With practice, training, and above all, method, we manage to increase our attention, our memory, our judgment and literally to become more intelligent than we were before

Scientists are learning that people have more capacity for lifelong learning and brain development than they ever thought

The major factor in whether people achieve expertise 'is not some fixed prior ability, but purposeful engagement.'

The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life

Growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts, your strategies, and help from others

Everyone can change and grow through application and experience

A person's true potential is unknown; that it's impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil, and training

Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better? Why look for friends or partners who will just shore up your self-esteem instead of ones who will also challenge you to grow? And why seek out the tried and true, instead of experiences that will stretch you? Stretching yourself and sticking to it

Even though they felt distressed, they were ready to take the risks, confront the challenges, and keep working at them

People are terrible at estimating their abilities

You can change your mindset

Two meanings to ability: a fixed ability that needs to be proven, and a changeable ability that can be developed through learning

Everyone is born with an intense drive to learn

People in a growth mindset don't just seek challenge, they thrive on it. The bigger the challenge, the more they stretch

'When you're lying on your deathbed, one of the cool things to say is, 'I really explored myself.' If you only go through life doing stuff that's easy, shame on you'

'This is hard. This is fun.'

It's about learning something over time: confronting a challenge and making progress

'Becoming is better than being.'

People with a growth mindset know that it takes time for potential to flower

Michael Jordan, he was a human being. He just stretched himself farther than most

Even geniuses have to work hard for their achievements. Effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment

You have to work hardest for the things you love most

'I gave my all for the things I valued.'

Success is about being your best self, not about being better than others; failure is an opportunity, not a condemnation; effort is the key to success

He could be using this time to learn

Believing talents can be developed allows people to fulfill their potential

The growth mindset does allow people to love what they're doing—and to continue to love it in the face of difficulties

The growth mindset allows people to value what they're doing regardless of the outcome

Put yourself in a growth mindset. Picture your brain forming new connections as you meet the challenge and learn. Keep on going

Seek constructive criticism

Next time you feel low, put yourself in a growth mindset—think about learning, challenge, confronting obstacles. Think about effort as a positive, constructive force, not as a big drag. Try it out

Adolescence is a time of opportunity: a time to learn new subjects, a time to find out what they like and what they want to become in the future

Test scores and measures of achievement tell you where a student is, but they don't tell you where a student could end up

Important achievements require a clear focus, all-out effort, and a bottomless trunk full of strategies

Creativity is not a magical act of inspiration. It's the result of hard work and dedication

'The way to get ahead in life is hard work.' - Bruce Jenner

Character—it's the ability to dig down and find the strength even when things are going against you

If I really wanted it, I had to pull it together

Someone who could raise their level of play when they needed to

I'd proven that I could win if I wanted it badly enough. I could not only compete with the best athletes in the country, I could will myself to win. Mental toughness

All of these people had character. None of them thought they were special people, born with the right to win. They were people who worked hard, who learned how to keep their focus under pressure, and who stretched beyond their ordinary abilities when they had to

'I believe ability can get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there... It's so easy to begin thinking you can just 'turn it on' automatically, without proper preparation. It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you're there. When you read about an athlete or team that wins over and over and over, remind yourself, 'More than ability, they have character.'' - John Wooden

'How good you are at sports will always improve if you work harder at it.'

'To be successful in sports, you need to learn techniques and skills and practice them regularly.'

Those with the growth mindset found success in doing their best, in learning and improving

That personal success is when you work your hardest to become your best

'After every game or practice, if you walk off the field knowing that you gave everything you had, you will always be a winner.' - Mia Hamm

'I know my game. I know what I want to achieve, I know how to get there.' - Tiger Woods

Somebodies are people who go for it with all they have. If you go for it with all you have—not just in the games, but in practice too—you will already be a somebody

'If you work hard at something, you get out what you put in.' - Candace Parker

Look to improve all the time

A company that cannot self-correct cannot thrive

Self-effacing people who constantly asked questions and had the ability to confront the most brutal answers, to look failures in the face, even their own, while maintaining faith that they would succeed in the end

Believe in human development

They're constantly trying to prove they're better than others. Constantly trying to improve

Constantly dig down, face challenges, and keep growing

True self-confidence is 'the courage to be open—to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source.'

Genius is not enough; we need to get the job done

Growth-minded leaders are full of gratitude

'People can always substantially change their basic skills for managing other people'

Whenever a group reached a decision while sober, they later reconsidered it while intoxicated

It's critical to be in a growth mindset when important decisions are made. A growth mindset leads to a full and open discussion of the information and to enhanced decision making

Taking on challenges, showing persistence, and admitting and correcting mistakes are essential

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

The successful businessperson must be good at negotiation

Leaders are made, not born, and made more by themselves than by any external means. Everyone, of whatever age and circumstance, is capable of self-transformation

Look for people with the potential to develop

Create an organization that prizes the development of ability—and watch the leaders emerge

Conveying that people can grow and improve with effort, good strategies, and good mentoring: 'culture of development'

'Every marriage demands an effort to keep it on the right track; there is a constant tension between forces that hold you together and those that can tear you apart.'

