Why do people differ?
Since the dawn of time, people have thought differently, acted differently, and
fared differently from each other.
It was guaranteed that someone would ask the question of why people differed, why some
people are smarter or more moral, and whether there was something that made
them permanently different.
Experts lined up on both sides.
Some claimed that there was a strong physical basis for
these differences, making them unavoidable and unalterable.
Through the ages, these alleged physical differences have included
bumps on the skull, the size and shape of the skull, and today,
genes.
Others pointed to the strong differences in people's backgrounds, experiences,
training, or ways of learning.
Today most experts agree that it's not either or.
It's not nature or nurture, genes or environment.
From conception on, there's a constant give and
take between the two.
Not only do genes and environment cooperate as we develop, but genes
require input from the environment to work properly.
At the same time, scientists are learning that people have more capacity for
lifelong learning and brain development than they ever thought.
Of course, each person has a unique genetic endowment.
People may start with different temperaments and different aptitudes, but
it is clear that experience, training, and personal effort take them the rest of the
way.
The major factor in whether people achieve expertise is not some fixed prior ability,
but purposeful engagement.
It's not always the people who start out the smartest
who end up the smartest.
What does all this mean for you?
The two mindsets.
It's one thing to have pundits spouting their opinions about scientific issues.
It's another thing to understand how these views
apply to you.
The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the
way you lead your life.
It can determine whether you become the person you
want to be and whether you accomplish the things you value.
How does this happen?
How can a simple belief have the power to transform your psychology
and, as a result, your life?
Believing that your qualities are carved in stone—the fixed mindset—creates
an urgency to prove yourself over and over.
If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a
certain moral character—well, then you'd better prove that you have a healthy
dose of them.
It simply wouldn't do to look or feel deficient in these most basic
characteristics.
Some of us are trained in this mindset from an early age.
Even as a child, I was focused on being smart, but the fixed
mindset was really stamped in by Mrs. Wilson, my sixth-grade teacher.
She believed that people's IQ scores told the whole story of who they
were.
We were seated around the room in IQ order, and only the highest-IQ
students could be trusted to carry the flag, clap the erasers, or take a note to
the principal.
Aside from the daily stomachaches she provoked with her judgmental
stance, she was creating a mindset in which everyone in the class had
one consuming goal—look smart, don't look dumb.
Who cared about or enjoyed learning when our whole being
was at stake every time she gave us a test or called on us in class?
I've seen so many people with this one consuming goal of proving themselves
—in the classroom, in their careers, and in their relationships.
Every situation calls for a confirmation of their intelligence,
personality, or character.
Every situation is evaluated: Will I succeed or
fail?
Will I look smart or dumb?
Will I be accepted or rejected?
Will I feel like a winner or a loser?
But doesn't our society value intelligence, personality, and character?
Isn't it normal to want these traits?
Yes, but...
There's another mindset in which these traits are not simply a hand you're
dealt and have to live with, always trying to convince yourself and others that
you have a royal flush when you're secretly worried it's a pair of tens.
In this mindset, the hand you're dealt is just the
starting point for development.
This growth mindset is based on the belief that
your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts.
Although people may differ in every which way—
in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments—everyone can
change and grow through application and experience.
Do people with this mindset believe that anyone can be anything, that anyone
with proper motivation or education can become Einstein or Beethoven?
No, but they believe that a person's true potential
is unknown, and unknowable.
That it's impossible to foresee what can be accomplished
with years of passion, toil, and training.
Did you know that Darwin and Tolstoy were considered ordinary children?
That Ben Hogan, one of the greatest golfers of all time, was completely
uncoordinated and graceless as a child?
That the photographer Cindy Sherman, who has been on virtually every list of the
most important artists of the twentieth century, failed her first photography course?
That Geraldine Page, one of our greatest actresses, was advised to give it
up for lack of talent?
You can see how the belief that cherished qualities can be developed creates a
passion for learning.
Why waste time proving over and over how great you are,
when you could be getting better?
Why hide deficiencies instead of overcoming them?
Why look for friends or partners who will just shore up your self-esteem
instead of ones who will also challenge you to grow?
And why seek out the tried and true, instead of experiences that will
stretch you?
The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially)
when it's not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset.
This is the mindset that allows people to thrive
during some of the most challenging times in their lives.
A view from the two mindsets.
To give you a better sense of how the two mindsets work, imagine—as vividly as
you can—that you are a young adult having a really bad day.
One day, you go to a class that is really important to you and that you like a lot.
The professor returns the midterm papers to the class.
You got a C+.
You're very disappointed.
That evening on the way back to your home, you find that you've
gotten a parking ticket.
Being really frustrated, you call your best friend to share your experience but are
sort of brushed off.
What would you think?
What would you feel?
What would you do?
When I asked people with the fixed mindset, this is what they said: "I'd feel
like a reject."
"I'm a total failure."
"I'm an idiot."
"I'm a loser."
"I'd feel worthless and dumb, everyone's better than
me."
"I'm slime."
In other words, they'd see what happened as a direct measure
of their competence and worth.
This is what they'd think about their lives: "My life is pitiful."
"I have no life."
"Somebody upstairs doesn't like me."
"The world is out to get me."
"Someone is out to destroy me."
"Nobody loves me, everybody hates me."
"Life is unfair and all efforts are useless."
"Life stinks.
I'm stupid.
Nothing good ever happens to me."
"I'm the most unlucky person on this earth."
Excuse me, was there death and destruction, or just a grade, a ticket, and a bad
phone call?
Are these just people with low self-esteem?
Or card-carrying pessimists?
