Why Mindset Matters As We Age
Rethinking what it means to “successfully” age
I’m 25, but older adulthood has been on my mind a lot lately. Sometimes things happen in life that make you start thinking about where you’ll be in 10, 20, 50, or more years.
We start to wonder what we can do now to make our lives better in the future. And we have more moments of acute awareness of our mortality.
There’s a concept known as “successful aging” in the study of lifespan development. Before I tell you what academics think it means, think about it yourself for a minute. What do you think it means to “successfully” age?
Here’s the original definition —
- Avoiding disease and disability
- High cognitive and physical function
- Engagement with life
Hmm. Do you agree with that list? Is there anything you’d add to it, or maybe even remove from it in consideration of different environments, individual experiences, and culture?
What about the term “successful aging” itself — is it problematic? Doesn’t it imply there’s an opposite — “unsuccessful agers”? To what extent is “success” attributable to individuals versus their environment and factors such as socioeconomic status? (If you’re curious, here’s a lengthy academic critique of the original definition).
I don’t have the answers to these questions. I don’t even know if there’s a single “right” answer to any of them. But I find it fascinating to think about what it means to me personally to “successfully” age.
I stumbled on an article this morning that talked about developing a powerful mindset by Cristian Mihai. It was focused on blogging, but something clicked as I read it. Mindset can apply to anything.
I started thinking about mindset in the context of aging. My curiosity was piqued — I have a degree in education, and in my classes we constantly talked about how teachers can help children develop a growth mindset. There’s a ton of research on this in educational contexts.
But I started wondering, what about mindset in older adulthood? Is there any research on that?
What about those of us who didn’t develop a growth mindset as a kid? What does the role of mindset look like in older adulthood? Why does it matter for adults? And what about all those stereotypes about aging that go directly against a growth mindset?
How often have you heard the phrase, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks?”
This is just one example of a negative stereotype about older adulthood that goes directly against a growth mindset mentality. And let’s be honest — how many times have you heard an adult (or maybe even yourself) say something that endorses a fixed mindset like, “I’m just not good at math”?
Mindset doesn’t stop mattering after childhood, and a lot of adults hold very fixed beliefs about their abilities. Out of curiosity, I spent a few hours today searching for research on growth mindset in adulthood. There’s not a lot out there, but here’s what I found:
1. Older adults who endorse a growth mindset are more likely to engage in preventative health behaviors such as diet, sleep, and exercising.
This makes sense. If you believe your efforts will lead to improvement, you would probably be more likely to make an effort in the first place. If you don’t think you can change anything, why bother trying at all?
2. Adults who are trying to quit smoking are more likely to be successful if they have a growth mindset.
This was shocking to me — growth mindset in this study was as potent as nicotine replacement therapy in motivating individuals to stop smoking.
3. A fixed mindset in older adulthood relates to worse cognitive performance.
Older adults who endorse the belief that abilities are fixed exhibited poorer memory performance in this study.
4. Mindset matters for mental health.
Having a growth mindset about mental health serves as a buffer for adults between stressful life events and psychological distress.
5. A growth mindset could help lessen the negative impact of ageism.
Negative age-related stereotypes affect older adults’ psychological and physical health. However, people vary in how much they experience these negative effects.
Differences in mindset partially explain this — when confronted with negative age-related stereotypes, older adults with a fixed mindset exhibited physical symptoms like increased systolic blood pressure reactivity.
Older adults with a growth mindset did not experience these physical symptoms when confronted with the same stereotypes.
To me, these are some pretty stunning findings. The idea that mindset can impact your psychological and physical health as you age is mind-blowing.
But I should note that as with any new line of research, take it with a grain of salt — there could be other factors at play here. Some studies considered factors such as socioeconomic status but others didn’t, and we still need more information.
We also need more research to understand how to promote a growth mindset in adulthood. We have a pretty good idea of how to do this for kids, but what works for kids probably won’t work for adults.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, because I want to figure out ways to make a growth mindset a lifelong habit. Habit formation can happen at any point in your life. So why not start now, especially with growing evidence of the benefits of a growth mindset as we age?
Here are 4 key pieces of advice (courtesy of Carol Dweck) to foster a growth mindset and transform it into a lifelong habit:
- Love challenges
- Be intrigued by mistakes
- Enjoy effort
- Keep on learning
Think of some specific things in your life that fall under each of these 4 items, and turn them into goals. The secret to habit formation is setting SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound).
As a personal example, while growing my business I’m learning to cherish rejections and use them as a learning opportunity. I’m intrigued by the reasons behind my mistakes — why did that article get rejected and what can I do better next time? How can I optimize work processes to get better results the next time? How am I measuring success? In the meantime, I’m enjoying the effort and learning that naturally follow.
Think of some ways the 4 tips above can apply to your life, and start fostering a growth mindset habit today that you can carry with you the rest of your life. You might be delighted by the benefits as you age.
Rethinking Aging with Mindset in Mind
Perhaps mindset is one item missing from the original definition of “successful aging”. We all have our own definitions of what it means to age well, informed by our personal experiences and values. A growth mindset is definitely getting added to mine.