Definition, Examples, and Books (Growth, Fixed + Other Types)

There are many different types of mindsets that have been explored by researchers and I’m sure there are many other mindsets yet to be discovered. Some of the most well-known (and beneficial) mindsets include:
Each of these mindsets exists on a continuum, which goes from having 100% of this mindset to having 0% of it. So you will fall somewhere on the continuum for each mindset type below:

• Growth Mindset <> Fixed Mindset
• Positive Mindset <> Negative Mindset
• Entrepreneurial Mindset <> Worker Bee Mindset
• Abundance Mindset <> Scarcity Mindset
• Challenge Mindset <> Threat Mindset​
• ​Mindful Mindset <> Mindless Mindset

A growth mindset is the tendency for people to believe that their abilities can be developed through hard work. With a growth mindset, you try harder, you want to learn new strategies, and you seek out feedback when you are stuck (Dweck, 2015). Growth mindset is the most studied type of mindset. Having a growth mindset has been linked to success in a variety of life domains (Yeager et al., 2019).  One way to develop a growth mindset is to learn a bit more about neuroplasticity—or the brain’s ability to change and grow. Indeed, we have the power to change our brains, learn new things, and develop new skills. When we have a mindset that believes this fully, we’re more likely to put in the effort required to learn and grow, which helps us improve our lives in a multitude of ways.

Growth Mindset Examples
Sometimes it can be hard to see how a growth mindset can help us be happier and reach our goals. Here are some growth mindset examples to give you more insight.

• Henry failed his math test. Instead of thinking he’s not smart, he sees this experience as an indication that he needs to study harder.
• Da’Sean wants to change jobs but he will need to be a great public speaker to get the job he wants. But this is no worry to him because Da’Sean knows that he can go to toastmasters and practice public speaking until he gets good enough to get the new job.
• Carla has just lost 100 lbs and wants to see the view from the top of a 14er (a mountain 14,000 feet above sea level). She is scared because she has never done anything like this before. But now that she has lost all the weight, she knows that she can do anything. So she goes for small hikes, then larger ones, and in a year, she makes it to the top of a 14er.

Carol Dweck, the leading growth mindset researcher, suggests that fixed vs growth mindsets result in us living by different self-implemented rules (Dweck, 2009). 

Rule #1
Those with a fixed mindset strive to look talented to others. Those with a growth mindset strive to learn.

Rule #2
Those with a fixed mindset believe they shouldn’t work too hard. In fact, having to work hard must mean you’re not talented. Carol Dweck suggests this may be because fixed mindset individuals were naturally good at things when they were young. They didn’t have to work as hard so later in life when they reach their natural limits, they have a harder pushing through them.

Those with a growth mindset believe in working with passion and dedication, always striving to give their best effort. These individuals may have had to struggle and work hard for success. As a result, they learned that their efforts really do matter and that they can improve their life skills.

Rule #3
Those with a fixed mindset believe they shouldn’t attempt things they might fail at and they hide their weakness from others. Those with a growth mindset are not afraid of failure and aim to improve upon their weaknesses even if they look silly or stupid in the process. 

​Remember though, virtually no one has a 100% fixed or growth mindset. We likely have some aspects of each and we benefit from trying to move more towards the growth mindset side of the continuum.

A positive mindset is the tendency to focus on the good things in life rather than the bad. People with a positive mindset may use strategies like gratitude, reappraisal, and savoring to identify the good things and increase their positive emotions (Quoidbach, Mikolajczak, & Gross, 2015). Their attitudes are generally optimistic and they tend to expect the best. 

A positive mindset can be great for our well-being and even help us to be more successful. In fact, the broaden and build theory of positive emotion suggests that positive emotions build on themselves, eventually leading to things like professional and relationship success (Fredrickson, 2004).

Positive Mindset Examples

• Greg decides he wants to start a business that one day makes a million dollars. He’s optimistic about the likelihood of success.
• Arjun completely bombs an assignment at work. But he looks at the experience as a positive because he’s grateful to have a job that challenges him and glad to have the opportunity to try something new.
• Elaine’s job can be dull. But she doesn’t see it that way. She finds ways to make it fun and do nice things for her coworkers, which makes her happy.

An entrepreneurial mindset is helpful for those who want to be entrepreneurs, but it’s also a really useful mindset for all of us in the modern world. Modern life is undergoing near-constant change and the types of skills needed for entrepreneurship are the same skills that are most useful in adapting to, and coping with, rapid change and uncertainty. That’s why I believe an entrepreneurial mindset is a crucial mindset to develop.

