Shahid Ansari's Key Ideas from Mindset
by Carol Dweck

This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Changing our beliefs can have a powerful impact. The growth mindset creates a powerful passion for learning. 

• “I can’t do it” Vs “I can’t do it yet”.
• Concerned with how you'll be judged Vs Concerned with improving.
• Interested on whether the answer is right or wrong Vs Interested in learning what the right answer was.
• Avoid challenges Vs Embrace challenges.
• Compare themselves with people worse than them Vs Comparing or competing with people with people better than them.
• Assigning blame and making excuses Vs Facing failures, dealing it and learning from it.
• Immediate Perfection Vs Learning something over time.
• See effort as fruitless or worse Vs See effort as the path to mastery.

Children with fixed want to make sure they succeed. Smart people should always succeed.

But for children with the growth mindset, success is about stretching themselves. It’s about becoming smarter

One seventh-grade girl summed it up. “I think intelligence is something you have to work for . . . it isn’t just given to you. . . . Most kids, if they’re not sure of an answer, will not raise their hand to answer the question. But what I usually do is raise my hand, because if I’m wrong, then my mistake will be corrected. Or I will raise my hand and say, ‘How would this be solved?’ or ‘I don’t get this. Can you help me?’ Just by doing that I’m increasing my intelligence.” 

Some people let bad experiences scar them and prevent them from forming satisfying relationships in the future. Others are able to heal and move on.

When people had the fixed mindset, they felt judged and labeled by the rejection.

For people with the growth mindset, the number one goal is forgiveness. As one woman said: “I’m no saint, but I knew for my own peace of mind that I had to forgive and forget. He hurt me but I had a whole life waiting for me and I’ll be damned if I was going to live it in the past. One day I just said, ‘Good luck to him and good luck to me.’ ”

Picture your ideal love relationship. Does it involve perfect compatibility—no disagreements, no compromises, no hard work? In every relationship, issues arise. Try to see them from a growth mindset: Problems can be a vehicle for developing greater understanding and intimacy.

Are you shy? Next time you’re venturing into a social situation, think about these things: how social skills are things you can improve and how social interactions are for learning and enjoyment, not judgment. Keep practicing this.

To be good at sports you need not be naturally gifted. To be successful in sports, you need to learn techniques and skills and practice them regularly.

“Character” is an important concept in the sports world, and it comes out of a growth mindset.

Athletes with a growth mindset find success in learning and improving, not just winning. 

Michael Jordan never let a mistake stop him.

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over. And that is why I succeed.”

Creating a growth-mindset environment in which people can thrive. This involves:

• Presenting skills as learnable .
• Conveying that the organization values learning and perseverance, not just ready-made genius or talent.
• Giving feedback in a way that promotes learning and future success.
• Presenting managers as resources for learning

As a parent practice working the process praise with your children. Praise the processes they used—their strategies, effort, or choices.

Ask these questions: "What did you learn today?" "What mistakes did you make and does it taught you something?"

Fixed mindset teacher create a atmosphere of judging. These teachers look at student's beginning performance and decide who's smart and who's dumb.

Great teachers believe in the growth of the intellect and talent, and they are fascinated with the process of learning. 

Fixed mindset coaches are intolerant of mistakes. They motivate players through judgement.

For coaches instead of asking for mistake-free games, ask for full commitment and full effort. Instead of judging the players, give them the respect and the coaching they need to develop. 

"Even in the growth mindset, failure can be a painful experience, But it doesn't define you. It's a problem to be faced, dealt with, and learned from."

"We all need to accept some of our imperfections, especially the ones that don't really harm our lives or the lives of the others."

"Stereotype do damage by making people feel they don't belong."

"Character is the ability to dig down and find the strength even when things are going against you."

"Your failures and misfortunes don’t threaten other people’s self-esteem. Ego-wise, it’s easy to be sympathetic to someone in need. It’s your assets and your successes that are problems for people who derive their self-esteem from being superior."