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At about this time in the semester, some students look at their essay and think "I'm just not a good writer. I'll never improve." In Mindset, Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck offers a reason for this frustration. She argues that some people have a fixed mindset and others have a growth mindset.
Those with a fixed mindset believe intelligence is, well, fixed: you're stuck with whatever your born with. You either have it or you don't.
Those with a growth mindset believe intelligence is learned and can improve. Practice makes perfect; you can learn new skills and improve the ones you already possess.
As a test, Dweck presented subjects with a fixed and growth mindset the same scenario: a student receives C+ grade on a midterm, gets a parking ticket, and no sympathy from a friend, all on the same day.
When asked how they would deal with this, the fixed mindset students said things like
“I wouldn’t bother to put so much time and effort into doing well in anything.” (In other words, don’t let anyone measure you again.) “Do nothing.” “Stay in bed.” “Get drunk.” “Eat.” “Yell at someone if I get a chance to.” “Eat chocolate.” “Listen to music and pout.” “Go into my closet and sit there.” “Pick a fight with somebody.” “Cry.” “Break something.” “What is there to do?”
The growth mindset students?
“I’d start thinking about studying harder (or studying in a different way) for my next test in that class, I’d pay the ticket, and I’d work things out with my best friend the next time we speak.” “I’d look at what was wrong on my exam, resolve to do better, pay my parking ticket, and call my friend to tell her I was upset the day before.” “Work hard on my next paper, speak to the teacher, be more careful where I park or contest the ticket, and find out what’s wrong with my friend.”
The choice here seems simple: wallow or grow.
What’s not so simple is moving from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.
Yet research on neuroplasticity shows there's hope. Remember the old saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks"? Neuroscientists have shown that instead of brain cells dying out, they can, given stimulation, regenerate and form new connections.
In other words, if the dog wants to and practices in a purposeful way, it can learn something new.
One way to start the shift is by acknowledging that you can change. Dweck writes that
Mindsets are an important part of your personality, but you can change them. Just by knowing about the two mindsets, you can start thinking and reacting in new ways. People tell me they start to catch themselves when they are in the throes of the fixed mindset—passing up a chance for learning, feeling labeled by a failure, or getting discouraged when something requires a lot of effort. And then they switch themselves into the growth mindset—making sure they take the challenge, learn from the failure, or continue their effort.
Together these findings, Dweck's growth mindset and neuroplasticity, suggest that while it may take a while, your writing will improve.
For more, see Dweck's TED talk on Mindset.