Cultivating a Growth Mindset for Effective Adaptation

I have a really hard time being away from home for an extended period of time. It took me about 6 months to get used to sleeping through a full night in my apartment when I went away for school. As I got older I did not enjoy sleeping out at friend’s places, or when I had to catch a ride with someone and be on their time. Something about not being in full control made me anxious. I love my bed, coming and going as I please, and waking up in a place where I am comfortable. These feelings aren’t out of the ordinary or entirely problematic. Adjusting to a new setting is often hard for many of us and with our resistance comes an onset of other concerns.

The real problem is when I cannot feel at home in my own bed.

Adaptation is critical for your cognitive maturity. According to Piaget’s theory, adaptation and organization are the conductors of intellectual growth and biological development. Piaget emphasizes two phases: Assimilation and accommodation. Both work in conjunction with one another. Assimilation is the gathering process of new information through external events. During accommodation, we convert this new information to somehow fit our previously biased mind. In order to meet situational needs, we must change. But, what do we do with the old information?

Typically, the act of accommodation is harder. Believing is the state of mind where we can choose whether or not to accept accommodating the environment. It is certainly possible to comprehend something to be true but not believe. For some of us, letting go of the old information is unacceptable. Even if we know the information is bad for us we are comfortable with it. One of our biggest problems in life is the fear of ‘the unknown’ which is why we are self-limiting creatures.

In order to accommodate ourselves, we may have to adapt to both external & internal demands, and it is not always successful. The skill we must learn to dominate is remaining in the capricious sequence of uncomfortable striving for comfortable. Herein lies our second problem, we are not aware of when and how to do this without basing our actions on pure emotions. Due to our own reluctance, the problem which many of us face is never adapting through the physiological or behavioral change necessary for growth.

We are now stuck in our bed every night thinking it's someone else’s.

We often put our bodies through strenuous activity believing it will adapt, but rarely think the same for our minds. Exercising and excessive drinking are both scenarios that would create a shock to our system initially, but eventually if done over time we would adapt and be able to sustain more of either activity. Our body is incredibly smart and naturally seeks a relatively stable environment (Homeostasis). We resort to finding our bed at home in uncomfortable situations (Allostasis).

Regardless if the intention is positive or negative, these mechanisms can lead to a long-term dysregulation of allostasis, promoting maladaptive effects of the body and brain under chronically stressful conditions. Eventually, the process is compromising resiliency and health, the opposite scenario many of us truly want.

“The core emotional systems of the brain serve together as the primary facilitator of physiological modification to the so-called stressor we face. Allostasis and all other processes unraveled in leading us back to homeostasis come secondary”.

PROGRESS TOWARDS A GROWTH MINDSET

The foundation In Darwin’s ‘Natural Selection”, was based upon the idea which members of a species compete with each other for resources. Those individuals who adapted have a better chance of surviving to reproduce. This indication revolutionized the field of evolution. How do we instead compete with ourselves instead of others in order to adapt?

We are stuck in a world of the Fixed-mindset trend. Mental toughness is believed to be something you have or you don’t. Once again, our genes are typically to blame for our shortcomings. We have come to understand adaptations from a biological standpoint based on fear. Instead, we must understand one based on psychological matters. A psychological adaptation is a functional, cognitive or behavioral trait that benefits an organism in its environment. The species most willing to adapt are the strongest, (who I like to call the resilient believers). One cannot learn how to adapt without failing a good amount. In order to accept failure as a process of adaptation, we must develop a Growth-Mindset.

GROWTH IS SYNONYMOUS WITH CHANGE

Cultivating a Growth –Mindset may not be an easy task, but nevertheless quite possible. It requires self-awareness and other skills which are in fact not innate. These skills can seem extremely foreign and off-putting, like learning how to snatch for the first time. We must apply an extremely analytical process to the development and excavation of our authentic selves. Once we do that, one can begin to understand what we need vs. what we want and how to meet those needs.

It is through the active pursuit of your own life philosophy that you can and will adapt to the new routine necessary for detachment from the negative self-limiting reality that was born out of the perceptions you constructed in the process of your life thus far. Whatever situation which facilitates the barriers of self-sabotaging must be brought down.

Decades of research suggest that mindsets and our perceived abilities substantially influence motivation, and achievement. Recent research in neurocognitive mechanisms is addressing the gap in which mindset induction may influence cognitive control brain activity. A continuous recent theme in literature states the belief the malleability is what truly matters in challenging situations. What we resist, persists. What we focus on is what we come to know and experience over and over again.

We approach situations with a particular level of determination and effort based on our preconceived notions of the selected topic. As a species, we do not evaluate all options of possibilities well, and this is why we struggle to adapt. The ability to move in any direction at any given time and to adjust foreseen positioning is the true survival mechanisms one must nurture. Success must start with failure; without it, we are unwilling to accommodate for ourselves when change is necessary.

References

1. Dweck, C. S. (1975). The role of expectations and attributions in the alleviation of learned helplessness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

2. Dweck, C. S., & Sorich, L. A. (1999). Mastery-oriented thinking. In C. R. Snyder (Ed.), Coping: The psychology of what works. New York: Oxford University Press.

3. Harvey, P. H. & Pagel, M. D (1998). The Comparative Method in Evolutionary Biology. Oxford University Press.

4. Ganzel, B. L., Morris, P. A., & Wethington, E. (2010). Allostasis and the human brain: Integrating models of stress from the social and life sciences. Psychological Review.

5. Piaget, J., & Garcia, R. (1991). Toward a logic of meanings. New York: Viking.