PNTV - Mindset by Carol Dweck

You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hey guys, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Philosopher's Notes TV episode. Today we have Mindset by Carol Dweck. Mindset, as always, we've got a philosopher's note, a little mind map action. This book is packed with big ideas. It's one of the fundamental books to the whole kind of willpower, growth orientation, 10,000 hour arena. This idea that your mindset is going to affect how you show up in your life. Huge. Carol Dweck is one of the world's leading researchers on scientific, researchers on motivation. She's been at Columbia and Harvard. She's now at Stanford. Amazing teacher, author, etc. Let's jump straight in. So we've got five big ideas, all of which are going to come back to the first one. Fixed mindset versus growth mindset. Fixed mindset versus growth mindset. That is what we want to explore right now. What's the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset? A fixed mindset is basically this idea that you either have it or you don't. It's fixed. Whatever you were born with is basically what you got. So when we look at people we admire, whether it's a Mozart or a Jordan or a Picasso, we look at them and say, wow. I mean, they're just geniuses. Look at them, they were just born great, right? Fixed mindset. When we have a fixed mindset, we don't want to challenge ourselves because we don't want to expose ourselves as either good or bad. Because if you were born a certain way and it's fixed, then you don't ever want to fail. You don't ever want to come up short because that's a sign that you just don't have it. And you don't want to be vulnerable and let people see that you just don't have it. You've got a fixed mindset orientation. Now, the growth mindset approaches it completely differently. The growth mindset says, look, sure, people might be born with different natural tendencies, etc. But the people we admire are the ones who hustled. They put in a ton of effort. And that growth mindset is the orientation that allows us to go out and get a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better. We can embrace failures, which we'll talk about. We can put in the effort, which we'll talk about. We can see that genius is made, not born, which is a huge distinction. And we're just all about trying to get a Little bit better, right? So let's look at that. So the next big idea tied to this is around effort. What do you think about effort? Do you think it's good or do you think it's not good? Well, a fixed mindset orientation isn't into effort because the whole attitude when you have a fixed mindset is, look, if I was good at this, I wouldn't need to work so hard. Wouldn't be so challenging if I was actually good at this. The fixed mindset is either you got it or you don't. And if you need to work for it, well, then that's proof that you don't have it. The growth mindset takes the opposite approach. The growth mindset says, look, I may or may not be where I want to be. And in fact, I know I'm not where I want to be, but I'm willing to put in the effort to make it happen, because I know that that's how greatness is formed, is through diligent, patient, persistent effort. It's huge. I mentioned in the note an idea from Joseph Campbell. Joseph Campbell, and I think, not sure which one of his books either Pathways to Bliss, where a Joseph Campbell companion talks about when he taught at this boys school, young boys would come up to him, high school students, and say, do you think I can make it as a writer? Do you think I can make it as a writer? And he says, well, look, if you think your first shot needs to be a best seller, then, no, I don't think you can make it. But if you're willing to put in 10 years of work with no one recognizing your ability, well, then you have a shot. Still not guaranteed, but you have a shot. That's the perfect demonstration of the fixed versus growth. If we think our first effort needs to be great, or it's a sign that we suck and shouldn't do it anymore. We have a fixed mindset. If we know that our first effort is not going to be our best effort by definition, then we hustle, Then we put in effort. We redefine our relationship to effort as good, not as a sign that something's wrong. That's our second idea, which is tied to our third. These are all kind of connected to our mindsets. Genius is made, not born. So people have this weird myth, and our society has this weird myth that someone like Mozart or someone like Darwin or someone like Jordan or someone like Picasso, they were just born great. God, they're so lucky. I mean, wow. I just would have loved to be born with Michael Jordan's. Genesis. But Michael Jordan wasn't even the best athlete in his family growing up. He got cut from his basketball team his freshman year and if he had a fixed mindset, he would have said that must mean that I'm not good. Put the basketball shoes up and I'll go try something else. He had a growth mindset and he looked at that failure and he said, I'm going to work harder, I'm going to get better. It's a powerful thing. Carol has some amazing quotes in here. I'm going to share one with you. She says, is it ability or mindset? Was it Mozart's musical ability or the fact that he worked till his hands were deformed? Was it Darwin's scientific ability or the fact that he collected specimens non stop from early childhood? So was Darwin just a genius? Sure, he was an intelligent guy, but he worked non stop collecting specimens and thinking about it and analyzing it since childhood. It's nuts. These great people we admire put in a ton of effort. We'll talk more about the 10,000 hour goodness in talent is Overrated, the Talent Code and some other books that we look at with that. But keep that in mind. Genius is made, not born. Big idea. Alright, next one. Feeling depressed? Who