《Mindset》

Carol Dweck, the leading expert in motivation and personality theroy, has discovered that the key to growth and perseverance is our mindset.

Dweck explains why it's not just our abilities and talent that bring us success-but whether we approach our goals with a fixed or growth mindset. She makes clear why praising our children's 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 improve  in school, as well as reach our own goals, personal and professional. Dweck reveals what all great parents, teachers, CEOs, and athletes already know, and shows 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.

The whole book tell us how we can learn to fulfill our potential in parenting,business,school and relationships. I particular like the picture below which shows clearly the difference between fixed mindset and growth mindse about  beliefs,effort,challenges,mistakes and feedback. It's easier said than done. Like Hanhan said, I cannot have a good life even I know a lot of truth. I may understand the principles and growth mindset ideas before I read this book, but I didn't practice to make them into habits. So when things happened, my behaviors still stuck with the fixed mindset. Hope to work on growth mindset later on.

After reading the book, I made up my mind to do three things...

Firstly, keep growth mindset in learning and competing.

Competing for almost 10 years, every year when I failed, I told myself, I'll never give up and I did get improved. In my deep heart, I felt sad about the result and kept asking why efforts no paid. While reading, I was thinking that I focus too much on the trophy, actually it means nothing. Darren LaCroix said, you need trophy? Buy them! Try to reach out for audiences heart not trophy, then they will put trophy in your hands.Growth mindset also helpful here.Through competing, what is the most valuable thing? Learning, keep learning and impoving. Now I feel there is a huge distance between me and world class speaker. Focus on my English and public speaking skills, I will get what I earger for in the future.

Secondly, keep growth mindset in parenting.

My daughter Elsa is 10 years old, honestly speaking, I always lose my temper, run out of my patience. When she was facing failures and relationship problems, sometimes I have no idea what I can do to help her out of trouble. As Dweck said, parents also need to know what to say to praise them to help dig deeper in finding their potentials. Being a qualified parents, there are a lot to learn. Knowing what is wrong and then begin to do it in the right way is a great thing. With growth mindset, Elsa and I will have space to develop all the time. 

Thirdly, always remember to change fix mindset to growth mindset.

I've ever read a book named No complain world, with positive thinking in mind when facing bad things. But this Mindset book, which is not only about that, but also how to fulfill your potential. Wise people with fix mindset tend to stay safe, no challenges, so they will not make mistakes, which also means they stuck in where they are. In any field, even in one person's mind, it's common that two different mindset exists. If we wanna reach high and achieve more successes, always remember to change fix mindset to growth mindset, until one day, it becomes your habit, subconciously, first reaction. 

   Everyone should own this book.---Chip Heath & Dan Heath