Mindset (Book Summary)
Learn to differentiate between fixed and growth mindsets, and learn how to have a happy and successful life.
Learn to differentiate between fixed and growth mindsets, and learn how to have a happy and successful life.
What’s it about?
Mindset (2006) discusses the variations among human beings with a hard and fast attitude instead of people with an increased attitude. Our attitude determines how we cope with complex conditions and setbacks and our willingness to manage and enhance ourselves. This book demonstrates how we will acquire our dreams through converting our mindsets.
About the author:
Carol Dweck is a professor of psychology at Stanford University. In addition to Mindset, she has also published Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality and Development and Handbook of Competence and Motivation.
From the shape of the skull to the size of the feet, the body’s physical characteristics have been more or less determined from the beginning. Of course, you can have plastic surgery or fracture, but people usually cannot control their bodies.
But what about intellectual and physical skills such as playing basketball, drawing, or solving math problems? Did they inherit or learn? Nowadays, most scholars agree that if you want to become a concert violinist, you not only need to have a musical character, but you also need to put your life’s energy into practice.
There are answers to this question regarding the number of human solutions because our mind plays a vital role in looking at ourselves and others. In short, our opinions shape our beliefs.
These two extremes form the basis of fixed thinking and growth thinking. People with attitudes think that they are born with a talent for doing something, but they do it wholeheartedly. On the contrary, those with a growth philosophy believe that they will become virtuous in any effort if they do their best.
In this way, people from the latter group will continue to grow throughout their lives, learning new skills unconditionally and actively participating in their relationships. For them, all aspects of life are constantly changing. They allow their black and white thinking to hinder their development.
When they fail, they bury their heads in the sand or blame others. They want their love to last forever rather than dealing with them intimately.
Confident people believe that they can be king. In his view, human abilities were initially immutable. A person is born to be clever, intelligent, stupid and incompetent, and will remain in this state.
Large companies like Enron and McKinsey, whose human resources department spends a lot of money to find natural university recruitment, reflect this form of graduate recruitment. They expect the graduates they hire to increase the company’s productivity through their outstanding skills immediately. However, because the graduates are so talented, they have not received much education, so they are unlikely to continue working or take up new positions.
Their superiors constantly evaluate them: Are they as bright as we thought, or their mistakes indicate that they cannot do the job?
The fixed person thinks that an imperfect employee from day one will never be. Therefore, it is best to let them leave quickly.
Attitudes People also believe that they can only do what they are naturally inclined to do, and this approach will never make them perfect. People and others are good or bad to some extent, and they assume that others think about them all the time. Therefore, they feel it is necessary to show their talents and wisdom at every opportunity.
They think that someone’s threatening their personality: one mistake is enough to call them incompetent fools. Protect yourself and confirm that you are as big as you think.
When children with a growth mindset challenge to solve math problems in school, they will accept and hope to do more at home. They realize that the more problems they solve, the more they will learn.
It is difficult to determine your exact IQ today, let alone predict what will happen tomorrow. Of course, their grades will reflect their state at a certain point in time, but these children believe that they can learn more as long as they work hard and persevere.
In addition, they are not interested in getting the best grades or being better than other students. They hope to be satisfied by breaking the limits of their growth potential. Whether it is music, sports, writing, or painting, they practice hard and realize that only through practice and accidental setbacks can they improve their skills.
People with a growth mindset will seize every opportunity to learn tricks from the crème de la crème in a field. They modified and abandoned the strategies used in the past and are always considering how to eliminate their weaknesses.
Encourage your partners to continue to learn and continue to work hard. When they participate in sports, they know that they serve the team. When doing business, no matter how embarrassing the truth is, they all show respect for their colleagues, thank them for their work, and give honest views on things. The skills welcome challenges and treat them as challenges rather than insurmountable obstacles. They are willing to use their energy to improve themselves and the world around them.
When Lee Iacocca was on the verge of the collapse of Chrysler Automobiles, he revitalized the company due to his quick decision-making ability and good feelings for employees, but his behavior has changed since then.
He began to stand still, show off his advantages, and put more energy into his image instead of putting more energy into the company’s welfare. Its sole purpose is to gain the approval of others.
Iacocca showed a healthy mind. Just as he classifies everything as “good” or “bad,” he feels how other people view him and call him a winner or loser. And, because you want to be a winner, try to show your talents and talents instead of looking for ways to make your company better.
In contrast, Lou Gerstner took over IBM when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. In a focused work environment, the company wastes energy on internal conflicts rather than on service and teamwork. They all try to do what is best for them. As a result, the company was unable to meet customer needs.
