When things go wrong

In last week’s blog, an opportunity vs. a barrier , I reflected on the beauty of a combination of the two perspectives: the glass half full and the glass half empty. The half full perspective is looking at a situation optimistically which in turn motivates others to dream and think forward towards new opportunities. That optimism in isolation of accurate information collection, however, can be unrealistic. On the other side, the glass half empty perspective in isolation can lack the hope of an improved future. A combination of the two perspectives brings balance and health. 
In the same way, we want to reflect on the balance when things go wrong. Let's think about an example for a minute… let's say your child returns with a poor grade.

• The glass half full perspective could quickly go to optimism, encouraging the child with vague general statements like, ``You'll do better next time” and “I believe in you”. While that is nice that someone is on their side-they lack the data or measurement to identify what in fact went wrong. 
• The glass half empty parent might ask to look over the test with the student and find all the places where the child went wrong and create a list of things to fix, perhaps forgetting to share the optimism of , “hey, I see a theme with these errors-if we fix that one inaccuracy in those questions-you could gain 5 whole points”.
  

This is where the concept of a growth mindset can be super helpful as it is a wonderful combination of both perspectives. The general concept and research behind a growth mindset explains that in situations, you can either operate with a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. Fixed mindset statements are ones that state a closed door to learning, where growth mindset statements look to where change can bring an improvement. A fixed mindset statement would be “I’m not good at this”, whereas a growth mindset statement would be “What am I missing?”.

Operating with a growth mindset is such a powerful approach because then the focus is no longer on the result but rather the attitude of looking for growth. 
I encourage you to:

1. Watch this video from Carol Dweck to really master the concept of growth mindset.
2. Print out the list above and paste it on your wall. 
3. Have your child rephrase their fixed mindset statements with the corresponding growth mindset approach. 

Through this, you will see the power of things going wrong and the beauty of the learning that comes from these.