It's not nature or nurture, genes or environment. Not only do genes and environment cooperate as we develop, but genes require input from the environment to work properly.The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.Believing that your qualities are carved in stone - the fixed mindset - crates an urgency to prove yourself over and over.The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts, your strategies and help from others. Everyone can change and grow through application and experience.Howard Gardner, in his book Extraordinary Minds, concluded that exceptional individuals have 'a special talent for identifying their own strengths and weaknesses'. Those with the growth mindset seem to have that talent.The other thing exceptional people seem to have is a special talent for converting life's setbacks into future successes.You have a choice.
Mindsets are just beliefs. They are powerful beliefs but they are just something in your mind, and you can change your mind.Benjamin Barber, an eminent political theorist once said 'I don't divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures; I divide the world into the learners and non-learners'.People in a growth mindset don't just seek challenge, they thrive on it. The bigger the challenge the more they stretch.People with the fixed mindset thrive when things are safely within their grasp. If things get too challenging, when they are not feeling smart or talented, they lost interest.When people with the fixed mindset opt for success and growth, what are they really trying to prove? That they are special.
When people had the fixed mindset, they felt judged and labeled by the rejection. The fixed mindset who coined the phrase “Revenge is sweet”—the idea that with. Redemption—because people with the growth mindset have little taste for it.
Even superior. The problem is when special begins to mean better than others. A more valuable human being, a superior person, an entitled person.Even in the growth mindset, failure can be a painful experience. But it does not define you. It's a problem to be faced, dealt with, and learned from.In the fixed mindset, failure means you lack competence or potential, that you are a failure. Where do you go from there?When people believe in fixed traits, they are always in danger of being measured by a failure. It can define them in a permanent way.
Smart or talented as they may be, this mindset seems to rob them of their coping resources. When people believe their basic qualities can be developed, failures may still hurt, but failures don't define them. And if abilities can be expanded, if change and growth are possible, then there are still many paths to success.From the point of view of the fixed mindset, effort is only for people with deficiencies. The idea of trying and still failing, of leaving yourself without excuses, is the worst fear within the fixed mindset.Mindsets are an important part of your personality, but you can change them.All of us have elements of both mindsets; we are all a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets.People with a fixed mindset prefer effortless success, since that is the best way to prove their talent.
People with a growth mindset might also like a Noble prize or a lot of money, but they are not seeking it as a validation of their worth or as something that will make them better than others.The growth mindset is the belief that abilities can be cultivated.People with the fixed mindset can have just a much confidence as people with the growth mindset. But their confidence is more fragile since setbacks and even effort can undermine it.The fixed mindset limits achievement. It makes other people into judges instead of allies. The growth mindset gives people, and that's why it helps their abilities grown and bear fruit.Just because some people can do something with little or no training, it doesn't mean that others can't do it (and sometimes even better) with training.When stereotypes are evoked, they fill people's minds with distracting thoughts, with secret worries about confirming the stereotype. This mainly happens to people with the fixed mindset.In the fixed mindset, both positive and negative labels can mess with your mind. When you are given a positive label, you are afraid of losing it, and when you are hit with a negative label, you are afraid of deserving it.
When people are in the growth mindset, the stereotype doesn't disrupt their performance. They don't believe in permanent inferiority. And if they are behind, they will work harder, seek help and try to catch up.The growth mindset lets people use and develop their minds fully. Their heads are not filled with limiting thoughts, a fragile sense of belonging, and a belief that other people can define them.Michael Jordan wasn't a natural; he was the hardest-working athlete, perhaps in the history of sport. For Jordan, success stems from the mind, 'The mental toughness and the heart are a lot stronger than some of the physical advantages you might have'.Character, heart, will, the mind of a champion.
It goes by different names, but it's the same thing. It's what makes you practice, and it's what allows you to dig down and pull it out when you most need it.
The championship mentality is how people who are not as talented as their opponents win games.Character is what allows you to reach the top and stay there. Those with the growth mindset are the ones who show the most character and heart.
They are the ones who have the minds of champions.What is success?. Doing your best, in learning and improving. Setbacks are motivating, they are informative, they are a wake-up call.
Take charge of the processes that bring success and that maintain itGreatness does not come from the ego of the fixed mindset, with its somebody-nobody syndrome.Effective leader with the growth mindset believe in human development. They are not constantly trying to prove they are better than others. Instead, they are constantly trying to improve. When bosses become controlling and abusive, they put everyone into a fixed mindset. It's hard for courage and innovation to survive in a company-wide fixed mindset.Andrew Carnegie once said 'I wish to have as my epitaph 'Here lies a man who was wise enough to bring into his service men who knew more than he'.Growth-minded leaders start with a belief in human potential and development, both their own and other people's.Groupthink can happen when the group gets carried away with its brilliance and superiority. Groupthink can also happen when a fixed-mindset leader punishes dissent.