Mindset Types
Imagine you took a course that was very important to you and that you really enjoyed. Your professor announces the midterm results, and you only scored 60. You’re very disappointed. That evening when you’re heading home, you discover you missed the last train and have to walk home. Feeling angry, you call your best friend to vent, but they don’t pick up.
How would you think about this story?
- People with a fixed mindset would think: “I’m a failure for only scoring 60,” “Everyone is better than me,” “My life is pathetic,” etc.
- They treat every event as a direct measure of their ability and worth.
- People with a growth mindset would think: “I’ll study harder,” “Next time I’ll get to the station a few minutes early to avoid missing the last train.”
- They don’t label themselves or lose confidence. Even when feeling discouraged, they’re ready to take risks, face challenges, and keep fighting.
We can actually change our mindset!
Differences Between the Two Mindsets
Fixed Mindset
Summarized in one phrase: Self-imposed limitations from complacency.
Characteristics: Everything done is to prove one's worth to others, avoiding unfamiliar challenges and trying to prevent failure.
There was a tennis star named John Patrick McEnroe Jr., once hugely popular. He became a world champion, but his fame didn’t last long, nor did his career. Why is he considered a fixed-mindset person? He would always throw tantrums during matches. Tennis courts prepare sawdust for players to dry their sweaty hands. He’d grab a handful, slap it on, then say “You call this sawdust?!” and kick the entire bucket across the court.
Why do fixed-mindset people tend to pick fights and lose their temper? Because they like to blame everything on others. They think: “I played badly today because of the racket,” “because of the referee,” “because the audience was too loud.”
Growth Mindset
Summarized in one phrase: Self-expansion beyond what seems possible.
Characteristics: Embracing lifelong learning, believing you can improve through effort, courageously facing challenges, and viewing feedback as learning opportunities.
The opposite of McEnroe is Tiger Woods. He also gets affected by his surroundings — audience talking, taking photos, phones ringing. A fixed-mindset player would get angry and blame the audience. But Tiger Woods had his father train him by deliberately scaring him and throwing things at him while he practiced. He used this training to adapt to noisy environments. This is a growth-mindset athlete, which is why his professional career lasted much longer.
Are you a growth-mindset or fixed-mindset person? Consider these angles:
- Accuracy of self-assessment differs
- Fixed mindset: Self-assessments are either all good or all bad — sometimes exaggerated, sometimes vague.
- Growth mindset: Believe abilities can be developed, so they assess their current level with an open mind and a goal of learning — they need accurate self-assessment to learn and grow better.
- Different views on success
- Fixed mindset: Must ensure they’re successful. They believe smart people should always be right, leading them to hide their weaknesses and eventually stop learning.
- Growth mindset: Success means expanding abilities, with much more to learn in life through continuous study.
- Different views on failure
- Fixed mindset: If they fail at something, they become a failure — their failure transforms from an action into an identity.
- Growth mindset: Even if failure is painful, it doesn’t define you. It’s just a problem to face and solve, and we can learn and benefit from it.
- Different views on effort
- Fixed mindset: Only incompetent people need to try hard. If you need to work at something, it proves you’re not good at it.
- Growth mindset: Even geniuses need effort to succeed. They appreciate talent but revere effort even more.
- Different brain waves
In Columbia University’s brain wave lab, both mindset types were tested while answering questions and receiving feedback:
- Fixed mindset: Only interested in feedback indicating high ability. Their attention focuses on right/wrong answers, with no interest in information that aids learning.
- Growth mindset: Highly attentive to information that increases knowledge. For them, learning is the top priority.
Mindset in Different Domains
Business
In the late 1980s, IBM realized it was in trouble. They brought in Louis V. Gerstner Jr. as the new CEO. Gerstner attacked elitism — he focused on gathering people who could solve the company’s problems, regardless of their position. He valued teamwork, fired those who played politics and loved infighting, and stopped the sales department from humiliating and competing for clients in front of customers. He told employees that talent doesn’t determine everything — we need to do our jobs well. Before he stepped down, the company’s stock value had grown by 800%.
Fixed-mindset leaders always seek to prove themselves and emphasize “I,” while growth-mindset leaders value “we.”
We can ask: Who says elephants can’t dance?
