Dr. Dweck’s research showed how a person’s mindset builds the platform for either fixed or growth mindset. A student with a Fixed mindset will be more conscious about looking smart all the time and avoid challenging work. However, a student with a Growth mindset will pursue interesting and challenging tasks in order to learn more.

Further into the research, she found that people’s beliefs about their own intelligence had a significant impact on their motivation, effort and approach to challenges. Those who believe they could overcome challenges were more likely to focus on them and persist despite setbacks.

This model of the Fixed vs Growth mindset shows how cognitive, affective and behavioural features are linked to one’s beliefs about the flexibility of their intelligence. The graphic[1] below illustrates this research, and how different mindsets lead to different patterns of behaviour.

As Dweck argues, a fixed mindset is what stops many of us from trying to improve in certain areas where we think we’ve hit our ceiling. In truth, of course, we’re all capable of reaching new heights. It’s just a matter of shifting from a “Fixed mindset” to a “Growth mindset”.

There are several tools that one can use to make the transition to a Growth mindset and the graphic below summarises[2] this.

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[1] https://www.mindsetworks.com/science/Impact

[2] Graphic from http://www.lifehack.org