Review of Mindset: The New Psychology for Success

Thank you for stopping by to read my book review of Mindset: The New Psychology for Success, written by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. I love to read and enjoy sharing knowledge from recent good reads. If you love to read too, please check out our monthly book club, where health and wellness coaches can earn 2 CE credits per month, accredited through NBHWC.

About the Author

Carol Dweck is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading researchers in the fields of personality, social psychology, and developmental psychology. She is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences and has won nine lifetime achievement awards for her research. (from Amazon).

A Review: Mindset – The New Psychology for Success

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success is an outgrowth of the author’s years of research into how people approach challenges and successes in a multitude of life arenas. She says “the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.” And those views fall into two categories, fixed or growth mindsets.

Fixed Mindset or Growth Mindset?

The fixed mindset is based on the premise that your qualities are set in stone and you are unable to change things like intellect, personality, moral character. The growth mindset is based on the premise that the same things, intellect, personality, and moral character, can be cultivated through effort, strategies, and help from others.

In the fixed mindset everything is about the outcome, wherein the growth mindset it’s all about the value in what you are doing, regardless of the outcome. A fixed mindset stands in the way of change, where a growth mindset uses setbacks as a springboard for change.

Kendy Anderson reviews Mindset: The New Psychology for Success

Natural Talent vs. Hard Work

Our society tends to elevate what it perceives as “natural” talent, when in reality, the author shows, there is ample evidence of hard work behind the scenes. There are those rare individuals who possess a measure of talent they didn’t develop, but most often, there are years of struggle as they perfect their particular craft to make it look effortless.

The author then dives into how each of these mindsets shows up in sports and gives numerous examples of star athletes who have put in hard work to be successful. She features both players and coaches in both the fixed and growth mindsets with alternatives for moving out of a fixed mindset.

Mindset in Business

Next up is the business world where she explores CEOs who did it right (growth mindset) and those who didn’t. Not only are top execs studied but entire organizations and how the growth mindset can be corporate-wide, not just per individual.

Bill Gates says, “Through clever research studies and engaging writing, Dweck illuminates how our beliefs about our capabilities exert tremendous influence on how we learn and which paths we take in life.”

Relationships

Relationships are under the mindset lens in chapter 6. Three parts of each relationship are affected by mindset. Each individual and the relationship itself. She also covers marriages, friendships, shyness, and bullying, with strategies to move each from a fixed to a growth mindset.

Are we stuck with our mindset?

Are we stuck with our mindset? No, says the author. Can we live completely in the growth mindset? Again, she says no. We are all, at times, in the fixed mindset and at times in the growth mindset. There are areas of both on any given day, depending on the challenge. She walks the reader through the process of identifying your triggers and ways to move toward the growth mindset. One question I loved and plan on writing on my mirror is, “What are the opportunities for learning and growth today?”

Choose Your Mindset

Although at times laborious, covering the same two mindsets from multiple angles, the value in this book for me was that we can choose and change our mindset in a variety of real-life situations. Here’s to growth!

Interested in more from this author? Listen to her Ted Talk: The power of believing that you can improve

Grab your copy of the book Mindset: The New Psychology for Success here

If you like reading book reviews, here is my review on the book Listening Well by William R. Miller