Growth Mindset
What is Growth Mindset?
Growth mindset is the idea that mistakes are opportunities to grow, rather than choosing to accept that our mistakes are the limitation of our innate abilities.
When we choose to look at a situation with a growth mindset, we are choosing to look at a particular challenge or obstacle with the specific belief that we WILL gain the skills necessary to overcome it, no matter how impossible it may look or feel to us right now.
Why should someone adopt a growth mindset?
If we choose to adopt a growth mindset about a particularly difficult skill for example, our internal monologue may sound a bit like this, “This is a very difficult skill, I recognize that I am getting very frustrated right now, I might need a moment to calm down, but then I should try again, because I know that I can do hard things.”
How does growth mindset apply with my dog?
Adapting this growth mindset can be absolutely life changing, not just in our lives, but in the lives of our dogs as well. Viewing our mistakes as perfect opportunities to learn and grow every single time can really take a lot of the frustration out of training. Instead of getting mad at your dog for not being perfect, you can take pride in the fact that you are able to give your dog one more great lesson in the day.
Don’t ever forget, our dogs WANT to work for us more than anything, and if they aren’t doing it, it is probably a communication problem. Adapting a growth mindset will help you look at the problem in a different way, allowing you and your dog the time and space to learn the skills to solve it together.
