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The Care and Feeding of Growth Mindsets
In you have one in your life, here’s what you need to know.
I want to start with a disclaimer: growth mindsets are not better. Like any other kind of mental state, they have good and bad points, and it’s been proven that they rarely have a firm grasp on reality — pessimists are much more accurate in their views of the world, including predicting the future.
When I’m talking about a Growth Mindset, perhaps a better phrase would be “abundance”. It’s the kind of brain that doesn’t ever need to try out ’s “Idea Method” generating new possibilities. Far from it! Instead, when asked to write down ten wishes, number four is “I wish I had fewer ideas”. They laugh when they see an article promising to “unlock your creative potential” and long desperately for a metaphysical locksmith to come and fix the busted gates of possibility through which project after image after poem after blog post pours, constantly.
Ahem. Hypothetically, that is.
If you have someone like this in your life, there are a couple of things that you should know about dealing with them. Things that will simply help them thrive in domesticity, should you be so, um, let’s be charitable and say fortunate to have one in your immediate sphere.
