Recently, I bought a book titled Mindset: Changing the way you think to fulfil your potential. It was an impulse purchase. On 3rd February 2022, I received disappointing news while working. After receiving the disappointing news, I labelled myself as a failure and was consumed by the notion that I was not good enough. Yes, I do acknowledge my lack of knowledge/skills, but I believe that I did enough to secure what I wanted. On the same day itself, I was supposed to get some stationaries for my work and had to go to the bookstore. While I was on my way to the stationaries section, I came across the section where they sell books on philosophy and business. After reading the synopsis of a few books, I came to a decision to spend $21.95 on this book, and I did not regret this impulse but valuable purchase. I personally recommend this book for those who aspire to grow.
The value of this book extends way beyond the world of education. It’s just as relevant for business people who want to cultivate talent and for parents who want to raise their kids to thrive on challenge.
Bill Gates
This book was written by Dr Carol S. Dweck who is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading researchers in the fields of personality, social psychology, and developmental psychology. Her work has been featured in such publications as the New Yorker, The Times and the Guardian.
A simple idea about the brain can foster learning and nurture resilience
Mindset is a mental attitude and a person’s way of thinking. Many are not conscious of the two different types of mindsets. One of them is the fixed mindset which are personal qualities such as ability and intelligence, which are innate and unalterable. Success is about proving you are smart or talented. The other mindset is called the growth mindset, which is about changing qualities and stretching yourself to learn something new. In other words, self-development. Success is about learning. Many of us are trained to have a fixed mindset from an early age and in my opinion, this is very true in the Asian society where I grew up. When I was a primary school student, I often heard my friends tell me that they were scolded by their parents for not being able to obtain a certain score for their examinations. Thus, they had to constantly prove to themselves that they were worthy of such a grade to their parents, and this kind of mindset was ingrained in them since then. Every situation calls for the confirmation of their intelligence, personality, and character. I must admit that I, myself am a victim of this mindset. For example, when I did not get the grades that I wanted, I always blamed myself for not being smart enough. However, after reading this book, I was able to see the world from a whole new perspective. Mindsets are beliefs – although they are powerful, we can change them. The view that you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.
Our mindset dictates our relationship with success and failure. This plays a huge role in our career development. The fixed mindset is about proving to ourselves and others that we are smart and talented. Thus, anytime we face a setback such as a rejection, a bad grade or a losing score means that we are not smart or capable enough. The growth mindset is about learning and improving instead of winning. If we didn’t win but have given our all and learned something new, it is considered a success. Growth mindset individuals aim to always evolve and hone down their skills instead of proving that they are already the best. Both mindsets are also applicable to relationships with friends, partners, and family members. For fixed mindset individuals, if you believe that your friends, family or partner have traits that are unchangeable, it also means that your relationship is also unchangeable – either meant to be where you live in perfect harmony with them or in misery. For growth mindset individuals, they believe that people can have flaws but also good relationships. These flaws can be worked upon with clear communication and effort, which makes the relationship better.
So how do we use these mindsets to our advantage? Firstly, we have to figure out which mindset we are leaning towards. Read each statement and decide which you mostly agree or disagree with,
- Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can’t change much.
- You can learn new things, but you can’t really change how intelligent you are.
- No matter how much intelligence you have, you can change it quite a bit.
- You can substantially change how intelligent you are.
I am also currently applying the lessons this book has to improve myself as I grow. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I am glad that I picked up this book and I wanted to share what a great value this book brings to the table. Happy reading!