Book Review & Summary
About the author
Carol Dweck is one of the leading researchers in the fields of personality development, social psychology, and developmental psychology. She has been a professor at renowned universities like Columbia University, and Stanford University and is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science. Her scholarly book on Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development was named Book of the Year by the World Education Fellowship. Her work has been featured in such publications as The New Yorker, Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Boston Globe. She lives with her husband in Palo Alto, California.
Introduction
Some books give answers to life questions, solve what we do and how we do it, and define who we will be, and this book will come under such a list. What you do if you know whatever you do you’ll win? You’ll learn without fear of failure or judgment. Not to show and prove to others who you are but to express the love within this cosmos. From learning the first steps of life to scribbling letters once seemed arduous now is the unconscious craft. Learning is fun if for the sake of learning. Things start to problems when we take everything to judge with excessive imagination what others might think and the learning turns into a vulnerability that everyone despises. So how do you learn without mistakes, how will you climb mountains without setbacks? As the term suggests Growth and Fixed, what do you want in your life most?
Theme
Mindset is the belief that one holds with oneself. The author says there are two mindsets: Fixed mindset and Growth mindset. People behave, think, work, and achieve according to the beliefs that they possess and their lives differ accordingly.
Carol Dweck proposes the idea that the world is divided between two types of mindset generally. One is with a Growth mindset who believes in hard work, learning, and deliberate practice. On the other side Fixed mindset people who believe that their capabilities and how much they can improve themselves are fixed and how hard they may try, they can't improve.
As quoted by Bruce Lee “As you think, so shall you become”. Our beliefs about our abilities and how we perceive the learning curve mostly define our grit, passion, and perseverance in the face of adversity. These principles can be applied to all areas of life from academics, work and relationships, leadership, and sports.
Carol Dweck lucidly and simply explains what contributes to this mindset and how we can learn and change with little practice. Beliefs are the window through which we experience life and make sense of every area of life.
Review of the Content Chapterwise
Chapter 1: The Mindsets
In the first chapter, the author gives a quick introduction to why people differ and the theory behind it. The two mindsets and how they shape our view regarding almost all we do in our day-to-day lives.
The fixed mindset suggests that your qualities and potential are carved in stone and are fixed. How hard you may try, in the end, this will not be a cup of tea for you. Fixed mindset people are seekers of validation, and egocentric. Failure to them is like a life sentence catastrophe. They believe they are smart or not and they can't do much about it. Their world is made up of inputs from other than theirs.
They believe that characteristics like talent, personality, naturalness, and creativity are innate and you cannot change them or do something about them.
With this mindset, people are always ready to challenge themselves and ready to learn. They believe if they try the right way with the right strategy and the right guidance with effort they can master anything if they want. Growth mindset people believe passion is to inculcate not just a revelation discovery.
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A growth mindset is ingrained in the belief that right effort, the right strategy, and the right guidance; anything is possible. They believe if they put in effort and patience they can achieve the result. But for them result is secondary the process comes first. Kind of belief in the law of karma.
Chapter 2: Inside the Mindset
In this chapter, the author explains what exactly the thought process goes in the minds of fixed and growth mindset people. How both mindsets have their belief about learning new things. On talent and smartness. And focus on how mindset changes the meaning of effort and failure.
The author explains how the two different mindsets lead to completely different outcomes in terms of experience and development in life. Our mindset influences the content-fullness of life.
A fixed mindset person doesn't grow much over time, with every difficulty and setback he loses interest and altogether can give up than trying hard. They mostly spend time in defending their ego, status, and perceptions of other people. A fixed mindset person gives importance to what others are thinking and accordingly assumes self-worth.
Whereas a growth mindset person believes that with time and effort, he can improve and grow. These persons focus on process rather than outcome and cannot be influenced by how others perceive them. They believe in the law of karma as a fixed mindset and believe in natural, inherited gifts of talent that you have or you don't.
Chapter 3: The truth about ability and accomplishment
Both mindsets have fundamental differences of view to ability and accomplishment. Here the author focuses on the impact of our belief and mode of thinking which lead to success and failure.
Fixed mindset here author explains that talented people fall into a trap called “A talent trap”. Fixed mindset people believe that if they are talented then they don't need to practice and things should have to come naturally and effortlessly. They are good if things are going well but if they strike a wall then they start to feel worse and question their ability than the process and effort.
On the other side growth mindset, people take failure as a result of the process and input in terms of effort and the right strategy they’d put in. They take failure more constructively than getting sulked. A growth mindset person is open to criticism and failure. They flourish with challenges rather than succumbing to like fixed mindset person. They study considering their whole life ahead and are ready to adapt to reality. Such a person focuses on input rather than the result, praise, and appreciation.
Chapter 4: Sports: the mindset of a champion
In Chapter 4, the author discusses the significance of mindset in sports for long-term success and she emphasizes her findings with some real-life examples of famous sports personalities. Many research findings suggest that successful personalities in sports possess a growth mindset.
The growth mindset contributes to the performance in three levels of growth such as expectations, feedback, and change. They believe their current performance is the result of their past effort as this is not the case in a fixed mindset. The fixed mindset believes they should perform because they are natural, talented, and gifted. A growth mindset takes feedback as a source of motivation rather than a threat as a fixed mindset does. Current performance can change with deliberate practice and they can improve the beliefs of growth mindset athletes who consider change as a threat.
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