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Have you ever read something that struck you so hard upside the head that you felt your mind ringing for days? When someone else’s words and insights have resonated so deeply within you that it makes you feel like you’ve just met yourself, after decades of trying to understand why you were the way you were?
That’s how I feel about Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck.
In this book, Dr. Dweck discusses the fixed mindset versus the growth mindset, the mindset of failure versus the mindset of learning, and how the former inhibits greatness while the latter fosters it.
I have lived my entire life within the fixed mindset: do what I’m good at, stick to the things that come easy, and I will be successful. I am validated by the things I’m naturally inclined toward. Get straight A’s in school, go to the best universities, get the safe jobs I know I’ll kick ass in.
Run away from the hard things. Drop the courses that challenge me. Say no to the things that make me uncomfortable.
I think that’s why I don’t make a legitimate attempt at being a writer on this platform. After I lost my top writer status summer 2019, I became completely disheartened. I decided I wasn’t good enough. Rather than increasing my efforts and learning this platform, I simply decided to…
