From Fixed to Growth Mindset in One Word

We’ve all seen children and adults alike trying something for the first time and after - in their words – a failed attempt, they definitively decide never to do it again. 

It can feel awkward, uncomfortable, embarrassing, overwhelming and much, much more when something that we want to be able to do escapes us. 

Likewise, we’ve probably all had experiences of being told that we’re not very good at something and it has prevented us from trying to get better or even trying at all, assuming that the card we have been dealt can never be changed. 

I remember the feeling so well. 

As a young child I loved writing stories and poetry and making little books and would happily spend hours in my bedroom or sat in the garden writing. There was no thought about whether it was good or bad, it just was. 

Fast forward from that 7 year old girl to the 14 year old girl getting feedback from her English teacher about an essay on an anthology of war poetry – a topic low on the interest list of most 14 year old girls. 

“You need to connect to the authors more, be less formulaic in your writing, you have missed the point and you must try harder”.

Well, in one foul swoop my joy and pure enthusiasm for writing disappeared. 

In one foul swoop I went from freely writing to feeling constrained. 

In one foul swoop I saw myself as bad at writing and placed myself in that box firmly shutting the lid on top of me, never to see light of day again. 

I went through the next 20 years of my life stuck in that box never once considering looking what lay outside of it. 

That was until one day when someone asked me to write a book. 

I laughed knowing that it was a ridiculous idea but deep down wished that somehow it could be possible. 

It took a lot of convincing – added to the beautiful knowledge that writing this book would help many disadvantaged people -  to open the box and consider the possibility that I could transition between boxes or even not need to sit in a neatly labeled box at all.  

I decided to go for it and in the process rekindle the love of writing I had as an 8 year old. 

One book led to two and now to a meaty third. 

Yet, what I now realise is that all it would have taken in my teenage years was to consider the use of one simple word. 

Yet. 

I can’t do it YET but I will learn. 

I haven’t seen the answer YET but I will keep trying. 

I don’t understand what you’re saying YET. 

Everything changes. 

The more fixed our mindset is at any age, the lower the chance of breaking down the walls of impossibility and experiencing the world of infinite possibility. 

Whatever you want to do, are trying to do or are secretly hoping to do but can’t, know that the door to possibility starts with the power of yet.