One of my work colleagues with whom I had visited Roland Garros years back reminded me about yesterday’s men’s French Open semifinal between Djokovic and Alcaraz pitted by many as the match between the present and the future. While the match was so closely fought when I tuned in after a while Alcaraz developed cramps and then Djokovic just took over the match and moved into the final. Have seen this happening several times earlier in different situations where after being a couple of sets down the legends like Djokovic, Sampras or Federer take their games to a different level to ensure their victory. We have also seen the same in other team sports like cricket where the legends come good in the big and crucial matches which differentiates their team from the others.
Even in our day to day lives we see people who have these capabilities and boundless amounts of energy which sets them apart whether it’s at work or in other fields.
A few weeks ago, I had watched the movie Money ball. If you read about the movie which is based on a true story it will always be described as the way in which Beane the General Manager of the Oakland baseball team to overcome the limited budget created a new way using data to identify good players within his limited small budget. They went on to win multiple titles and had one of the longest undefeated runs in the league.
What interested me though was a subplot which shows the evolution of Beane, the individual. He was an extremely talented player who excelled in multiple sports. Once he decided to focus on baseball he moved up from the minor to the major leagues. If everything was going good Beane was fine but the moment anything went wrong Beane would find ways to break up things, pick up tantrums and several other things which would distract him from the sport and his potential.
Beane was in what is often referred to as a fixed mindset.
A fixed mindset is used to describe children and adults who believe their intelligence, talents and personalities are in fixed traits that cannot grow. They believe we are born with a certain level of ability, talents and capability and we are unable to improve our level of capabilities over time.
As Beane’s inability to manage failures grew his career in the major leagues went downward. But what then made him into perhaps the most successful general managers in the league? The movie shows Beane observing another player named Dykstra evolve into a more successful player. Dykstra didn’t have a fraction of Beane physical endowment or natural ability, but Dykstra grew from stature to stature within the league.
Watching his colleague grow Beane realized that the need for success even in a highly physical sport like baseball was more of mindset and process than the physical capabilities that are often attributed to success. This mindset of not succumbing to failure is often known as growth mindset.
A growth mindset, proposed by Stanford professor Carol Dweck describes people who believe that their success depends on time and effort. People with a growth mindset feel their skills and intelligence can be improved with effort and persistence.
I was also recollecting my struggles with learning languages during my student days. Whichever language I tried learning I struggled. My mum still teases me on the efforts that she had to put to make me to learn Hindi. The situation was so bad that if I lost 50 marks in all the subjects almost 45 of them would have been lost in the languages. Even the teachers would remark that I must spend time figuring out the 2nd and 3rd languages. Today I can manage multiple languages and can pick up more with ease. While I couldn’t figure out what was disabling me from learning those languages in the student days looking back maybe it was some fixed mindset that I had about myself that I couldn’t learn languages which was the real reason.
So, like we saw in the case of Beane mindset is not something permanent and can be modified and redefined once we are aware about the same and are conscious about the changes.
At the beginning of the blog had mentioned about how the greats are able to suddenly raise their performance levels in most do or die situations. One of the methods used by such champions is the ability to go back to earlier reference points. These reference points are situations in the past at times not even related to the present situation that they are in where they were able to raise their performance levels to otherwise unimaginable levels. This is something which has been acknowledged by champions like Sampras and Jackie Joyner Kersee.
Some of the keyways that researchers found where champions used the growth mindset were as below.
1.Champions with the growth mindset found success in doing their best in learning and improving and focusing less on the results.
2.Champions with the growth mindset used setbacks as wake up calls. To understand the gaps and the areas of improvement and to work on them.
3.Champions with the growth mindset understood the process that got them the success and found ways to build them into their routines so that they could maintain the same.
Embracing a growth mindset may require some effort, but it’s well worth it for individuals. By delving into the practical applications of growth mindset, you can discover a whole new dimension of self-awareness, purpose, and forward momentum. It’s like unlocking a treasure trove of personal and professional development opportunities!
To understand how you can lift your game and develop a growth mindset do subscribe to my LinkedIn newsletter Rejo’s Biz Bytes and visit my website www.rejofrancis.com