To change this situation, Gerstner broke the company’s hierarchical structure, focused on teamwork, rewarded employees who support colleagues, and provided opportunities for communication throughout the company by placing employees on the same level. It enables him to establish personal contact with as many employees as possible in a short time.
Gerstner’s growth status enables him to create a new working environment based on teamwork and development. The focus has shifted from human success to collaborative action. Based on this thought, he was able to achieve lasting success at IBM.
Failure can have a meaningful impression on people with a fixed mindset. Take golfer Sergio Garcia as an example. During his losing streak, he fired one caddie after another in a fit of anger. Once he even blamed his shoes; then he took it off and threw them at an innocent passerby desperately.
Persevering people don’t believe they can learn from their mistakes. They see failure as proof that they will always be a failure: failure invalidates all past successes.
To maintain their little self-confidence, people with rigid mentality make excuses, deceive or lose interest, and look differently. They will not seek help or analyze their weaknesses, and certainly not. Try to get better through practice. They consider themselves a finished product, not a continuous process.
Even Hall of Fame basketball player Michael Jordan had had periods when he did not throw every ball he touched. Michael brilliantly completed 26 potential winning shots. However, rather than hiding his head in the sand, Michael practiced repeatedly ignored punches. At the end of his career, he had the best shooting skills of anyone in the field.
He didn’t look for mistakes in his teammates or on the court, but looked for ways to improve his skills and ability in the game, analyzed the mistakes, trained harder than before, and listened to other people’s suggestions. If he works hard enough, he can turn defeat into victory.
We can only achieve many things in life through hard work. However, people with a firm attitude will only see risks when facing difficulties because the more time and energy invested in something, the fewer excuses. In addition, they believe in the incredible power of natural talent: talented people should not work so hard.
This mentality prevents people with a solid mentality from making improvements without questioning their talents, thus avoiding difficult situations. They may not want to deceive themselves.
Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg showed this behavior. When she was ten years old, critics welcomed her; when she was 18 years old, he misplayed the violin, and his fingers were tingling. Every time he tried to learn something new, he was so afraid of failure that he stopped bringing the violin into class and avoided playing it altogether.
With this attitude, he will be completely paralyzed for life, just as the doctor predicted after his death. However, he has a mindset: he did not passively accept his destiny but controlled his situation.
Therefore, he carried out an intense exercise program, and then the impossible happened: despite various diagnoses, he moved his arms, then the legs, and finally the entire upper body.
Challenges enable people with a growth mindset to pursue goals. The sadder they are, the more they will fight and rewrite their fate. Like Reeve, they worked hard to make the impossible possible.
What circumstances determine whether a person has a growth philosophy or way of thinking? What factors determine whether a person reaches his or her potential or spends a lifetime in the water?
Babies are born with a growth philosophy: they hope to learn and grow every day.
The adults around the child (usually the parents) play an essential role in determining whether the child will maintain this desire for growth or eventually adopt a fixed way of thinking. An example for children: Parents with a growth mindset reward their children and persuade them to continue learning. Parents with a healthy perspective constantly judge their children by telling them right and wrong, good or bad.
Babies from one to three years old have exhibited similar behaviors: Children who are easy to grow up trying to help another child cry; on the other hand, it makes inactive children worry.
Teachers are also important role models and influence children’s thinking. It will give the weakest students a fixed mindset, but good teachers who firmly believe that their students can learn anything will handle this situation differently. The more vulnerable students adopt a growth mindset and begin to achieve better grades: their destiny is no longer to be inherently “stupid.”
Our mentality is not entirely predetermined; if we accept the point of view of a role model, this may change from childhood.
When developing their minds, no one should be a victim of those around them. We can train the brain like other muscles: if we need a growth philosophy, we can train ourselves to think step by step.
It is an example: you accidentally dropped a plate on the floor. The first fixed thought maybe: “I am too clumsy!” But people who are aware of this reaction and want to change this reaction may think, “Well, these things are happening. I will take it away next time. Be careful.
We are committed to developing ideas. “Provides an excellent opportunity to seek support from others, share our mistakes and failures, and develop concrete and feasible plans to achieve our goals.
It is essential to understand that getting rid of a fixed way of thinking is not easy. “For many years: it protects us from failure, arouses recognition in the eyes of parents and partners, strengthens our self-confidence, and provides continuous comfort, making getting rid of it hard.
If we accept the growth perspective under certain circumstances, we don’t need to give up a fixed mindset altogether. It is usually enough: even if people think they’ve lost their way in sports, they can still work at a leap.
Adopting growth concepts in all areas allows us to make the impossible possible (Christopher Reeve) and improve our talents and skills (Michael Jordan). In this sense, growth philosophy is the key to self-realization.
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