Reading Reflection No. 2

The book I chose to explore from the second reading list options was Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck.

The reason I chose this book is because I was initially attracted to the title itself. I am a big believer in the quote, "think positive and positive things will happen." I believe your mindset can change your entire life by affecting you and influencing what happens in your life.

1. The general theme/argument of Mindset was (as said in the words of the author, Carol Dweck):
"For twenty years, my research has shown that the view you adopt of yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life." - Carol Dweck

Dweck says that your mindset affects every aspect of your life including parenting, business, school, and relationships, etc. Your mindset affects your self-awareness, self-esteem, creativity, ability to face challenges, resilience to setbacks, levels of depression, and tendency to stereotype, among other things. It boils down to two main mindsets: the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. The fixed mindset is stuck in its ways. It desires to look smart and therefore avoids challenges, gives up easily, dislikes effort, and ignores feedback. The growth mindset is flexible. It desires to learn and therefore welcomes challenge, is persistent, values effort, and learns from criticism. The growth mindset is the one you want to achieve. Dweck says that the number one way to begin to change your mindset is to be aware of it. 

2. Mindset connects with what we are learning in class because it reinforces the entrepreneurial mindset and personality that we have been practicing. I noticed throughout the reading that the growth mindset Dweck discusses and the entrepreneurial mindset that we have been practicing have so much in common: they both value challenge, persistence, effort, and criticism. They embrace it, not run from it. 

3. If I had to design an exercise for this class based on Mindset, it would be some sort of cognitive thought process challenge that would help us to think in the growth mindset. We would have to keep a journal for thirty days and write down our thoughts, what our normal response would be, and what the growth mindset response would be. It would force us to look at the alternative perception and place ourselves in other shoes. At the end of the challenge, we would discuss whether the change in mindset helped with perceptions, actions, and overall feelings. Did the new mindset begin to become habitual? Did it grow on you? How did it make you feel? Did you like that? How did it help you to handle a situation differently? Did it benefit you or change you overall? How? Do you think you will try to stick with it?

4. My aha moment while reading Mindset was when the book reported that a mindset "limits our potential or enables our success. It often marks the difference between excellence and mediocrity."

Wow! Your mindset truly impacts every single aspect of your life. It helped me to realize that you can choose how you want to think, process things, react, etc. While you are often not in control of what happens around you and what people say to you, you are in control of your mindset and what you choose to do with these outside forces. You are in control of your life and where you are going with it.