just having fun learning to walk. He or she enjoys the process of getting better at walking (and newfound freedom). A baby might even find new challenges to master, like clapping hands and saying “no.”
In Carol Dweck’s research, she found that when many people make a mistake, they believe they just aren’t born to be good at what they try. This outlook Dweck called “The Fixed Mindset.” She also found that if people still had a lot of their natural curiosity or had learned that a mistake meant “Not yet!” they thought that mistakes were temporary. They had a “Growth Mindset.” In fact, Deck found that people with a growth mindset knew mistakes could help them to improve. They could analyze what they did and decide what they could change.
Photo: © Can Stock Photo / Kalinichenkod
Becoming Talented
Learning and believing in a growth mindset can have a powerful effect on the brain. Learning by trying helps the brain cells develop new connections. These connections not only help people improve their skills, but help people change their expectations about mistakes, and that effort can make all the difference in getting better at a skill. They “become talented.” This can also inspire people to practice longer and more strategically because they believe their efforts will pay off in better scores on a math exam, higher grade levels in reading comprehension, and remembering what they learned to help them meet a new challenge.
When camp counselors, teachers, and parents understand this mindset, they increase expectations for their children to improve with effort. So, they praise effort and focus less on grades, points scored, and awards. The growth mindset can free people to focus on the process of learning from mistakes as well as learning from successes. “Wow, you put backspin on the ball by snapping your wrist—swish!” and “You didn’t snap your wrist like you did last time—try it again and this time wave goodbye to the ball when you follow through!” This positive-specific feedback can keep a child focused on what is working and what is under a child’s control. It takes the focus away from “I only made 7 out of 10 shots.”
Enjoying and learning about what works can make meeting any challenge more fun. When children see improvement from effort, learning from misses, and enjoying more and more success, they will want to practice more and more. And they may even start to think, “Wow, I’m pretty good at this.”
Make It Contagious
You will know you are a camp counselor with a growth mindset if you think, “If she keeps practicing and working on her follow-through, she’s going to just keep getting better.” You also might be a camp counselor who notices your camper is happier and more confident because he sees that learning and hard work are paying off.
How can you help your campers believe in the growth mindset and expand your own professional development as a counselor? The first step is to think about how to react to the campers when they are learning a new skill, giving them support to get past being homesick, asking them to negotiate who should get the extra and last dessert at dinner, or being a good friend to someone who doesn’t have a partner for an activity. How can you show them they will get better by choosing to think a problem through or asking for help rather than giving up after the first try? If you can model and encourage your campers to think “I know I can,” and if someone stumbles, it’s only “Not yet,” the growth mindset can be contagious.
Think about what Michael Jordan accomplished. Choosing to live the growth mindset at camp can be one of the great gifts of a camp experience!
Susan Langlois has more than 30 years of experience as a college professor, athletic administrator, camp director, and sport-facilities design consultant. She is a graduate of Springfield College and the University of New Hampshire. She is currently the Dean of Arts & Sciences at Rivier University in Nashua, N.H. Reach her at slanglois@rivier.edu.