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Mind-set: Changing The Way You think
To Fulfil Your Potential
About Author:
Carol Susan Dweck (born October 17, 1946) is an American
psychologist. She is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at
Stanford University. Dweck is known for her work on mind-set. She was on the
faculty at Columbia University, Harvard University, and the University of
Illinois before joining the Stanford University faculty in 2004. She is a
Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.
Summary:
Mind-set was written by Stanford University psychologist
Carol Dweck her decades of research on achievement and success led her to
discover what great parents teachers CEOs and athletes already know that our mind-set
is the basis of accomplishment. Here we will discuss six lessons we can learn from
this book:
Lesson #1 The two
mind-sets:
People with the fixed mind-set belief intelligence can't be changed
this leads to a desire to look smart so they avoid challenges, they don't want
to look bad if they fail which holds them back in the face of obstacles they
get defensive or give up easily, they see effort is pointless and believe that
people are only great at things because they were born with special talents. When
confronted with constructive criticism they ignore it lastly they feel
threatened by the success of others. People with a fixed mind-set achieve much
less than they're capable of, on the other hand people with the growth mind-set
believe intelligence can be developed. This leads to a desire to learn so instead
of avoiding challenges, they embrace them they persist in the face of obstacles
and see effort as a path to mastery they accept constructive criticism and use
it to their advantage. Lastly they feel inspired by and learn from the success
of others as a result they fulfil their ultimate potential.
Lesson #2 mind-set in
sports:
Michael Jordan wasn't a natural, he was one of the hardest-working
athletes in history he was rejected by his high school varsity team and the
first two NBA teams that could have chosen him he was devastated but his mother
told him to work hard and discipline himself and that's exactly what he did. He
used to leave the house at 6:00 in the morning to practice before school but
what about people that seemed to just be a natural, yes these people exist but
Carroll argues that with all the praise for their talents and with how little
work they've needed to put in they can easily develop a fixed mind-set they may
not learn how to work hard or cope with setbacks. A growth mind-set is what
allows athletes to maintain their success in the long term Carol found that
athletes with a growth mind-set found success in doing their best in learning
and improving found setbacks motivating and took charge of the processes that
bring success.
Lesson #3 mind-set in
business:
Jim Collins and his team conducted a five-year research project
with the aim to find out how companies go from good to great. One thing they
found was that great companies had leaders with a growth mind-set in the late
1980s IBM was in trouble, their culture was filled with people trying to be
better than each other they had a culture of smugness and defending personal
status that inhibited learning and growth in 1993 they asked Lou Gerstner to
turn things around Lou had a growth mind-set and encourage teamwork and got rid
of the uptight culture over the next nine years IBM increased in value by eight
hundred percent. Ultimately Carol argues that successful businesses need to
Train leaders managers and employees to have a growth mind-set this can be done
by cultivating a growth mind-set environment and involves presenting skills as
learner ball, conveying that the organization values learning and perseverance
not in a talent giving feedback that promotes learning and future success and
presenting managers as resources for learning.
Lesson #4 mind-set in
relationships:
There's two common ways of dealing with pain and heartbreak
in a relationship. The first is to label yourself as unlovable and seek revenge
this is how fixed mind-set people deal with it they let these experiences scar
them and prevent them from forming new relationships in the future. For people
with the growth mind-set it's about understanding forgiving and moving on
although they are deeply hurt from these negative experiences like anyone would
be they want to learn from it. In a relationship it's possible to believe your
qualities your partner's qualities and the relationships qualities are fixed but
the growth mind-set says that these three things can be developed. Two fixed ways
of thinking about a relationship are (1.)
If you have to work at it, It wasn't meant to be. the truth is that all relationships
require work and effort and you can't expect your partner to know your needs if
you don't communicate them effectively the romanticized idea of a perfect problem
and free relationship that automatically works is unrealistic and the (2.) second
way of thinking about a relationship is that problems indicate character flaws people
often blend their relationship problems on their partner and assign the blame
to a character flaw they think that their partner is just an angry person when
really the problem is not the person but the situation if Julie is angry every
day when Jim gets home from work instead of blaming Julie for being an angry
person he could look at the situation and try to understand why she's always
angry by communicating with her by doing this a solution can be found finally
your partner may have different skills beliefs and values than your own a
growth minded approach to a relationship is helping your partner to reach their
own goals and fulfil their potential.
Lesson #5 mind-set
and parenting and teaching:
The way children think about themselves is heavily based on
the messages they receive from their parents and teachers, this has a direct effect
on their learning and development with every interaction you have with a child
ask yourself am i giving them the fixed mind-set message that they have permanent
traits and I'm judging them or am I communicating a growth mind-set message
that says you are a developing person and I'm interested in your development. Another
critical lesson is to not praise children's intelligence if you say you learn
that quickly you're so smart what children really hear is if I don't learn something
quickly I'm not smart or if you say you're so brilliant you got an a without
even studying children really hear I'd better quit studying or they won't think
I'm brilliant this doesn't mean don't praise your children but praise their
effort and choices not their intelligence and talent, you could say you really
studied for your tests and your improvement chosen you read the material over several
times and you tested yourself on it. It really worked, consider this real-life
scenario nine-year-old Elizabeth loved gymnastics and was determined to win the
local gymnastics competition she did very well but not enough to win she was
devastated if you were her parents what would you do, tell Elizabeth you thought
she was the best, tell her she was robbed of a ribbon that was rightfully hers
reassure her that gymnastics is not important tell her she has the ability and
will definitely win next time or tell her she didn't deserve to win.
Let’s got through each answers,
(A) is Insincere and doesn't offer her a way to improve.
(B) places blame on the judges when the problem was her
performance do you want Elizabeth growing up to blame others for her deficiencies
(C) is a fixed mind-set response that teaches her to devalue
something if she doesn't do well right away
(D) does ability automatically take you where you want to go
if Elizabeth didn't win this one why should she win the next one and finally
(E) it seems harsh and obviously you'd say in a nicer way
but this is necessary to help Elizabeth cultivate a growth mind-set that will
bring her success in the future her growth minded father told her Elizabeth I
know how you feel it's so disappointing to have your hopes up and perform your
best but not win but you know you haven't really earned it yet there were many
girls who've been in gymnastics longer than you have and who've worked a lot
harder than you if this is something you really want then it's something you
have to really work for.
Elizabeth took this to heart and spent more time perfecting
her routines at the next competition she became the overall champion.
The final lesson how
to change your mind-set:
The first way is to access Carole's resources one is a brain
ology computer program designed to help students develop a growth mind-set
through classroom activities and online instruction other resources include a live
workshop webinars keynote presentations and more the second way to change your mind-set
is merely knowing about the growth mind-set imagine the impact we can make by sharing
this summary with someone you know it could be your friends family partner students
or co-workers I don't ask you to share this just to increase my subscribe account
I value having a positive impact on people's lives and by sharing this post you
can do the same.
HAPPY READING! J
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