Do You Have A Growth Mindset?

I have thought carefully about this first post.  The best place to start is at the beginning.  To become a great player, a golfer must work deliberately to improve in three areas:  First, he must develop his craft – the skills necessary to consistently hit quality golf shots.  This is what most players spend the most time on – hitting balls on the practice ground to develop their swing.  Second, he must be physically fit.  Most tour and college players today have a fitness routine and integrate that into their process to improve.  Third, he must develop his mental skills.

This blog will focus on the mental aspects of the game of golf.  Importantly, I will discuss principles of modern psychology and neuroscience, and in particular I will integrate the principles of Positive Psychology, which is the study of the strengths that enable individuals to thrive.  Positive psychology was first developed by Dr. Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania in 1998.

Daniel Coyle, the author of The Talent Code,  has identified the two most important pillars in a golfer’s mental development.  He said:  “If I were to create a perfect golfer, I would start by giving them grit and a growth mindset.  It’s not the seasoning in this recipe, it is the steak.”  While topics like dealing with fear and anxiety and developing a good pre shot routine will be topics for later posts, it is important to start with the proper foundation.  Every good player has a good grip.  Likewise, every good player must embrace and apply these two pillars − the “growth mindset” and “grit.”

What is Mindset?

Our beliefs about our own abilities and qualities fuel our behavior and predict our success on the golf course.  This is our “mindset.”  Mindset is a simple idea discovered by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck in decades of research on achievement and success culminating in the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.  Through extensive research, Dweck found that that individuals – and for us, that means golfers – have one of two mindsets.

A “fixed mindset” assumes that our skills and abilities are static or fixed and that they cannot be changed.  Athletes with a fixed mindset spend their time defending their skills and talent instead of developing them, which creates an urgency to prove themselves over and over.  Every round of golf causes a fixed mindset person to ask herself, “Will I succeed or fail? Will I embarrass myself?  Will I be a loser?  As a result, fixed mindset people tend to avoid challenges and fear failure.

A “growth mindset” is a belief that our skills can be developed and improved through dedication and hard work. As Dr. Dweck describes it, “The hand you’re dealt is just the starting point for development . . . everyone can change and grow through application and experience.” A golfer with a growth mindset thrives on challenges, accepts poor rounds or tournaments as learning opportunities, embraces feedback, ignores what others think or say about their performance.

The two mindsets exemplify two different worlds.  In the fixed mindset world, success is shooting a good round or making the team, proving that you have talent.  Golfers with a fixed mindset want to validate themselves.  In the other, better world of the growth mindset, the focus is on improvement, learning something new and stretching yourself.  In a fixed mindset world, a bad round is a setback.  In the other world, failure means you need to continue to grow and seek to reach your potential.

Proof that Mindset Makes a Difference

Dr. Dweck’s studies clearly establish that the growth mindset can make a difference in performance.  In one of her most famous experiments, she took 400 middle school students and gave them a test. At the end, she praised half for their talent (”Wow, you are really smart”) and half for their effort (”Wow, you are really hard working”).

She then gave the students a test of identical difficulty to the opening test. Those praised for talent deteriorated by 20 per cent.  Those praised for effort, however, boosted their score by 30 per cent.  This is now considered to be one of the most important findings in positive psychology. These were students matched for ability, and the entire difference in performance on the final test was what she told the students after the first test.  Those students who were praised for their effort did better.  It is effort, not talent, that makes the difference.

There is ample evidence that the growth mindset applies to sport, and Dweck’s principles have been adopted by championship sports teams.  The USA Women’s Volleyball team adopted the growth mindset principles, and two years later they won the World Championship for the first time.  The year before the Miami Heat won their back-to-back NBA titles Coach Erik Spoelstra had each player read Mindset.  In fact, he kept a well-worn copy with him on every road trip the first championship season.  The growth mindset is based on proven psychological principles, and individuals, businesses and teams have demonstrated that it works.

Now, let’s explore how you can develop a growth mindset and apply it to your game.

Steps to Develop a Growth Mind

I.  Recognize Your Fixed Mindset Voice:  As you approach a competitive round, that voice might say to you:  “I am not as good as the other players in the event.” “If I shoot a bad round, the coach will know I do not have talent.”  “If I play poorly, the other girls will know I am a failure.”

Or, if you play a poor tournament, that same fixed mindset voice might say:  “I really am not any good at this game.”  “I told you that I was not ready to play in this event.”  “I will never be able to play college golf.”  Or you might blame your coach by saying:  “I knew that his swing fix would not work for me.

II.  Know that You Have a Choice:  As you experience challenges with your game know that that you can choose to respond with a growth mindset.  It is up to you.  The Austrian psychiatrist and holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl said “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

III.  Talk Back With a Growth Mindset: As you approach a challenge, the fixed mindset voice may say:  “Am I sure if I can make the team?  Maybe I don’t have the talent.”  But, the growth mindset should answer:  “If I try to improve each day, the result will take care of itself.

Or, the fixed mindset voice might say:  “What if I am a failure?”  While the growth mindset should answer:  “Many great players had failures along the way.”  Ben Hogan, one of the best players of all time, was uncoordinated and not a good athlete as a young man.  Through deliberate practice (the topic of a later post) he became great.   Steve Stricker went from number 646 in the world to number 2 in the World, and he did it by spending hour upon hour hitting golf balls from a patch of Astro turf into a snow covered field in Wisconsin.  And we all know the story about Michael Jordan who did not make his high school varsity team in Wilmington.  Hogan, Jordan and Stricker all had a growth mindset.

Practice hearing both voices, and practice acting on the growth mindset.  See how you can make it work for yo

IV. View Challenges as Opportunities:  Having a growth mindset means relishing challenges and risks as opportunities for self-improvement. Under a fixed mindset, the fear of playing poorly prevents players from seeking out advice and making swing changes that might result in a number of good rounds before the change takes effect.  Put aside your fear of playing poorly for a time and make the investment in your growth.  To do this, replace the word “fail” with the word “learn.”

V.  Value Process Over Results:  Golfers with a growth mindset enjoy the process if improving their game and the journey to competitive success.  Players with the fixed mindset focus only on the tournament score.  Often, a player with a fixed mindset will want the round to end on the 12th hole when he is even par, fearful that he might make a few bogeys coming in.  A player with a growth mindset stands on the 13th tee and says “How well can I play these last six holes?” or “What can I do to learn to finish rounds well.”

VI. Cultivate a Sense of Purpose:  Dweck’s research also showed that students with a growth mindset had a greater sense of purpose.  Keep your eye on the long term goal of improving your game, and specifically your mental game.  Be committed to getting better each day.

The best players have a growth mindset.  Start changing your own mindset today!