I recently learned that one of my foundations in life which is

Think for yourself – Question Everything- Never Stop Learning

has been tagged as

A Growth Mindset

As opposed to the recently most accepted view that people are born with fixed and unchanging neural pathways.

I have tried to live every day of my life for the last 30+ years by that mantra. Just because I am likely in the final years of my life doesn’t mean that I don’t need to learn anything else. That type of mindset, especially in your senior years is most detrimental. To me that is the same as just lying back and waiting to die. I very much intend to grow all the way up to taking my last breath.

But, in some ways, that can be quite difficult. Physical handicaps increase as we age. That can make what once was a simple task into something much more difficult.

Getting to the point of this post, scientists who study the brain made a big breakthrough in the last century on a concept called neuroplasticity. It’s the idea that the brain can reorganize itself in response to events throughout a person’s lifetime. Plainly speaking, the mind is flexible. It is not fixed by your genes or anything else biological. Our mindset is shaped by the kind of pathways we create to groom us for success or failure.

The excuse “My brain doesn’t work that way” is simply an excuse to stop learning. A fixed mindset can lead to a fear of failure and a lack of mentality growth.

Reading the descriptions of these two terms has me thinking that I would also prefer a growth mindset as an artist. I think it’s fairly obvious that if you have a fixed mindset, you don’t think you can improve in art or make it as an artist. That’s a bunch of horse feathers.