On failure pt. 2
Two days ago I wrote about failure … I don’t like it … then yesterday catching up on Sunday’s New York Times, I read this article about growth.
It seems that our perceptions about ourselves have vast sway over our development. I mean, VAST.
Ms. Rae-Dupree sums up thoughts from a 2006 book by Carol Dweck, “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” that describes two views one holds about oneself.
We can think we’re born with talent or not. Whether we think we’re Picasso or a dolt, we limit ourselves profoundly when we adopt this view. It’s called the “Fixed Mindset.”
If we think we grow constantly … learning and doing more, becoming smarter all the time … we have a “Growth Mindset.” The author says this way of thinking allows a person to really do things … to accomplish … to lead.
I think back to my worries about failure … and realize that failure is the very seed of greatness. This article confirmed those thoughts:
People with a growth mind-set tend to demonstrate the kind of perseverance and resilience required to convert life’s setbacks into future successes. That ability to learn from experience was cited as the No. 1 ingredient for creative achievement in a poll of 143 creativity researchers cited in “Handbook of Creativity” in 1999.
It’s reassuring to read such a source as the New York Times … and the book’s author … wax about failure.
I can’t say it makes the bitter pill easier to swallow. Facing my shortcomings … my hapless tap dancing, my dull prose, my lack of original thought … still takes my breath away.
Yet once I get those mediocre thoughts out of the way … I can move on … and up … hopefully that is … to the lofty thoughts and ideas that, when they come, make it all worthwhile and make ordinary life transcendent and breathes life into ordinary words.
