Book review- Mindset by Carol S. Dweck

Mindset to move ahead

 
Disclaimer- This book review is majorly a self-contemplation. The personalized meaning derived from books vis-à-vis life experiences. The quotes are used directly from the book.

The tone for flipping through this book was instantly set for me because of two things-

First, the title of the book itself, and second, when I found this delightful remark of the author at the outset of the book…which echoes my writing style. The remark says- “A little note about grammar. I know it and I love it, but I have not always followed it in this book. I start sentences with and buts. I end sentences with prepositions. I use the plural they in contexts that require the singular he or her. I’ve done this for informality and immediacy, and I hope that the sticklers will forgive me.”

“Mindset” written by Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck conveys how established attitudes entail all facets of one's life, be it personal or professional. She emphasizes the need to be forthcoming to change to achieve contentment and success.

Yes, the idea appears so common… yet not so common in practice. This book focuses on the power of mindset.

The major crux of the book is that there are two kinds of people in this world: those that have a ‘fixed mindset', and those that have a ‘growth mindset'. From here, she goes on to analyze how these basic mindsets are formed, what their defining characteristics are in different contexts of life, and how we can rewire our cognitive habits to achieve the much more productive and nourishing growth mindset.

This book is a questioning into the strength of our beliefs, both conscious and sub-conscious, and how rewriting even the simplest of them can have a profound impact on virtually every aspect of our lives.

One of the interesting phenomenon brought up by the author is a false growth mindset. False growth mindset arises when people think or claim to have a growth mindset, but their words and behaviors don’t reflect it. Examples of a false growth mindset include praising results over progress, affirming students' or employees’ potential without enabling them, and blaming their mindset instead of refocusing it.

There are lots of real-life stories cited by the author to submit her concepts, some stories are interesting and some are kind of cherry-picked ones. However, the overall concept has been fully justified. The book is both practical and tactical.

My favorite quotes from the book are-

“He didn’t ask for mistake-free games. He didn’t demand that his players never lose. He asked for full preparation and full effort from them. “Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort?” If so, he says, “You may be outscored but you will never lose.”

“True self-confidence is “the courage to be open—to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source.” Real self-confidence is not reflected in a title, an expensive suit, a fancy car, or a series of acquisitions. It is reflected in your mindset: your readiness to grow.”

“The growth mindset also doesn't mean everything that can be changed should be changed. We all need to accept some of our imperfections, especially the ones that don't harm our lives or the lives of others.”

“Instead of just giving employees an award for the smartest idea or praise for a brilliant performance, they would get praise for taking initiative, for seeing a difficult task through, for struggling and learning something new, for being undaunted by a setback, or for being open to and acting on criticism.”

“...you aren’t a failure until you start to blame.”