Mind reading instead of communicating inevitably backfires

'They worked happily ever after'

There are no great achievements without setbacks, there are no great relationships without conflicts and problems along the way

Help partners reach their own goals and fulfill their own potential

Who can you turn to when good things happen?

'People do have the potential to change'

Use your mind to make things better

Do not praise the person; praise their effort

Helping them see their actions as part of ann effort to improve

Social skills are things you can improve and social interactions are for learning and enjoyment, not judgment

Praising children's intelligence harms their motivation and it harms their performance

If success means they're smart, then failure means they're dumb. That's the fixed mindset

Keep away from praise that judges their intelligence or talent. Or praise that implies that we're proud of them for their intelligence or talent rather than for the work they put in

When children hear their parents level fixed judgments at other, it communicates a fixed mindset

Skills and achievement come through commitment and effort

Speed and perfection are the enemy of difficult learning

Withholding constructive criticism does not help children's confidence, it harms their future

Don't judge. Teach. It's a learning process

Fostering their interests, growth, and learning

Great teachers set high standards for all their students, not just the ones who are already achieving

'Challenge and nurture.' Put people in the frame of mind where they can do their best. Very few teachers can actually get you to your ultimate potential

'There are no shortcuts'

When teachers are judging them, students will sabotage the teacher by not trying. But when students understand that school is for them—a way for them to grow their minds—they do not insist on sabotaging themselves

'You have to apply yourself each day to becoming a little better. By applyig yourself to the task of becoming a little better each and every day over a period of time, you will become a lot better' - John Wooden

'Did I make my best effort? You may be outscored but you will never lose.' - John Wooden

Beware of success. It can knock you into a fixed mindset

A growth mindset is about believing people can develop their abilities

The process includes more than just effort. Trying new strategies when the one they're using isn't working. Ask for help or input from others when it's needed. This is the process we want them to appreciate: hard work, trying new strategies, and seeking input from others

Children need to understand that engaging in that process helped them learn

Remember that having innate talent is not a goal. Expanding skills and knowledge is

Instead of asking for mistake-free games, ask for full commitment and full effort

Nothing is better than seeing people find their way to things they value

Go for it. Make it happen. Develop your skills. Pursue your dream

Observe. Learn. Improve. Become a better athlete

Nobody scoffs at an honest plea for helpful feedback

Every day people plan to do difficult things, but they don't do them

What works is making a vivid, concrete plan

Think of something you need to do, something you want to learn, a problem you have to confront. What is it? Now make a concrete plan. When will you follow through on your plan? Where will you do it? How will you do it? Think about it in vivid detail

These concrete plans lead to really high levels of follow-through, which, of course, ups the chances of success

What did you learn today? What mistake did you make that taught you something? What did you try hard at today?

Setbacks will happen. So instead of beating yourself up, ask 'What can I learn from this? What will I do next time when I'm in this situation?' It's a learning process

Every lapse is a reminder that you're an unfinished human being and a clue to how to do it better next time

Change needs to be maintained. It's amazing—once a problem improves, people stop doing what caused it to improve

Change from a judge-and-be-judged framework to a learn-and-help-learn framework. Commitment is to growth, and growth takes plenty of time, effort, and mutual support to achieve and maintain

The Journey

Embrace your fixed mindset

Become aware of your fixed-mindset triggers

As you come to understand your triggers and get to know your persona, don't judge it. Just observe it

Give your fixed-mindset persona a name: Rich

Find something important about yourself that you'd like to change and take the first step. Do something outrageously growth mindset in the service of what you'd like to change. Project yourself 25 years into the future and write me a letter about where you are in your life and all the struggles, disappointments, hardships, and failures you've encountered along the way

Educate it. Take it onn the journey with you

If you're on the verge of stepping out of your comfort zone, be ready to greet it when it shows up and warns you to stop. Thank it for its input, but then tell it why you want to take this step and ask it to come along with you

When you hit a setback, let it do its song and dance, and when it settles down a bit, talk to it about how to plan to learn from the setback and go forward

Remember that your fixed-mindset persona was born to protect you and keep you safe

Educate it in the new growth mindset ways that it can support you: in taking on challenges and sticking to them, bouncing back from failure, and helping and supporting others to grow

For your growth mindset to bear fruit, you need to keep setting goals—goals for growth. Every day presents you with ways to grow and to help the people you care about grow

What are the opportunities for learning and growth today? For myself? For the people around me?

When, where, and how will I embark on my plan?

What do I have to do to maintain and continue the growth?

Keep the growth mindset in your thoughts. Then, when you bump up against obstacles, you can turn to it. It will always be there for you, showing you a path into the future