What’s unique about this book is that unlike other self-help books that usually present a lot of key success factors, this book just focuses on one key takeaway. As you can deduce it from the title, the key is Mindset and there are just 2 types of Mindsets.
Before I spill them out, here’s a quick exercise from the book. Try answering as honestly as you can.
Below are 4 statements about intelligence. Read them carefully and answer if you agree or disagree with them.
1. Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can’t change very much.
2. You can learn new things, but you can’t really change how intelligent you are.
3. No matter how much intelligence you have, you can always change it quite a bit.
4. You can always substantially change how intelligent you are.
Remember which statement/s you agree with the most.
Now, here are statements about personality and character. Again, read each one carefully and answer if you agree or disagree with them.
1. You are a certain kind of person, and there is not much that can be done to really change that.
2. No matter what kind of person you are, you can always change substantially.
3. You can do things differently, but the important parts of who you are can’t really be changed.
4. You can always change the basic things about the kind of person you are.
Make sure you remember which statement/s you agreed the most.
Ready for the results?
For the statements on intelligence, if you strongly agreed with statements 1 or 2, you’re in the fixed mindset bucket. If you picked statements 3 or 4, you’re in the growth mindset bucket.
For the statements on personality & character, if you strongly agreed with statements 1 or 3, you’re in the fixed mindset bucket. If you picked statements 2 or 4, you’re in the growth mindset bucket.
So what does having the fixed mindset or growth mindset mean?
Having a fixed mindset means you believe that your qualities are carved in stone – that you have a certain level of intelligence, a certain personality and a certain moral character. The danger of this mindset is that because you believe that you do have them, you have to continuously prove that you have them. When faced with situations, you treat them as tests to validate your intelligence, personality or character.
You also think of other people that way – either they have the ability or not. You think that if one has to work at something, they must not be good at it.
The growth mindset, on the other hand, means that you believe that your basic qualities could be cultivated through hard work, passion and training. Effort is what makes you smart and talented. And when you have setbacks in life, the more you take action to face the problem and strive to improve.
Here are 2 popular individuals with growth mindset who have succeeded in the field of sports:
1. Muhammad Ali. His measurements of his fist, reach, chest expansion and weight failed the standards of natural fighters. In short, he didn’t have the physique of a great fighter, nor the strength or the moves. What made him succeed? Other than his speed, he used his brain. He studied his opponents well – their fighting styles, he watched and read all their interviews, observed how they were outside of the ring, talked to the people who had been with the opponents and talked to the opponents themselves. He put all together the information he got and while in bed at night, tried to picture how the mind of his opponents worked.
2. Michael Jordan. He wasn’t a natural either. He was cut from the high school varsity team. But what did he do? After getting cut, he started going to school at 6am to go practice before classes so he could improve his basketball skills. Come college, he didn’t get accepted by the college varsity he wanted to be part of. And when he joined NBA, he didn’t get drafted by the first 2 NBA teams who picked players. But at every rejection, he kept on practicing to improve. It is said that even at the height of his success and fame, his practice remained legendary.
There are a lot of other case studies, research and practical applications on the growth mindset cited in the book but I will write more about them next time. For now, just focus on honestly assessing yourself.
And just in case you didn’t take the exercise above seriously, here’s another chance to assess yourself. Just answer this simple question:
When do you feel smart?
You have the fixed mindset if your answers were along these lines:
It’s when I don’t make mistakes.
When I finish something fast and it’s perfect.
When something is easy for me, but other people can’t do it.
You have the growth mindset if your answers were along these lines:
When it’s really hard and I try really hard, and I can do something I couldn’t do before.
When I work on something a long time and I start to figure it out.
Notice the big difference? Fixed mindset people want immediate perfection. Growth mindset people are after learning, getting challenged and making progress.
But it doesn’t matter if ever you discovered that you have a fixed mindset because now you know that the growth mindset exists. :)
Not sure if Mindset is available in local bookstores but you can get it from Amazon.com - kindle edition or paperback.
