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Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

The general theme of this book is that a person’s mindset is more important than their natural abilities. The author stresses the importance of having a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset so you can learn from your experiences and improve as a person. The type of mindset you have effects your work, school, relationships, and life at home. Outside forces can have a large effect on your mindset, especially as a child, so it is important for parents, guardians, and teachers to praise effort and persistence over intelligence. This book takes an inside look inside your head and makes you evaluate your own mindset while also giving advice on techniques that can help you develop a growth mindset.

I believe this book connected and enhanced what I am learning in this class by making me consider my mindset during different moments throughout the semester. When coming up with my business idea and finding different people to talk to about it, there have been plenty of failures and successes. If I have the right mindset, I can take the lessons I learn from those failures and successes and grow because of it. On the other hand, if I have a fixed mindset I will struggle to overcome my failures and might have the tendency to give up or not give my full effort. During every setback, it is important to remember to have a growth mindset so the thing you are dealing with is just an obstacle and not a roadblock. The information I have learned from this course and this book will allow me to be better prepared for the ups and downs of life.

If I had to design an exercise for this class based on this book, I would have the students think about six big moments in their lives (three successes and three failures) and think about if they used a growth mindset or a fixed mindset when dealing with it. If they believe they used a growth mindset, let them explain how that mindset benefitted them and the lessons they learned from it. On the other hand, if they believe they used a growth mindset, let them explain how they could have handled the situation differently. In my opinion, this exercise will be effective because it makes you think about the decisions you made in your past and will provide guidance for improving your future.

I would say my biggest surprise moment when reading this book was when the author used the example of Mozart, Edison, and Darwin as average students at one point. All three of these people are regarded as geniuses, so it was very interesting to read that it wasn’t always the case for them. It shows the impact a growth mindset can have on a person’s future. I’m sure they are plenty of people that started out the same way Mozart, Edison, and Darwin did, but what separates them is the way they thought about things and adjusted their mindset to fit their goals. This was very surprising to me and stood out as a very important part of the book for me.