Turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks

Typically we look to formal education and qualifications for professional development and self-directed learning for personal development.

Creativity, critical thinking and leadership are often cited as aptitudes needed to counter the ‘productivity is for machines’ argument put forward by Futurist Kevin Kelly.

Jeff Cobb argues these attitudes are helpful, but they require continual replacement through learning. Therefore the ability to continually learn is the primary skill we should be cultivating. Learning is an art that needs mastering to turn information into knowledge.

There are two successful ways to learn something. One is to apply the information. The other is to teach it to someone else.

Fixed and Growth Mindsets

The primary reason people stop learning is that they have developed a fixed mindset.

In a traditional education context, it would be uncool to show a desire to learn more. Instead, teachers ask and reward students for the right answer. Being ‘wrong’ is something we usually try and avoid.

To be successful, we must change from a desire to validate our talent and intelligence, to stretching to learn something new. Unfortunately, traditional education measures performance over development. Most of us developed a fixed mindset from our earliest school days. As a society, we praise talent over hard work. We must shift instead to valuing learners over non-learners.

Pioneering mindset researcher Carol Dweck asked a group of children if they would rather do the same easy puzzle or try a harder one each time. Already, a group of four-year-olds displayed fixed mindsets, declaring that smart children ‘don’t do mistakes.’ Whereas the growth mindset children thought it strange that anyone would want to repeat the same puzzle.

Do you crave feedback on your ability, or do you want to learn new things? If you would prefer to have your talent validated instead of a challenge, then you have a fixed mindset. The good news is, mindset, like all of our traits, is changeable with applied effort.