Carol S. Dweck

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I grew up in an environment that promoted a very fixed mindset. It was an era that worshipped IQ and thought that your IQ was the most important thing in determining your future. My sixth-grade teacher even seated us around the room in IQ order.
- Carol S. Dweck
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When I was in graduate school, I became very interested in why some kids took on challenges and were able to bounce back from setbacks whereas others shy away from difficulty and really crumble when they hit failures. I became fascinated with people who had that kind of courage to take on challenges.
- Carol S. Dweck
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My undergraduates, at first, get all starry-eyed about the idea of finding their passion, but over time, they get far more excited about developing their passion and seeing it through. They come to understand that that's how they and their futures will be shaped and how they will ultimately make their contributions.
- Carol S. Dweck
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As the growth mindset has become more popular and taken hold, we are beginning to find that there are pitfalls. Many educators misunderstand or misapply the concepts.
- Carol S. Dweck
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We're finding that many parents endorse a growth mindset, but they still respond to their children's errors, setbacks or failures as though they're damaging and harmful. If they show anxiety or overconcern, those kids are going toward a more fixed mindset.
- Carol S. Dweck
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I'm such an egghead.
- Carol S. Dweck
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In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening. So rather than thinking, oh, I'm going to reveal my weaknesses, you say, wow, here's a chance to grow.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Thinking
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No matter what your current ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Accomplishment
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When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world. In one world (the world of fixed traits) success is about proving you’re smart or talented. Validating yourself. In the other (the world of changing qualities) it’s about stretching yourself to learn something new. Developing yourself.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Smart
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Effort is one of those things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Wise
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If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Children
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What did you learn today? What mistake did you make that taught you something? What did you try hard at today?
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Mistake
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This point is . . . crucial,” writes Dweck. “In the fixed mindset, everything is about the outcome. If you fail — or if you’re not the best — it’s all been wasted. The growth mindset allows people to value what they’re doing regardless of the outcome.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Writing
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Failure is information-we label it failure, but it's more like, 'This didn't work, I'm a problem solver, and I'll try something else.'
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Trying
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The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it's not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Passion
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You’re in charge of your mind. You can help it grow by using it in the right way.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Wise
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Test scores and measures of achievement tell you where a student is, but they don't tell you where a student could end up.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Wise
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The best thing parents can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Children
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Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better? Why hide deficiencies instead of overcoming them? 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? The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Self Esteem
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Becoming is better than being
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Growth
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Exceptional people convert life's setbacks into future successes.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: People
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Important achievements require a clear focus, all-out effort, and a bottomless trunk full of strategies. Plus allies in learning.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Focus
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For twenty years, my research has shown that the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want to be and whether you accomplish the things you value.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Views
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Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better?
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Get Better
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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.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Winning
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Don't judge. Teach. It's a learning process.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Judging
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Teaching is a wonderful way to learn.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Wise
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Picture your brain forming new connections as you meet the challenge and learn. Keep on going.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Challenges
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Choosing a partner is choosing a set of problems. There are no problem-free candidates.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Wise
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I don’t mind losing as long as I see improvement or I feel I’ve done as well as I possibly could.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Long
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We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Thinking
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You have to work hardest for the things you love most.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Hard Work
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This is hard. This is fun.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Wise
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What did you try hard at today?
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Trying
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So what should we say when children complete a task—say, math problems—quickly and perfectly? Should we deny them the praise they have earned? Yes. When this happens, I say, “Whoops. I guess that was too easy. I apologize for wasting your time. Let’s do something you can really learn from!
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Children
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Research shows that normal young children misbehave every three minutes.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Children
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...when people already know they're deficient, they have nothing to lose by trying.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: People
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It’s for you to decide whether change is right for you right now. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. But either way 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.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Growth
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More and more research is suggesting that, far from being simply encoded in the genes, much of personality is a flexible and dynamic thing that changes over the life span and is shaped by experience.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Personality
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Vowing, even intense vowing, is often useless. The next day comes and the next day goes. What works is making a vivid, concrete plan.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Next Day
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A company that cannot self-correct cannot thrive.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Wise
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Just because some people can do something with little or no training, it doesn't mean that others can't do it (and sometimes do it even better) with training.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Wise
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Your failures and misfortunes don't threaten other people. . .It's your assets and your successes that are problems for people who derive their self-esteem from being superior.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Wise
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What can I learn from this? What will I do next time I'm in this situation?
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Growth
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Why seek out the tried and true, instead of experiences that will stretch you?
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Growth Mindset
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The whole point of marriage is to encourage your partner's development and have them encourage yours.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Wise
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Praising children’s intelligence harms their motivation and it harms their performance.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Children
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I believe ability can get you to the top,” says coach John Wooden, “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.'
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: Real
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It is not always people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.
- Carol S. Dweck
Collection: People