Growth Mindset is EVERYWHERE

I have been thinking and looking for growth mindset everywhere, and now I see it everywhere. I watched Season 3 of Making It, which is a fun crafting show hosted by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman. The contestants are competing for $100,000 but the focus as the tagline says, "Is a job well done." All of the makers are incredibly talented, but they approach the game show and the process of making very differently. One woman had a very difficult childhood and uses her art to validate her worth. She said several times that she wanted to create something and win so that she would feel validated, whereas another maker didn't seem to care if he won a contest or not. He was there to create art and learn from the other contestants. I am not judging the woman who needs to feel validated, only an observation that two extremely talented people on the same show approached the process and the product with very different mindsets.

I identify with the woman from Making It because I think I lean towards a fixed mindset in some ways, like seeing recognition as validation instead of just a cool moment. My husband on the other hand is the poster child for a growth mindset. I have never seen him get frustrated after making a mistake, and he takes on new challenges with such confidence. When I spoke with him about it, he thinks that this mentality and behavior came from his experience as an international college student. He moved from Sri Lanka (humid island) to Idaho (landlocked, rural, and cold) when he was 18 years old. He had never been to the States and knew nobody in Moscow, Idaho. Two things from this experience really helped build his growth mindset: asking lots of questions and feeling comfortable with failure and rejection. He had to become comfortable asking for help and advice while looking for answers to both personal and academic questions. Failure and rejection came from his job with the Idaho University call center. He would call hundreds of alum asking for donations, and he would get rejected usually 3 times in each call! Some people quit because they couldn't stand the failure and rejection, but my husband said after awhile he didn't mind it at all, and as a result, he has zero fear of failure and rejection. Failure to him is just part of the process of learning.