When I say the word adversity, what comes to mind?

For some, it may be facing a serious illness for themselves or a loved one, loss of a job, end of a relationship, struggle with mental health, sustaining a serious injury as an athlete just to name a few.

For others, the challenges might be around a positive goal but still a challenging situation such as changing careers, starting a new business, training for an athletic pursuit or simply investing in personal development.

The similar thread that runs through all these examples is the struggle we all face with ourselves as we navigate these situations. It’s through adversity, big or small, when those common fears and doubts about ourselves come to the surface. It happens anytime we’re taken off course of the norm and what we’re used to.

In fact, our brain really doesn’t like it. It likes patterns, it likes sameness, it likes preserving energy and limiting change.

This is where mindset comes in, in particular a growth mindset.

According to Stanford professor Carol Dweck in her book Mindset, a growth mindset describes people who believe that their success depends on time and effort. People with a growth mindset feel their skills and intelligence can be improved with effort and persistence. They embrace challenges, persist through obstacles, learn from criticism and seek out inspiration in others’ success.

As opposed to a fixed mindset, where people see their qualities as fixed traits that cannot change. With a fixed mindset, talent is enough to lead to success and effort to improve these talents isn’t required: one is born with a certain amount of skill and intelligence that can’t be improved upon.