## **Why does growth mindset matter?**

Having a growth mindset helps you focus on developing your abilities rather than proving how smart or talented you are. Compared to a fixed mindset, a growth mindset encourages you to embrace challenges, sustain effort, and try new strategies—and that’s true for both children and adults. Of course, no one embodies _only_ a growth or fixed mindset; we are all a _mixture_ of the two, and we can learn to recognize what triggers a fixed versus growth mindset. Shown evidence that the brain is like a muscle—something you can strengthen—students adopt more of a growth mindset about intelligence and earn higher grades. Finally, the concept of growth mindset doesn’t only apply to intelligence: If there are qualities you don’t like about yourself or others, keep in mind that people can change.

## **Pulse Check**

Right now, how true are the following statements for you?

- After I make a mistake, I always look for ways to learn from it.
- I love challenges because they make me smarter.
- I truly believe that people can change.
- I can always change how intelligent I am.

## **How do I encourage growth mindset in others?**

Much remains to be discovered about how teachers and parents can encourage a growth mindset in young people, but here are some preliminary suggestions.

**Model it.** Share stories of when you fell short of your expectations but nevertheless learned an important lesson: _“I made the wrong decision that day. At first, I avoided thinking about it, but eventually I realized I needed to learn from the mistake. What I realized was…”_

**Celebrate it.** Avoid praising young people for being “gifted,” “talented,” or “a natural.” Instead, praise the process of learning: _“I’m so proud of you—when you got stuck on the problem, you tried a different way to solve it and didn’t give up!”_

**Enable it.** Create authentic opportunities for learning. Give students meaningful challenges, consistent support, and timely, constructive feedback. To calibrate your efforts, ask them directly: _“Let’s set a stretch goal together—what’s something you want to accomplish but can’t do yet? What can I do to help?”_