Becoming is better than being

Courtesy: media.gatesnotes.com

Based on Dr. Carol S. Dweck’s book entitled “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”

Date Read: March 21, 2022, to April 23, 2022

Book in One Sentence

• “You can change your mindset for the better.”

Who Should Read It?

• People who want to change the way they think
• People who want to have new perspectives in solving their own problems and self-limiting beliefs

Favorite Quotes from the Book

• It’s not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.
• The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts.
• A person’s true potential is unknown (and unknowable); it’s impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil, and training.
• Even in the growth mindset, failure can be a painful experience. But it does not define you. It’s a problem to be faced, dealt with, and learned from.
• When people believe their basic qualities can be developed, failures may still hurt, but failures don’t define them.
• The growth mindset allows people to value what they’re doing regardless of the outcome.
• Even when you think you’re not good at something, you can still plunge into it wholeheartedly and stick to it. Sometimes, you plunge into something because you’re not good at it.
• Ask yourself, “What did I (or can I) learn from that experience? How can I use it as a basis for growth?”
• With the right mindset and the right teaching, people are capable of a lot more than we think.
• “The mental toughness and the heart are a lot stronger than some of the physical advantages you might have.” -Michael Jordan
• People with character are people who worked hard, who learned how to keep their focus under pressure, and who stretched beyond their ordinary abilities when they had to.
• People with a growth mindset believe that a good, lasting relationship comes from effort and from working through inevitable differences.
• People with a growth mindset are constantly monitoring what’s going on. They’re sensitive to positive and negative information, but they’re attuned to its implications for learning and construction action: What can I learn from this? How can I improve? How can I help my partner do this better?.

Personal Insights

• You are more than what you think you are.
• You have the capabilities to reach and exceed your maximum potential as long as you believe in yourself.
• Embracing challenges, struggles, criticisms, and setbacks are difficult because they are threatening. However, they help us grow and get out of our comfort zone.

Application in Everyday Life

• Question to ask yourself: What did you learn today? What mistake did you make that taught you something? What did you try hard at today?
• “You don’t need mistake-free games (or life). The correct question to ask yourself is: Did I make my best effort? You may be outscored but you will never lose.”

*Outline inspired by Ali Abdaal