What’s the Difference Between a Growth Mindset and Brain Health?

You want both and here’s why

Today, one of the first respondents to Extend My Runway’s Brain Health study in Singapore, which is this nation’s first careful study of brain health using the BrainHealth Index, asked me a thoughtful question.

“How would you describe the difference between a test like this and say a Growth Mindset test for executives?” — CEO, based in Singapore

Let’s take a closer look and treat this as an extension of the earlier post differentiating between brain health and mental health.

A Growth Mindset is a Belief

Carol Dweck is quite direct in describing the growth mindset as a view or perspective about your ability to develop and evolve. Are your abilities fixed, or can you grow?

“A growth mindset is about believing that people can develop their abilities.” — Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006; pg 215)

In short, our mindset is the meaning that we ascribe to experiences or challenges we may face. If we look at a challenge and think it’s too tough, that I cannot learn and overcome it, or that my abilities are fixed then this is a different meaning we ascribe than what someone with a growth mindset might choose.

A person with a growth mindset might see an opportunity to learn and see fun in the challenge, whereas a person with a fixed mindset might see a barrier that we cannot overcome.

Brain Health is Your Brain’s Ability to Function and Perform Important Duties

The Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas — Dallas (full disclosure, we have partnered with The Center to conduct brain health research in Singapore) gives us a very nice definition of brain health.

“Brain health is a higher category of health that includes every aspect of brain function, including creativity, social interaction, reasoning, memory, resilience, mental health and so much more.”

The World Health Organization offers a similar definition. “Brain health is the state of brain functioning across cognitive, sensory, social-emotional, behavioural and motor domains, allowing a person to realize their full potential over the life course, irrespective of the presence or absence of disorders.”

As you can see, the brain health professional focuses more on the brain’s functions, the wellness and performance of those functions, and our subsequent ability to live and work to the best of our ability.

• memory,
• learning,
• abstract reasoning,
• innovative thinking,
• building meaningful relationships,
• emotional control and well being
• increasing cognitive reserves,
• differences in performance at different points across the lifespan,
• absence of neurodegenerative disease such as dementia or Alzhiemer’s,
• and more.

What Does it Mean for You?

We hope you already possess, or learn to adopt, a growth mindset.

The very concept of neuroplasticity teaches us that you are not stuck with the brain you are born with. Any healthy person can learn, develop and evolve into something new and better. Authors and researchers such as David Eagleman and Lisa Feldman Barrett have done a superb job of explaining how our brain rewires and adapts (i.e., neuroplasticity) to changes in our surrounding environment and experiences.

So no, you are not stuck with the brain you were both with. Growth mindset and brain health go nicely hand-in-hand to complement one another.

You want both.