Healthy Edge
Brain Biology and the Curiously Positive Side of Failure
Remember when you were a child and your mom told you "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" or "when your life gives you lemons make lemonade?" Well, science now shows your mom was right, at least in many cases, as long as your brain is wired for it. Failure triggers a flurry of brain-cell firing and networking -- the building blocks of learning and creativity.
Dr. Carol Dweck, Stanford University social psychologist and author of "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" (2006), suggests that people fall on a continuum of growth and fixed mindsets. Her study measuring brainwaves of participants failing a standardized task shows that growth mindsetters' brains become more acutely focused as they work out and ultimately overcome their mistakes. Fixed mindsetters never reach the same focused mental state after they make errors. They don't tend to improve their task performance either.
So, what's the difference between the two groups? In some ways, it's as simple as a belief pattern.If you believe that success primarily comes from elbow grease, and mistakes are made to be learned from, you probably lean toward having a growth mindset. For those of you with a creative streak, a 1999 survey of 143 creativity researchers suggested that the ability to learn from experience is the most important component of creative achievement.
Fixed mindsetters commonly believe that performance is driven by natural talent and intelligence. That is, stars are born, not made.
To those who have fixed mindsets, frequent or significant failures -- even the knocks life sends everyone's way -- are like sledgehammers to the ego. They may begin to doubt their own abilities and intelligence and even become frozen by the fear of making a mistake.
Because those with a growth mindset exhibit the perseverance and adaptability that turns setbacks into successes, Dr. Dweck believes that developing a growth mindset can increase your successes in relationships, sports and business. She even argues that a growth mindset can reduce stress.
Ever read Stephen Covey's book the "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People?" Well, growth mindsetters exhibit effective habits as well.
Here are four:
1. Growth mindsetters chalk up errors to insufficient effort. Dr. Dweck's classic 1975 controlled experiment published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology showed that learning to work harder in the face of adversity breeds success.
2. Growth mindsetters see their failures as challenges. Although this sounds like silly pop psychology, just take a look at Lance Armstrong.
3. Growth mindsetters value learning more than performance. They see mistakes as part of the learning process and are not afraid of taking risks that lead to learning.
4. Growth mindsetters "lose the image." Looking smart is not growth mindsetters' objective. So, mistakes don't rattle their self-image, and setbacks don't threaten them personally.
Want to develop your growth mindset?
"It's never too late to change your mindset," Dr. Dweck says.
Peter Heslin's growth mindset workshop has business managers performing exercises similar to the following:
1. Write an essay on why it's important to understand that people can develop their abilities.
2. Document areas in which you once had low ability but now perform well.
3. Write a letter to a struggling family member or friend about how his or her abilities can be developed.
4. Document times that you've seen people learn to do things you never thought they could do.
Bottomline: if you don't have a growth mindset, just keep trying. Science points to accepting failure as a reasonable way to work your brain and life into shape. §
Kendra Siler-Marsiglio, Ph.D. is the Director of the Rural Health Partnership at WellFlorida Council.