Sports
In sports, a famous example is Michael Jeffrey Jordan. In high school, he was cut from the school team. He went home disappointed and told his mother, who said: “Then go back to school and train.” From then on, he left home at 6 AM every day to practice. In college, he further trained his defense, ball-handling, and shooting. If he lost a game, he would adjust the areas he wasn’t satisfied with.
Even more interesting, he once tried baseball. Most people would think he was crazy! But for Jordan, it was his life — why shouldn’t he try? Though he eventually returned to basketball.
Upon his comeback, the Bulls immediately lost several games, and his reputation hit rock bottom. But Jordan didn’t do anything else — he just kept training harder. As his age increased, his physical abilities inevitably declined. But we can see that late in his career, Jordan was no longer relying on physical prowess — he continuously enhanced his skills. This is the greatness of a growth-mindset athlete.
Let’s reflect: Is there a sport we think we’re bad at? Maybe we really aren’t good at it — but maybe it’s not what we think.
In the past, I didn’t know scuba diving. I wasn’t a great swimmer, but I really wanted to experience the underwater world. So I signed up for a scuba course, practicing repeatedly. Sometimes my buoyancy control wasn’t great. But I eventually got my scuba certification. Maybe you won’t perform perfectly while making the effort, but if you’re passionate about a sport, go for it.
Relationships
Fixed-mindset people believe love should be ideal — perfect and eternally harmonious, like a fairy tale where the prince and princess live happily ever after. Fixed-mindset people face two issues:
- If love requires effort, it means it doesn’t belong to them. They hope for telepathic connection and unified opinions, with everything happening automatically. They consider mutual support and problem-solving between partners unreliable.
- They blame character flaws — they believe character flaws can’t change, and the problems between two people can’t be solved.
Growth-mindset people believe that even when conflict arises, they still believe their relationship is fundamentally good.
Education
Fixed-mindset parents only care whether their children achieve what they expect — otherwise the child seems to lose value in their eyes. Growth-mindset parents not only set goals for their children but also give them room to grow. They respect their children’s interests, value complete character development, and encourage children to live better in their own way.
Fixed-mindset teachers create a judgmental learning atmosphere, labeling students as smart or stupid based on performance, then abandoning the “stupid” ones. These teachers believe underperforming students aren’t their responsibility. Growth-mindset teachers create a trusting, non-judgmental learning environment. They focus on how to teach students, not rigidly evaluating them. They’re committed to teaching self-learning and critical thinking — even if a student’s current level is insufficient, they show them how to close the gap.
Cultivating a Growth Mindset
Accept that you have a fixed mindset, become aware of it, and take action to change! We don’t need to feel ashamed — we must first acknowledge it, face it, and accept it. The book suggests four methods:
Accept
Each of us has some fixed-mindset tendencies. We need to know that we're all a mixture of growth and fixed mindsets — there’s nothing to be ashamed of. We should actively uncover and embrace our fixed mindset, accept it as an existing fact, and accept the potential harm it may bring.
Observe
We need to know what triggers our fixed mindset. For example: What triggered your fixed mindset most recently?
Observe your fixed mindset and clearly identify why it appears.
Name
Give your fixed mindset a name — something you like or dislike — to use it as a wake-up call for yourself.
Educate
Understand why the fixed mindset occurs and its negative impacts. Then, when it happens again, learn to communicate with it. Explain why you’re doing what you’re doing, and let it join you on your journey of action.
The fixed mindset is essentially protecting you, making you feel safe. Communicate with and educate it using a growth mindset, and it can support and help you.
Reflections
I recently had a conversation with Jonathan that touched on fixed mindset and growth mindset. I suddenly remembered hearing a book called “Mindset” on an app, so I quickly purchased it and read it thoroughly. I’m grateful it helped me better understand myself and the differences between the two mindset types.
Some thought patterns have been with us for years. Changing them is painful — you must fight against your past cognition, perspectives, fears, vulnerabilities, and even the unknown future. Change may be difficult, but no one ever said it wasn’t worth it, right? Human expertise isn’t determined at birth — it’s acquired through deliberate, purposeful practice.
Finally, here’s a quote from the book narrator that I particularly like: Going backward while learning something is completely normal. So the most effective way to make yourself progress is to frequently see your own improvement!
Feel free to leave a comment on my blog. Your feedback motivates me to keep writing. Thank you for reading, and let’s grow together to become better versions of ourselves.
