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Mindset

the New Psychology of Success
ksoles
Aug 25, 2014ksoles rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
An expert in personal growth and self-esteem, psychologist Carol Dweck has studied human response to our own strengths and shortcomings for forty years. In "Mindset," her first book for a non-academic audience, she lucidly and engagingly shares some of her findings, shedding light on the sort of attitude that leads to success and the sort that leads to failure. Some people, Dweck argues, have a “fixed mindset”: they view themselves and others as essentially static. Our strengths remain our strength and our weaknesses remain our weaknesses; we hone what works and avoid what doesn't. True, if everyone we know stays the same, becomes easy to navigate our social world. However, a fixed mindset makes change almost impossible; no point making an effort to improve if it will only prove futile. Additionally, for those with fixed mindsets, failure in an area of perceived strength seems catastrophic, attacking the core of the identity. Alternatively, Dweck proposes adopting a “growth mindset”, a way of thinking that allows much more fluidity. This mindset loves learning, views challenge as opportunity and setbacks as chances to improve. People with the growth mindset see themselves and others as changeable and, like the proverbial tortoise, often overtake those whose initial “natural” talents seem to have put them ahead in the race. Few would argue with Dweck’s central thesis: that changeability trumps locking yourself into a fixed identity. But many of us linger in the fixed mindset anyway and, when Dweck examines these paradoxical instances, her book reaches its height of persuasion. She discusses the likes of John McEnroe, Enron’s Kenneth Lay and Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez to reveal a world of tantrums, corporate disasters, demotivated students and even suicides. On the other hand, the examples she gives of growth-mindset individuals (expelled students, supposedly hopeless sports players and people in difficult relationships) result in almost impossible success. This black-and-white division of the world does become one of the book’s shortcomings. Every so often she acknowledges that all of us waver to some extent but, generally, we lean one way or the other with little middle ground. After a while, the reader longs for shades of grey to break the book's rhythm. Dweck’s writing is clear but does adopt an almost maternal tone and tends to drag repetitively through similar points. But, ultimately, "Mindset" motivates those of us feeling set in our ways to adopt change.