May’s Book Review is for Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol S. Dweck.
I got this book during the Association of Psychological Sciences conference in Washington DC last year. Dr. Carol Dweck was the keynote speaker for the conference where she gave a very interesting talk titled: “Can Personality be Changed?”Since the talk was so interesting, and her book was discounted, I decided to pick up a copy. This book has been sitting in my queue of things to read for a year now, and I am just finally getting around to reading it.I have been pleasantly surprised by the book Mindset, it is interesting, reflective, and easy to read. It does tend to get a little repetitive with the examples at times, but overall was a great book.The main idea is that there are two types of mindsets, fixed and growth. Most people have both in different aspects of their lives, so you can have a growth view of education but a fixed view of athletic talent.The Fixed Mindset is the belief that you are fixed in something; you are either a natural baker and your cakes should always be moist and fluffy without much effort, or you aren’t and no matter how hard you try your cakes will never be that good. This “you are or you aren’t” mentality can be applied to basically any area of life.

The Growth Mindset is the opposite, it is the view that with hard work and determination you can do things you never thought possible a little bit at a time. (Can you guess which is the better of the two to have?) A little bit of effort each day will let you reach your goals, and no-one is predetermined to win or lose, it’s more of a “what can I learn from this experience?” mentality.

As is the case with most personal development books I find myself reflecting on my own views and the views of my closest friends. I have one friend in particular, Jason, who is very fixed in his mindset. He was one of my closest friends in college, but he always came across as a little arrogant; now I see that he has a very fixed mindset and needs to prove his self worth by being competitive and the best at everything.

As I read the book I also thought about my own views of the world. No-one would want to admit to having a fixed mindset, but we probably all do to some extent. My mother definitely raised me to think in a fixed way. I always loved school and did well, getting mostly A’s. My brother on the other hand was lazy and ‘not as good a student’, meaning he got B’s and C’s. My mom actually told us that my brother would never get the same grades I got because he was not naturally a student. There were countless other examples like this that my mom tried to instill in me, including telling me that I would never be good at music because I “inherited grandma’s ear.”  But I’ve tried to buck the trend, and have learned to be a pretty good cook despite my mom’s warnings, and Andrew has made deans list in college.

I was very lucky to meet Ryan in college; he has always had a growth mindset and because of him, I was able to become more growth minded. I started trying new things like cooking and began running a lot more because I knew that not being good now was no reason why I couldn’t be good later.

Initially Ryanwas a much better runner than I was, he could run for miles where I had all to do to make it for half of one. I was quick to blame my lack of fitness on having asthma or being a girl, and I often felt like I had to match him to prove myself.

One Saturday we went running together and for the first time I was able to complete the full loop of more than a mile without stopping, it was an example of growth in action.  He’s still a better natural runner, but I was able to run a 5k and was proud of it.  I’m now training for a 10k.

I would recommend the book Mindset if you are struggling with anything in life. The growth mindset is particularly apropos to personal finance bloggers who snowflake debt and see every little step as one step closer to their ultimate goal, or who try to change their spending patterns by slowing converting more and more days to “no-spend” days. In almost all the other blogs I read I see many successful, hard working people, who apply the growth mindset in their lives, and it is paying off.

If you are looking for a quick read that is both entertaining and thought provoking this is a great book.