For those of you who went to school with me before I graduated, you are probably way too familiar with the term “growth mindset”. For context, every Wednesday in middle school, my school’s teachers would make us read about a different historical figure and write about their mindset, and how important it is for us to have a growth mindset. And to no one’s surprise, we hated it. All that middle schoolers want to do is hang out and mess around, but even school took priority over things that we considered cheesy and useless, such as these papers. Even for me, who loved learning and my classes in school, this was something that I dreaded. We made fun of this all the way up until graduation, light-heartedly joking about how much we hated those worksheets.
However, time is a funny thing. The longer that I had gone without these growth mindset worksheets, the more I realized how much I valued them. Sure, I didn’t care to read about people that died a few hundred years ago, and writing a paragraph on how I can become a “better” person isn’t what any 12-year-old wants to do, but I get it now. The idea of a mindset is one of the most influential things on your actions, thoughts, and words. The way that we think affects what we do, which in turn shapes us into who we are.
So, what is a growth mindset anyway? It is the idea that “intelligence, abilities, and talents as learnable and capable of improvement through effort” (Harvard), while a fixed mindset is the idea that none of these things can ever change. If you believe that putting in effort to become “better” works, that will push you to challenge yourself and become better every single day. However, if you think that nothing will change, then you really have no motivation to do anything or go anywhere in life.
This is something that I learned a lot about while playing sports in high school. In the years that I played tennis, I realized the thing that separated good and great players was not natural talent, but what they thought. People that don’t see every day as an opportunity to get better, and don’t give themselves room for mistakes to recognize the flow of progress, peak pretty quickly and then remain stagnant. You’ll notice that a lot of great athletes spend a lot of time practicing off the court, becoming mentally resilient and learning how to push past mental adversity to get past the times when your mind is desperately telling you that it wants to stop. You see, most of the reason people stop when playing an intense sport or lifting weights is not that their body physically cannot go any farther, but because their mind’s desire to stop being uncomfortable outweighs the intention to push yourself and get stronger. This is why it is said that physical activity is actually more mental.
Because of learning all of this, it changed the way that I played tennis. I learned how to better recognize whether my body physically could not go any further or whether my mind simply wanted the easy way out. This helped me push my limits on the court and challenge myself on a whole new level.
But you guys know that I love talking about my faith on this blog, so of course the question now is, how does this have anything to do with our faith?
When studying this out, one thing that stands out concerning the mindset in the Bible is having our minds focused on things above, like how Colossians 3:2 says to “set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” This means that our minds should not be stuck thinking on things of this earth, but instead be focused on things that are eternal, like the word of God and the souls of men. Whenever I get stuck thinking about things of the earth, I can become overwhelmed by how much homework I have, become scared of the lack of future plans I have, and even feel hopeless when I think about my life’s purpose. In all honesty, this is a scary place to be. However, Romans says this: “and be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2).
This verse is instructing us to not let our minds get stuck in the world, and allow ourselves to be consumed by the world, but instead let our minds be changed by God and the hope that we have in Him. Once you take a step back and look back at the story of God, from Genesis to Revelation, we begin to have a clearer path of where we fit in in this life. Instead of being consumed by temporal, arguably useless things, we can set our minds to the job that we have of sharing the hope that we have in Christ and His death and resurrection. This rejuvenates our spirit, and reminds us of the true purpose that we have.
In addition, the New Testament talks about how we should be thinking and what we should fill our minds with. “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6). Here, we as believers are told to walk in confidence, knowing that our steps are already determined, and there is a sure plan that Jesus has for our lives. We do not have to stumble around trying to find our own way, but instead live with a purpose, knowing the assurance that we have.
One thing that has personally helped me a lot when my mindset shifts to hopelessness and the darkness of this world is to remember what my mind should be fixed on. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8). This is a pretty commonly known verse, and one that has come in handy countless times. There are often times where I let my mind get consumed by the dark realities of this world, often in times of loneliness or late at night when my mind begins to spiral. These thoughts can be scary, and this is when I most often feel the gravity that sin has in our world. However, reciting this verse over and over again gives me hope, and anchors me towards the truth that this world is not my home. Jesus has saved and redeemed me, so I have a hope and a future because of this salvation that I have received by grace. He has defeated death in his resurrection, which means that I have no fear of it. Why fear something that has already been beaten? Hallelujah!
All of this to say, the way we think impacts who we are. If you are constantly letting yourself complain about the temporal struggles of this world, or seem to get stuck in the weight of the world, take a minute to fix your mind on eternal life, and remember the joy that the Lord has given you that we are instructed to take to the rest of the world. Let your mind be transformed by the power of Christ!
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