are you? If you're feeling depressed, which we all do at times, different people will have different expressions of that. I've had some serious ickhaus. I've got the genetic disposition that. Well, it is what it is. My father struggled with alcohol. His father struggled with alcohol and killed himself. I've had my own ups and downs in the past and it's one of the reasons why I take this stuff so seriously. I know that it's not fixed. It doesn't mean that because I have this background that I'm screwed. It means that I have an opportunity to grow and I want to take that seriously and then show up. And Carol talks about this in a really powerful way that when you're feeling down, whether it's kind of sort of icky or super depressed, you want to look at the mindset with which you're approaching it. If you have a fixed mindset, an effort isn't good, something's wrong with you. The story that you tell yourself when you're feeling bad is, something is just wrong with me. I'm flawed, therefore I should just give up because I can't do anything about it. Not a very helpful way to orient, especially when we're feeling bad. Growth mindset says, wow, I don't feel great right now. What's going on? Oh, I'm a little tired. I've been pushing myself a little bit too far. What can I do to get back on? Because I know that my state isn't fixed. I may have different issues growing up or genetic or whatever it is, but I have a choice in how I'm going to show up and that's going to influence my next moment in the days and weeks and months and years and decades ahead. What do I need to do now? Carol talks about the fact that growth mindset oriented individuals work harder when they're depressed. They work harder when they're depressed. They don't give up. So that's a big idea and that's going to be directly tied to our mindset. Are you approaching it with a fixed mindset or with a growth mindset? Pay attention. The final big idea here is embracing failure. So obviously, if I'm in a fixed mindset, well, not necessarily obviously. To restate it, if I'm in a fixed mindset, I'm unwilling to fail because failing is a sign that I don't have what it takes. It's fixed. I've either got it or I don't. So if I come up short, that means I don't have it. No one wants to be seen as the guy or girl who doesn't have it. Right. So what do you do? You procrastinate. You're a perfectionist. You never put your creative projects out in the world because you don't want people to see that you kind of suck at this phase. But guess what? That's how it works. And when you have a growth mindset, you embrace failure. You don't run away from it. You practice this whole anti fragile thing we've been talking about and turning pro and leaning into it if you want to get out of your comfort zone. We've been talking about our comfort zone a lot with the tools and with Steve Chandler's book. Comfort zone. Fear potential. Right. Well, guess what? When you go out of your comfort zone, you bump up against this wall of fear that drives you back. In a fixed mindset, you just stay in your comfort zone because you can't deal with fear and with failure. But if you have a growth mindset, that's how you push through because you know that there really is no such thing as failure unless you're not growing. That's how a fixed mindset thinks. You can fail on or off. The growth mindset looks at events in life and says, look, I'm going to fail. That's inevitable. Let me embrace challenges in my life. And the only real failure is not trying to. The only real failure is not putting myself out there and going for it. Growth mindset orientation embraces failure. She talks about Michael Jordan as well. I'll share his Nike ad, which she talks about in the book, which is basically the hallmark of a growth mindset orientation toward failure. Jordan says he's missed tons of shots. He's lost tons of games. People have trusted him with the game winning shot and he's missed it again and again and again. He, he's failed over and over and over again. And that's why he succeeds now with the growth mindset. He doesn't sit in a fixed mindset and say, God, that means I must really suck if we've lost three games in a row or I missed all these different shots. He has the growth mindset and what does he do? He puts in effort. He goes and works harder. Whatever shot he just missed at the end of the game, he goes and shoots it 100 times or whatever. He's in the gym hustling because he knows he can grow and get better and better and better and better. There you go. Quick look at mindset. Carol Dweck. Thank you, Carol. Where are you showing up? Fixed mindset versus growth mindset. How do you orient toward effort? It is good. Genius is made, not born. We're going to talk about this a lot more. I'm excited about that. Feeling depressed? Well, orient to the growth mindset. Work harder. Do the things that you know you need to do. The fundamentals of exercise, nutrition and rest and your meditation and attention training. Pushing through your fears. Just doing what needs to get done. Moving out of your comfort zone and embrace failure. Reorient your relationship to failure such that it's not making a mistake. Getting a bad grade. That's not failure. Failure is not growing. Not being willing to put yourself out there and get a little bit better moment to moment to moment, day in, day out. So there you go, mindset. Hope you dug it. Look forward to sharing more with you soon. Have an awesome day. See ya. Hi, this is Brian. I hope you enjoyed that Philosopher's Notes TV episode. If so, I think you'll enjoy everything else we offer at BrianJohnson Me. Two basic things. One, our free newsletter. It's called the Optimizer. Over 50,000 people start their day with it and they tell us it's pretty awesome. And two, our Optimal Living membership program. 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