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Mindset [en]
Personal growth is a topic which occupies me for some time. Lately I stumbled upon the terms fixed Mindset and growth Mindset which seems to be common in the educational science and in social studies while watching a speeches Q&A session during the 34C3 Chaos Computer Club Congress. Sometimes its just the words we are missing to express our thoughts.
What is a Mindset?
One can define mindset as a mentality or better an individual set of basic assumptions and behaviours. Interesting and relevant is for example a women specific mindset, which is embossed through social imprint and social standards. Women from social layers and structures tend to feel themselves as inadequate and inferior in for example technical educations or men dominated fields. The lifetime focus is naturally seen within the family and in assumed female areas of life. This mindset, this embossing, has nothing to do with the ability to solve a technical education or work or a more domestic field of exercise. More likely are this behaviours forcing the women to make decisions on a certain way without a biological or cognitive need.
A mindset is therefore a set of behaviors and imprints that lead significant our actions and decisions.
Observations of a pedestrian
Parallel I had observed on people for which I was missing the terms. As a craftsman I have naturally given an other sphere of influence as people with other professions. One can meet the most curious characters, particulary for being an anarchist one has another point of view.
From time to time one comes from the shores of the middle class also in the areas of academical educated citizen or in the lowerings of the precarioused. The last I met the last days and learned that children were born stupid or intelligent and one has no influence on that. The author of this wisdom seems to be an agent of the fixed mindset. On a child which is from birth not as intelligent as it could be one has no influence if it fails in school. There is no help with encouragement and support. I for myself am a friend of the growth mindset, that means that I am convinced that all abilities can be trained and developed and that additional abilities can built upon established abilites. Often I see wonderful kids (can there be something else than a wonderful kid?) whom paths were drawn negativly by education and circumstances and not by birth, fate or genes. According to experience this kids were aided and raised below their abilities and lead existences far below on which would be possible and what would be satisfying.
Another example was a discussionabout personal growth and the active development of the own abilities by skill and favour. What seems to me as a desireable becoming was critizised hard from my discussion partner as a forced optimization. Instead seeing the positive in a selfdedicated development one sees himself as perfect enough and not in need for optimization.
What has this to do with paganism?
In paganism it is repeatingly about Initation, crossing and growing. It is about, to quote the song "Kvervandi", that the wheel sings from rings, not from lines. Our lifes are a continous growing and decaying, but not static. A fixed mindset is something one should avoid in my opinion. A growth mindset is in celtic and in germanic paganism the normal state. But the question is in which direction can we develop ourselfes? Which destination board do we apply for us, which ways are open for us? The first step on this way of concious and willingly development in my opinion is to discuss that topic.