No.
When they aren't coping with failure, they feel just as worthy and optimistic—
and bright and attractive—as people with the growth mindset.
So how would they cope?
"I wouldn't bother to put so much time and effort
into doing well in anything."
(In other words, don't let anyone measure you
again.)
"Do nothing."
"Stay in bed."
"Get drunk."
"Eat."
"Yell at someone if I get a chance to."
"Eat chocolate."
"Listen to music and pout."
"Go into my closet and sit there."
"Pick a fight with somebody."
"Cry."
"Break something."
"What is there to do?"
What is there to do!
You know, when I wrote the vignette, I intentionally made
the grade a C+, not an F. It was a midterm rather than a final.
It was a parking ticket, not a car wreck.
They were "sort of brushed off," not rejected outright.
Nothing catastrophic or irreversible happened.
Yet from this raw material the fixed mindset created the feeling of utter
failure and paralysis.
When I gave people with the growth mindset the same vignette, here's what
they said.
They'd think: "I need to try harder in class, be more
careful when parking the car, and wonder if my friend had a bad day."
"The C+ would tell me that I'd have to work a lot harder in the class, but I
have the rest of the semester to pull up my grade."
There were many, many more like this, but I think you get the idea.
Now, how would they cope?
Directly.
"I'd start thinking about studying harder (or studying in a different way) for
my next test in that class, I'd pay the ticket, and I'd work things out with my
best friend the next time we speak."
"I'd look at what was wrong on my exam, resolve to do better, pay my
parking ticket, and call my friend to tell her I was upset the day before."
"Work hard on my next paper, speak to the teacher, be more careful where I
park or contest the ticket, and find out what's wrong with my friend."
You don't have to have one mindset or the other to be upset.
Who wouldn't be?
Things like a poor grade or a rebuff from a friend or loved one—these are
not fun events.
No one was smacking their lips with relish.
Yet those people with the growth mindset were not labeling themselves
and throwing up their hands.
Even though they felt distressed, they were ready to take the risks, confront the
challenges, and keep working at them.
So, what's new?
Is this such a novel idea?
We have lots of sayings that stress the importance of
risk and the power of persistence, such as "Nothing ventured, nothing gained"
and "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" or "Rome wasn't built in
a day."
By the way, I was delighted to learn that the Italians have the same expression.
What is truly amazing is that people with the fixed mindset would not agree.
For them, it's "Nothing ventured, nothing
lost."
"If at first you don't succeed, you probably don't have the ability."
"If Rome wasn't built in a day, maybe it wasn't
meant to be."
In other words, risk and effort are two things that might reveal
your inadequacies and show that you were not up to the task.
In fact, it's startling to see the degree to which people with the
fixed mindset do not believe in effort.
What's also new is that people's ideas about risk and effort grow out of their
more basic mindset.
It's not just that some people happen to recognize the value
of challenging themselves and the importance of effort.
Our research has shown that this comes directly from the growth mindset.
When we teach people the growth mindset, with its focus on development,
these ideas about challenge and effort follow.
Similarly, it's not just that some people happen to dislike challenge
and effort.
When we temporarily put people in a fixed mindset, with its focus
on permanent traits, they quickly fear challenge and devalue effort.
We often see books with titles like "The Ten Secrets of the World's Most
Successful People" crowding the shelves of bookstores, and these books may give
many useful tips.
But they're usually a list of unconnected pointers, like "Take
more risks!" or "Believe in yourself!"
While you're left admiring people who can do that, it's never clear how these
things fit together or how you could ever become that way.
So you're inspired for a few days, but basically the world's
most successful people still have their secrets.
Instead, as you begin to understand the fixed and growth mindsets, you will
see exactly how one thing leads to another.
How a belief that your qualities are carved in stone leads to a host of thoughts
and actions, and how a belief that your qualities can be cultivated leads to
a host of different thoughts and actions, taking you down an entirely different road.
Well, maybe the people with the growth mindset don't think they're Einstein or
Beethoven, but aren't they more likely to have inflated views of their abilities
and try for things they're not capable of?
In fact, studies show that people are terrible at estimating their abilities.
Recently, we set out to see who is most likely to do this.
Sure, we found that people greatly misestimated their performance
and their ability.
But it was those with the fixed mindset who accounted for
almost all the inaccuracy.
The people with the growth mindset were amazingly accurate.
When you think about it, this makes sense.
If, like those with the growth mindset, you believe you can develop yourself,
then you're open to accurate information about your current abilities,
even if it's unflattering.
What's more, if you're oriented toward learning, as they
are, you need accurate information about your current abilities in order to learn
effectively.
However, if everything is either good news or bad news about your
precious traits—as it is with fixedmindset people—distortion almost inevitably enters
the picture.
Some outcomes are magnified, others are explained away,
and before you know it you don't know yourself at all.
The exceptional individuals have a special talent for identifying their own strengths
and weaknesses.
It's interesting that those with the growth mindset seem to
have that talent.
Now imagine you've decided to learn a new language and you've signed up for a
class.
A few sessions into the course, the instructor calls you to the front of the room and starts
throwing questions at you one after another.
Put yourself in a fixed mindset.
Your ability is on the line.
Can you feel everyone's eyes on you?
Can you see the instructor's face evaluating you?
Feel the tension, feel your ego bristle and waver.
What else are you thinking and feeling?
Now put yourself in a growth mindset.
You're a novice—that's why you're here.
You're here to learn.
The teacher is a resource for learning.
Feel the tension leave you; feel your mind open up.
Which mindset do you have?
The message is, you can change your mindset.
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