In what ways will the most recent book you’ve just read advance prospects for your future success?
9/14/24
The book I am currently reading titled “Mindset The new psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck, is really helping my advances for future success, in the second chapter, titled, “Inside the mindsets” I am learning more about how mindsets can influence our life. I am reflecting a lot on the reading and there is so much information in one chapter I think it is so important to analyze my reading well.
Chapter 2 explains a little more about the difference of the 2 mindsets. In the fixed mindset, success is about proving you are smart or talented. It’s about validating yourself. In a world of changing qualities it’s about stretching yourself to learn something new and developing yourself. In a fixed world failure is a setback. Getting a bad grade, losing a tournament, getting fired, getting rejected, it means you are not smart or talented. In the fixed world effort is bad. Failure means your not smart or talented. In the growth world effort is what makes you smart and talented. You have a choice because mindsets are just beliefs but they are powerful beliefs. They are in our mind and we can change them.
There were a lot of questions in this chapter that really got me thinking. Like what kind of relationships I want to have? Ones that bolster my ego or ones that challenge me to grow? Who is my ideal mate? I really reflected on this because I know that my relationships in the past were not always the best and lead me to wrong decisions and ultimately to prison. I want to have relationships that help me grow as a person. I don’t want to be around people that just boost my ego. I want to grow as a person and become the best version of myself. My ideal mate will be someone who sees my faults and helps me work on them. Someone who challenges me to grow to become better and encourages me to learn new things. This really got me thinking about all my relationships, not just an ideal mate but family, friends, and working relationships. In family, friends and working relationships I want the same thing, people that support me in my endeavors and encourage me to do positive things. I have to have a positive support system when I come home. Another question that got me thinking was: How can we know where effort, coaching, and time will take someone? This made me think about my past that if it were not for this time, I have spent in prison already I probably would not think the way I do today. That I am grateful for the lessons learned so far through the greatest teacher which has been time. Time has helped me think so differently about life and the importance of time. We have so little in a lifetime and I feel like I could be doing much more meaningful things with my time than being in prison. I have served enough time already!
This chapter also touches on the mindset and depression. It talks about whether mindsets play a role in depression. Their analysis found that people with a fixed mindset had higher levels of depression. That their failures or setbacks played over and over in their heads and tormented them and made them think they were incompetent or unworthy. The more depressed they got the more they let things go. Instead of solving their problems. People with the growth mindset were different the more depressed they got the more action they took to solve their problems. The more they made sure to keep up with their tasks and the more determined they became to keep up with their lives. They were depressed but they didn’t let the failures define them. I am so happy I have a growth mindset. I do have my days of depression but I look for meaningful ways to do my time like make a routine or schedule everyday, keep a job, set exercise goals, study, help my peers, and have leisure time. This really helps me with my time and there are days I wish I had more time to do extra things I want to accomplish. I also get out of depression because I know I’m part of the Peer Success Team in my community and I am the leader in my unit. I have to lead by example and be the change I want to see in the world. I can’t be laying in bed depressed or looking a mess! There is lots of work to do.
