As paradoxical as it can be, despair has been a helping hand for the human civilization. Since the beginning of time, humans have faced adversities and given in at the poundings of despair. But at the same time, despair has pushed humans to confront the challenges piling up and push towards a better and developed self. It is through travesties that we have built our modern civilization. It is with constant struggle for the ‘better’ and the ‘developed’ that we have risen from the plague filled centuries and decades of encounters replete with wars.
Carol S. Dweck, a renowned Stanford psychologist, after years of research, published a book called ‘Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.’ discovered the power of mindset. She outlines the differences between a Growth Mindset and a Fixed Mindset and how success in life is incumbent upon the way we tackle our abilities and talents. Through her well written and passionately written arguments, she pontifies the hidden prowess of having a growth mindset.
Carol Dweck argues that a fixed mindset presupposes that our intelligence, abilities and character are static and are unbothered by the constant change around our vicinity. It treats one’s abilities as set in stone and oblivious to tirades of material changes. This mindset leads to stagnation and an acceptance of dormancy as the norm. It goes against the humanist principle of betterment and development.
A growth mindset on the other hand is based on the idea that your temperament can be pushed through great heights by constant betterment by your efforts. A person having such a mindset does not believe that failure is a permanent state of being but it sees failure as a springboard that will plummet one to new heights. The abilities we possess are then not seen as permanent and an end in themselves but are sought as qualities that can be cultivated and modified with time.
The problem then we face is to develop such a mindset that will favour growth at each step of the way. Mindsets stem from our personal beliefs and deeply held convictions that have housed in our psyche. A growth mindset is to allow a free-flowing nature of views and plasticity to change them when they no longer allow us to pivot our career in the right direction. Such a view is congruous with our very own biology of the brain.
Earlier it was believed that humans stop learning new things after a point but studies in the twentieth century have shown that our neural networks are in a state of constant betterment and development of newer developmental circuits. Neuroplasticity is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. Neuroplasticity outlines that our brains are not hard-wired and can be worked upon by new neural circuits. At the same time, this concept entails that it is vitally essential for us to constantly engage in activities that challenge our capacities. With constant challenges, we develop ‘activity-dependent neuroplasticity’ which may help us to retain and embody a growth mindset.
It is the result of such a strong academic vigour that we embolden our beliefs in ways of approaching education at ADYPU. Our focus on developing a ‘T’ shaped professional is the embodiment of individuals possessing a growth mindset. The vertical line represents the chosen domain and the horizontal line denotes the diverse growth mindset in a ‘T’ shaped professional. A diverse mode of education that will cater to multiple fields with a strong backing of a singular field of operation pushes the individual to incorporate changes and constantly strive them towards betterment and growth.