Striving For Imprefection: Fixed or growth mindset

Being a sci-fi enthusiast, I was blown away by The Matrix in 1999, only to be disappointed in the writing of the sequels. Instead of further expanding on the brilliant intellectual aspects of the first film, the writers developed a conceit of inverting concepts to make them merely sound intellectual. For example — although this isn’t from the scripts — “To not know what to do is really to know what to do,” or “Being unhappy is truly the ultimate happiness.”


At first blush, they sound quite profound and deep and one feels stupid if comprehension is unfound. However, once unpacked, you realize no, it’s not you, it really is gibberish.

Having put all that on the table, sometimes, what appears to be paradoxical logic really does make sense. Two well quoted expressions that come to mind are, “Not to decide is actually to decide,” and “The only constant is change.” By not making a decision, one is actually deciding to continue to let things go as they are. As for change, as much as we might like things to remain as they are, they just won’t. Therefore, embracing it to the best of our abilities seems a more logical and helpful choice than trying to avoid it.

Although I’d go so far as to say very few people actually enjoy change (and least when it’s not self-initiated), some folks are better about embracing it than are others. It turns out, not surprisingly, that is due to the type of mindset they have.

“Mindset,” a term becoming more familiar since the turn of the century, can be considered a combination of attitudes one develops that affect how he or she views the world. Studies have shown that people with a “growth” mindset handle the buffeting of change more easily than those with a “fixed” mindset. Basically, the difference between those two is whether one looks at intelligence and skills like eye color, meaning you’re born with them and they shall remain as is for your whole life; or whether you look at intelligence and skills like a muscle, meaning that the more you use them, the stronger they become.

Let’s expand that a bit.

Fixed mindsets wish to retain the status quo, are less likely to question their core beliefs, and more interested in hiding flaws and avoiding judgement. They stick with what they know and avoid new challenges in order to keep up their confidence level as they tend to feel that having a failure defines them as being a failure.

Growth mindsets, on the other hand, understand that although they might not know to handle what is coming at them, they can move into it with baby steps, developing new tools over time. They consider their flaws to be more akin to a to-do list on which they work to improve, developing confidence by pushing the envelope and attempting new behaviors. They enjoy the process of learning as much as the results, and they consider failures to be feedback and temporary setbacks, rather than the end of the road and a reflection on their self-worth.


Mindsets can evolve from fixed to growth by acknowledging and even embracing one’s imperfections, viewing challenges as opportunities, replacing the word “failing” with the word “learning;” and using the word “yet” more often. For example, “I don’t know how to do that YET.”

Today’s world — more than anytime I can remember — is chock full of change, most of it unpleasant and frightening. If you feel like Neo from The Matrix, “I don’t like the idea that I’m not in control of my life,” it could be time to listen to Morpheus, “I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.”

Blue pill or red pill? The choice really is yours.
