Do you want to be more resilient? It’s one of the major attributes that folks who have great lasting mental health possess. So how do we build more resilience? Well, this three-part video series is exactly for that, talking about some of the major concepts and how science and research tell us that we can build more resilience, more self-esteem, more self-efficacy.
Are you with me? I hope so. I’m Dr. Drew Ramsey. I’m a board certified psychiatrist. I have spent my whole career trying to help people self actualize, build self esteem, be more self efficacious, have a better sense of themselves. And in this video series, we’re going to try and accomplish that talking about some of the leaders in the field and what they found and how that gives us tools today.
Two students fail a test. One thinks, I’m not enough, I’m not smart enough. The other thinks, I haven’t figured this out yet. I’ve got to work harder, try harder, learn more. Same failure but two different brains in terms of reaction. That reaction dictates so much about the outcomes of these two individuals’ lives and it leads to the mindset shift that we’re going to talk about that you need today.
Psychologist Carol Dweck at Stanford spent her whole career studying this and she came to understand there are two types of mindsets. A fixed mindset and this posits that our abilities, our intelligence and personality traits are fixed. You either have it or you don’t. This means that a failure is a real challenge because it’s a failure of you and there’s really not much you can do about it. A growth mindset means that we can develop things we can grow. We can change, we can develop skills, and that over time, our struggles really show us about our growth and our opportunities to grow. As the brain is learning and struggling and you’re struggling, you’re wiring yourself and you’re wiring yourself for a process that a growth mindset, the ability to grow and change is central to how you’re in the world.
This isn’t just motivational poster stuff. Carol Dweck’s research shows that when you have a fixed mindset, you’re at much higher risk for depression or anxiety and this makes sense because challenges and failures become personal and they feel permanent because things are fixed. People with a growth mindset are much more resilient after facing failure or challenges. They’re more likely to seek help. They have lower rates of depression and anxiety, and overall, they function better in their personal and professional relationships. Growth mindset really makes sense because the brain does have neuroplasticity. You know that word from all of our videos where we’re trying to get you into this brain grow mode, right? Harnessing the new science of mental health that we can affect change to the neurological level, and being in a growth mindset is a really big part of this. Growth mindset isn’t naive optimism, it’s biologically accurate.
Let’s talk about three science-backed ways that you can shift your mindset. Number one, I love this. I use it all the time in my practice. Add the word “yet.” I talk about how that extends our runway for whatever we’re worried about or thinking. I can’t do this – yet. I don’t have the skills I want – yet. My relationship isn’t as close or as deep as I want it to be – yet. It’s one little word but it creates a huge shift for us. Studies have shown just adding that word “yet” improves academic performance because it shows students you can be in a growth mindset, not in a fixed mindset.
Number two, praise the process, not the outcome. Dweck’s research showed very clearly that when you praise kids like, “hey, wow, you’re so smart”, it doesn’t help them in the way that we hope. We want to praise a process, not the outcome. Praising effort and strategy “wow, you worked really hard on that” is what really matters to developing a growth mindset and this really applies not just to students, but for all of us in terms of how we talk to ourselves. Understanding that engaging, strategizing, building skills, it might not lead to a win or the outcome we want, but that process and seeing ourselves involved in that process is absolutely critical. Remember, we’re here to play, not to win.
Number three, treat setbacks as information, not as failures. There’s exciting neuroimaging research about this that shows that people in a growth mindset actually process failures differently. Their brains get more engaged, almost more curious, because they’re trying to understand what happened as opposed to seeing this as a personal failure. This one of those really exciting secrets about a growth mindset. It’s not that you don’t feel failure or that you never fail. It’s that you look at those opportunities as moments to learn, as moments when you’re getting better, you’re building tools, you’re learning more about your process. And as you can see in this research, your brain actually processes failures differently. Now, they’re information for you to learn from.
This is something we do in therapy a lot where we get to ask questions. What does this teach us? How would I have tried things differently? What could have I understood better? We were able to take this information, learn from it, and improve our process. That’s at the core of growth mindset.
So do you have a growth or a fixed mindset? The truth is most of us have a mix of those things. Maybe you’re a little bit in a fixed mindset about your cooking, but you’re in more of a growth mindset about your relationships. The goal here isn’t to change overnight. It’s really to practice the self-awareness I talk about in Healing The Modern Brain as you’re building mental fitness. Pay attention to these places where you have more of a fixed mindset and use some of the tools that we’ve talked about in this video to shift yourself more of a growth mindset.
If this resonated, stick around. We’re going to talk more about building resilience through self-efficacy. Now that you’ve got a line on growth mindset, self-efficacy helps you achieve what you want and it’s one of those absolutely critical parts of mental fitness. Please stay tuned, subscribe, share this with somebody who needs it. I’m Dr. Drew Ramsey and in the next video we’re going to talk about the importance of building self-efficacy. I’ll see you in the next one.
