Growth of Mind

I have found that the overall message of the book, Procrastination by Jane B. Burka, PhD & Lenora M. Yuen, PhD, is a concept called "Growth of Mind". Many procrastinators are actually perfectionists! But they struggle with failure. Some perfectionists believe that they have to complete a task perfectly even if its goal is impossible. For example (Now this is an extreme situation but its just to get the point across), say its your first day working at McDonalds. Being the perfectionist that you are, every mistake that you make is seen as a flaw or yours. You begin to feel that maybe working at a fast food restaurant is not your style. This would be an example of someone with a Fixed Mindset: intelligent attributes are fixed and permanent, and success is all about proving yourself and validating that you are smart and talented (Burka and Yuen 28). Having this mindset puts a ton of stress on you, always fighting to prove yourself. The pressure to perform well on finals would be unbearable.

On the flip side, Growth Mindset: hard work and effort make you smarter and better over time (Burka and Yuen 29). Your self worth is not determined by how well you complete a task but on how much you improve. The definition of  "ability" is no longer fixed on entity; it is something that can change and develop. This mindset decreases stress immensely, creating the central goal to improve rather than to prove your self worth. Adopting this mindset is one way to reduce procrastination, maybe even eliminate it. You no longer feel the need to prove yourself. Difficult goals appear to be learning opportunities to stretch and improve your abilities. If you fail, you do not feel like a failure. Instead you redouble your efforts and work harder rather than procrastinating your efforts.

Try using Growth of Mind concept on small tasks in your life, slowly implementing it into serious task.

Which mindset to you believe you are?