In our last +1, we talked about how to be like Mike sans the sugar-laden Gatorade. 🤓
I briefly mentioned the fact that Jordan was DEVASTATED when he was cut from his varsity high school team. Then he used that failure as FUEL for his growth.
Which reminds me of Carol Dweck. For two reasons. Weâll talk about one today and the other tomorrow.
First, as weâve discussed, Carol Dweck is the fairy Godmother of the Growth Mindset. Sheâs a Stanford Professor and tells us, in short, that we can live with either a âfixed mindsetâ or a âgrowth mindset.â
We want to choose our mindset wisely as, research says, our destinies depend on it. Hereâs the super quick take.
Professor Dweck tells us: âBelieving that your qualities are carved in stoneâthe fixed mindsetâcreates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain moral characterâwell, then youâd better prove that you have a healthy dose of them. It simply wouldnât do to look or feel deficient in these most basic characteristics.â
Thatâs the fixed mindset. Itâs a recipe for thwarted potential because when youâre locked in this mindset, you do everything you can to avoid looking badâmissing the fact that those challenges (that might result in failure and you looking bad) are PRECISELY the way youâre going to have a shot at being GREAT.
Hereâs the growth mindset: âIn this mindset, the hand youâre dealt is just the starting point for development. The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which wayâin their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperamentsâeveryone can change and grow through application and experience.â
With the growth mindset: âPeople in the growth mindset donât just *seek* challenge, they thrive on it.â (<- âBring it on, baby!!â)
Now, back to Jordan. Dweck actually uses him as a case study multiple times to make some points throughout her book as heâs such a PARAGON of the growth mindset.
For example, she says: âMalcolm Gladwell, the author and New Yorker writer, has suggested that as a society we value natural, effortless accomplishment over achievement through effort. We endow our heroes with superhuman abilities that lead them inevitably toward their greatness. Itâs as if Midori popped out of the womb fiddling, Michael Jordan dribbling, and Picasso doodling. This captures the fixed mindset perfectly. And itâs everywhere.â
Plus: âMichael Jordan embraced his failures. In fact, in one of his favorite ads for Nike, he says: âIâve missed more than nine thousand shots. Iâve lost almost three hundred games. Twenty-six times, Iâve been trusted to take the game-winning shot, and missed.â You can be sure that each time, he went back and practiced the shot a hundred times.â
Todayâs +1.
Howâs your mindset?
Are you living with a fixed mindset such that you think your potential is kinda sorta âfixedâ from birth/your upbringing?
OrâŠ
Do you KNOW that with diligent, patient, and persistent hard work you can get better at (and potentially GREAT at) whatever it is youâre aspiring to do in your life?
Know this: Your mindset matters. A lot.
Hereâs to your growth and to leaning into the challenges thatâll help us reach our Peaks!
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