Growth Mindset: Reasons Behind Failure

This week, I continue my learnings on the growth mindset. I read the article entitled, "Behavioral research illuminates the very human heart of when, why, and how we fail," by Cassie Werber.

One thing that this article confirmed was that we often blame ourselves when we fall short of our goals. For instance, when someone doesn't go to the gym on February 1st, they try to blame themselves for their failure. But perhaps instead, we should just view it as an inconsistency that is surrounded on one side by 30 days of success, and has the potential to be surrounded by 30 more. I was able to learn that another approach to this is by applying Game Theory. Game Theory is a sort of economic theory that tells us how a multi-player interaction can be optimized. They give the example of a smoker as both players in a two player game and how he was able to overcome his vice.

One thing I would like to know more about is how many people simply give up on an entire goal when they have moderately failed. For instance, eating junk food within a week after making a goal not to, and whether or not we look for excuses in our life, or use it as motivation forwards.

Success and Failure cross when we face adversity. Source: Flickr

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