Mindset: Psychology of Success

HOW WE CAN LEARN TO FULFILL OUR POTENTIAL

The book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success was written by Carol Dweck, psychology professor at Stanford. It’s one of the most popular psychology and personal development books out there today.

The book very well resonates with my life experience. Everything I achieved in life was based purely on the growth mindset.

In the summary, you will learn five main things from the book:

1. The real difference between the fixed and the growth mindset.

2. How your mindset can differ for different areas of life. In other words, we all have a growth approach to some areas of life and a fixed approach to others.

3. What kind of results the different mindsets give in sports, business and relationships.

4. How the wrong kind of praise leads to the fixed mindset. You will learn how to correctly praise your children.

5. In the end, we will answer the ultimate question – is it possible to change your mindset?

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THE FIXED MINDSET

If you believe that your personal qualities and characteristics are carved in stone, that creates an urgency to prove your worth over and over again. The fixed mindset is a heavy burden.

You believe that it’s not enough just to succeed, it’s not enough to look smart and talented, you have to be practically flawless, and you have to be perfect right away, from scratch, without any effort.

In the fixed mindset, everything is about the outcome. If you fail or if you aren’t the best, everything was wasted.

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THE GROWTH MINDSET

It’s absolutely true that we all differ in our initial talents, aptitudes, interests, personality characteristics and temperaments.

But the growth mindset emphasizes the fact that we can all change, grow and progress through efforts, application and experience.

That kind of an underlying belief creates a passion for learning. In the growth mindset, it’s inconceivable to have a goal with a sense that you can actually achieve it, and then do nothing about it.

That doesn’t mean that anyone can be the next Einstein, Beethoven or Elon Musk only with proper motivation. But it definitely means that the true potential of a person is unknown and unknowable.

It’s impossible to say what one can accomplish with years of passion, training and toil. The growth mindset also doesn’t indicate that failure is not a painful experience. But in the growth mindset, failure doesn’t define you.

Having the growth mindset doesn’t protect you from the pain of failure. But failure doesn’t define you. A failure is only a temporary problem to be faced, dealt with, and learned from.

The hallmark of the growth mindset is a passion for stretching and pushing yourself and sticking to your goals, especially when things are not going well and you have to persist through very challenging times.

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THE ULTIMATE QUESTION – IS IT POSSIBLE TO CHANGE YOUR MINDSET?

The good news is that you can always change or upgrade your mindset. Just by knowing about the fixed and the growth mindset, you can start thinking, reacting and seeing yourself, others and the world in new ways.