MJ Monday's | Growth Mindset

Every year on every team that I coach, I have three types of athletes: I have a group that will listen, try, and do almost everything I say just because I am the coach. I have a 2nd group that don’t want to try anything hard and new. I have a 3rd group can go either way depending on a lot of different factors, including the influencers on the team and my ability to connect with, engage, inspire, teach, and motivate them.

Psychologist Carol Dweck has studied mindsets for years. In a talk with Google, she said, “Some people believe that their talents and abilities are just these fixed traits where you have a certain amount and that's it, but other people believe that talents and abilities can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and good mentoring from others.”

She also said that some people wilt in the face of failure and shy away from challenges while others who are no more talented and capable embrace challenges and thrive in the face of failure.”

The best athletes on the best teams have a growth mindset. Growth mindset is the optimistic belief that you can learn and get better with deliberate practice and time. It means that you can learn how to do hard things.

But it starts with listening, learning, trying, and being willing to fail. When you have a fixed mindset, Dr. Dweck’s research shows that you might be afraid of challenges that might unmask your deficiencies and withdraw in the face of difficulties so that you don’t look or feel ‘stupid.’ People with a growth mindset, the idea that you abilities can be developed, are always looking for ways to get better by taking in challenges and by seeing them through.

Dr. Dweck goes on to say, “Growth mindset doesn’t mean that everyone is the same and that they don’t differ in talent and ability. It just means that everyone can grow.”

Michael Jordan once said, “If you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”

When we see someone who is really good at what they do, like Michael Jordan, it’s easy to think that they are born that way and that they have had an inevitable rise to great success. But when you research your heroes, you realize that they didn’t catapult to success solely because of their amazing, born talent. Every hero put it a great deal of work, and when they were met with obstacles, they powered through them. Some people are born with certain passions and talents and build them, but many people who never achieve anything are born with talents and passions that they never see through. What we come with is the raw material that we have to develop.

Ask yourself which group are you in? Are you willing to try something new? Are you too afraid to fail or do hard things because you might fail? Are you in the middle, waiting to figure out if you want to buy-in or not?

When your coach corrects you, do you shut down? Do you fight back? Do you run from criticism? Or do you get excited and appreciate that someone cares enough to provide you with feedback?

When you are trying to learn something new and hard, do you try your hardest? Do you try it one time and quit if you can't do it? Do you do it successfully once or twice and quiet? Or do you keep working at it and practice it until you have mastered it?

Obstacles are a part of sports and life. How we handle those obstacles is determined by and defines who we are as people. The beauty of having a growth mindset is that with time and deliberate practice, your ability to do hard things can improve.