Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Dweck explains why it’s not just our abilities and talent that bring us success–but whether we approach them with a fixed or growth mindset. She makes clear why praising intelligence and ability doesn’t foster self-esteem and lead to accomplishment, but may actually jeopardize success. With the right mindset, we can motivate our kids and help them to raise their grades, as well as reach our own goals–personal and professional. Dweck reveals what all great parents, teachers, CEOs, and athletes already know: how a simple idea about the brain can create a love of learning and a resilience that is the basis of great accomplishment in every area.

Mindset is one of those rare books that can help you make positive changes in your life and at the same time see the world in a new way.

A leading expert in motivation and personality psychology, Carol Dweck has discovered in more than twenty years of research that our mindset is not a minor personality quirk: it creates our whole mental world. It explains how we become optimistic or pessimistic. It shapes our goals, our attitude toward work and relationships, and how we raise our kids, ultimately predicting whether or not we will fulfill our potential. Dweck has found that everyone has one of two basic mindsets.

If you have the fixed mindset, you believe that your talents and abilities are set in stone–either you have them or you don’t. You must prove yourself over and over, trying to look smart and talented at all costs. This is the path of stagnation. If you have a growth mindset, however, you know that talents can be developed and that great abilities are built over time. This is the path of opportunity–and success.

Dweck demonstrates that mindset unfolds in childhood and adulthood and drives every aspect of our lives, from work to sports, from relationships to parenting. She reveals how creative geniuses in all fields–music, literature, science, sports, business–apply the growth mindset to achieve results. Perhaps even more important, she shows us how we can change our mindset at any stage of life to achieve true success and fulfillment. She looks across a broad range of applications and helps parents, teachers, coaches, and executives see how they can promote the growth mindset.

Highly engaging and very practical, Mindset breaks new ground as it leads you to change how you feel about yourself and your future.

“This book is an essential read for parents, teachers, coaches, and others who are instrumental in determining a child’s mind-set, and in turn, his or her future success, as well as for those who would like to increase their own feelings of success and fulfillment.” —Library Journal

Contents
Introduction
1. The Mindsets
Why Do People Differ?
What Does All This Mean for You? The Two Mindsets A View from the Two Mindsets So, What’s New?
Self-Insight: Who Has Accurate Views of Their Assets and Limitations?
What’s iIn Store

2. Inside The Mindsets
Is Success About Learning–Or Proving You’re Smart?
Mindsets Change the Meaning of Failure Mindsets Change the Meaning of Effort Questions and Answers

3. The Truth About Ability and Accomplishment
Mindset and School Achievement Is Artistic Ability a Gift?
The Danger of Praise and Positive Labels Negative Labels and How They Work

4. Sports: The Mindset Of A Champion
The Idea of the Natural
“Character”
What Is Success?
What Is Failure?
Taking Charge of Success What Does It Mean to Be a Star?
Hearing the Mindsets

5. Business: Mindset and Leadership
Enron and the Talent Mindset Organizations That Grow A Study of Mindset and Management Decisions Leadership and the Fixed Mindset Fixed-Mindset Leaders in Action Growth-Mindset Leaders in Action A Study of Group Processes Groupthink Versus We Think Are Leaders Born or Made?

6. Relationships: Mindsets In Love (Or Not)
Relationships Are Different Mindsets Falling in Love The Partner as Enemy Competition: Who’s The Greatest?
Developing in Relationships Friendship Shyness Bullies and Victims: Revenge Revisited

7. Parents, Teachers, And Coaches:
Where Do Mindsets Come From?

Parents (and Teachers): Messages About Success and Failure Children Learn The Messages Teachers (and Parents): What Makes a Great Teacher (or Parent)?
Coaches: Winning Through Mindset Our Legacy

8. Changing Mindsets: A Workshop
The Nature of Change The Mindset Lectures A Mindset Workshop Brainology More About Change Taking the First Step: A Workshop for You People Who Don’t Want to Change Changing Your Child’s Mindset Mindset and Willpower Maintaining Change The Road Ahead

Notes Recommended Books Index

Publishers Weekly

Mindset is "an established set of attitudes held by someone," says the Oxford American Dictionary. It turns out, however, that a set of attitudes needn't be so set, according to Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford. Dweck proposes that everyone has either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is one in which you view your talents and abilities as... well, fixed. In other words, you are who you are, your intelligence and talents are fixed, and your fate is to go through life avoiding challenge and failure. A growth mindset, on the other hand, is one in which you see yourself as fluid, a work in progress. Your fate is one of growth and opportunity. Which mindset do you possess? Dweck provides a checklist to assess yourself and shows how a particular mindset can affect all areas of your life, from business to sports and love. The good news, says Dweck, is that mindsets are not set: at any time, you can learn to use a growth mindset to achieve success and happiness. This is a serious, practical book. Dweck's overall assertion that rigid thinking benefits no one, least of all yourself, and that a change of mind is always possible, is welcome. (On sale Feb. 28) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading researchers in the fields of personality, social psychology, and developmental psychology. She has been the William B. Ransford Professor of Psychology at Columbia University and is now the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her scholarly book Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development was named Book of the Year by the World Education Fellowship. Her work has been featured in such publications as The New Yorker, Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, and she has appeared on Today and 20/20. She lives with her husband in Palo Alto, California.