According to a whitepaper on entrepreneurial mindset (Gold & Rodriguez, 2018), this mindset is made up of several important skills including:

​These skills are thought to aid academic and career success. Of course, this is a broad range of skills and no one person likely has high levels of all of these skills. Developing the skills we are weaker at may be the most beneficial.

As far as I can tell, the definition of abundance mindset came from the book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and not from the research. The book says that an abundance mindset is in contrast to a scarcity mindset. It refers to the mindset that ‘there is plenty for everybody’, and it says that each of us can develop this mindset. But given the way I just described the research on scarcity mindset, this seems oversimplified. 

Scarcity mindset comes about as a result of our circumstances and it becomes a cycle, feeding itself until it’s resolved. Personally (and as someone who grew up in poverty), I don’t think switching to an abundant mindset in the midst of a crisis is that simple. Further, deciding to shift to a mindset of abundance when we have bills to pay might, in fact, lead us to make bad decisions. We might buy something we can’t afford or fail to pay the rent because we are not overly focused on our pressing needs. Basically, our emotions and attention are designed to help us. Overriding in the context of a crisis is potentially dangerous.

Challenge and threat mindsets are thought to arise in performance situations like test-taking, game-playing, athletics, work tasks, and elsewhere. We can either evaluate these situations as a challenge that we can handle or a threat that might annihilate us.

​This mindset is about how we evaluate the demands of the situation and our resources for coping with these demands. Resources may include skills, knowledge, abilities, dispositions (like positive self-esteem), and external support. Demands may include danger, uncertainty, and required effort (Blascovich et al., 2004). The thing is that most of these resources and demands are attitudes, perceptions, and other cognitions—things that we have the power to change.

By pushing ourselves to see our difficult circumstances as challenges that we can handle, we actually respond to these situations in ways that are more beneficial. A challenge mindset changes our physiology in ways that can make us more successful at the task (Blascovich et al., 2004).

​Examples of a Challenge Mindset

• Yvonne might tell herself “I can do it!” when running a marathon.
• Alabaster might tell himself that “I can handle anything they throw at me,” when work is getting nearly too intense to handle.
• Louise might believe that she has the skills to recover from her depression; she just has to keep at it.

Most people talk about mindfulness as a state of being rather than a mindset, but mindfulness is a mental state and an approach to life so I agree with those who consider this a type of mindset. A mindful mindset involves being aware, open, and accepting (Carson & Langer, 2006). We make an effort to be present in the moment, to pay attention to the details of life, and to stay out of our heads whenever possible.

A mindful mindset is in contrast to a mindless mindset. When we are mindless, we go from one thing to the next without understanding why. We don’t pay attention to what’s happening around us. And we may be caught up in worries about the past or the future. Shifting to a more mindful mindset can help us de-stress and enjoy life a bit more. 

To learn more about mindset, check out some of the most popular mindset books:

Want to learn more? Check out these articles:

• Blascovich, J., Seery, M. D., Mugridge, C. A., Norris, R. K., & Weisbuch, M. (2004). Predicting athletic performance from cardiovascular indexes of challenge and threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40(5), 683-688.
• ​Carson, S. H., & Langer, E. J. (2006). Mindfulness and self-acceptance. Journal of rational-emotive and cognitive-behavior therapy, 24(1), 29-43.
• Dweck, C. S. (2009). Mindsets: Developing talent through a growth mindset. Olympic Coach, 21(1), 4-7.
• Dweck, C. (2015). Carol Dweck revisits the growth mindset. Education Week, 35(5), 20-24.
• Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). The broaden–and–build theory of positive emotions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 359(1449), 1367-1377.​
• Gold, T., & Rodriguez, S. (2018). Measuring entrepreneurial mindset in youth: Learning from NFTE’s Entrepreneurial Mindset Index. Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.
• Perlow, L. A. (1999). The time famine: Toward a sociology of work time. Administrative science quarterly, 44(1), 57-81.
• Quoidbach, J., Mikolajczak, M., & Gross, J. J. (2015). Positive interventions: An emotion regulation perspective. Psychological bulletin, 141(3), 655.
• Shah, A. K., Mullainathan, S., & Shafir, E. (2012). Some consequences of having too little. Science, 338(6107), 682-685.​
• Yeager, D. S., Hanselman, P., Walton, G. M., Murray, J. S., Crosnoe, R., Muller, C., … & Paunesku, D. (2019). A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement. Nature, 573(7774), 364-369.