“Mindset – The New Psychology of Success” by Carol Dweck

This excellent book highlights two differing mindsets – or thought practices – which can ultimately affect your outcomes and perceptions of yourself and others.Dweck argues one is more conducive to developing a healthy approach to learning, whilst the other, which has been commonly accepted throughout modern times, can lead to stagnation and errors in thinking which ultimately hinder rather than advance a knowledge base.Dweck contrasts Fixed Mindsets with Growth Mindsets.The author contends that the idea that intelligence is static can lead to a desire to merely look smart, and this tendency leads to avoidance of challenges, perceiving effort to be fruitless as well as minimising the potentially useful feedback, frequently viewing it as criticism to be defended against rather than worked with.Contrasted with this is the growth mindset which believes that intelligence can be developed and learned through hard work, practice, and effort, which leads to a desire to learn. This creates a frame of embracing challenges, being persistent in face of obstacles, and seeing effort as a path to mastery. Criticism is taken as an opportunity to improve and a ‘growth mindset’ person takes pleasure in the success of others. Unlike the fixed mindset which sees threats from others being successful.

Once these contrasting styles are fleshed out, Dweck takes us through the education and relationship paradigms to examine the impact of both mindsets in these areas. Personally, I found this an enlightening book – I could see areas of my life where I had unconsciously adopted a fixed mindset which had stifled my development in a particular area.One example of this is as a child I was repeatedly praised for being ‘intelligent’ and this led me to be cautious about taking challenges that might expose me as not intelligent. This is a risk that Dweck highlights as an outcome for a fixed mindset.This label of being ‘intelligent’ I do feel made me less inclined to try new things and to be fragile in my ego about what I could do to demonstrate my intelligence and actively avoid anything that would do the opposite.Dweck throws a clear light on the effects of holding a fixed mindset and examines its repercussions for individuals who may have struggled with a fixed mindset and how it affected the ability to learn efficiently and with humility rather than ego and ideas of superior genes or brain capabilities.It is an excellent book to reaffirm the importance of hard work, questioning everything, humility, and perseverance in learning. The old-fashioned ideas of simply being born talented and intrinsically capable are challenged, examined, and debunked. Even if someone is known or considered to be highly intelligent, frequently the effort and hard work they put into their work are usually downplayed to focus merely on their ‘brilliant’ mind.Dweck’s message is that hard work, effort, and perseverance are more important than simply being born lucky with a capable mind.If you have children or seek to reaffirm the importance of attitude and application to successful outcomes, this book is worth reading.Click here my article on utilising the growth mindset in deep rest optimal practices.