Growth Mindset Quotes:

Becoming is better than being

- Carol S. Dweck

source: Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.25, Random House

topic: Growth, Becoming, Growth Mindset

Picture your brain forming new connections as you meet the challenge and learn. Keep on going.

- Carol S. Dweck

source: Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.53, Random House

topic: Challenges, Growth, Brain, Growth Mindset

The best thing parents can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.

- Carol S. Dweck

source: Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.176, Random House

topic: Children, Mistake, Effort, Growth Mindset

The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it's not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Passion, Growth, Mindset, Growth Mindset, Stretching Yourself

You have to apply yourself each day to becoming a little better. By becoming a little better each and every day, over a period of time, you will become a lot better.

- John Wooden

topic: Growth, Each Day, Littles, Growth Mindset

Just because some people can do something with little or no training, it doesn't mean that others can't do it (and sometimes do it even better) with training.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Mean, People, Growth, Growth Mindset

Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort?” If so, he says, “You may be outscored but you will never lose.

- Carol S. Dweck

source: Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.207, Random House

topic: Winning, Effort, Growth, Growth Mindset

The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.

- Albert Ellis

topic: Inspirational, Life, Happiness, Always Happy, Joy Happiness

What did you try hard at today?

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Trying, Today, Growth Mindset

I don’t mind losing as long as I see improvement or I feel I’ve done as well as I possibly could.

- Carol S. Dweck

source: Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.98, Random House

topic: Growth Mindset

Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better?

- Carol S. Dweck

source: Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.7, Random House

topic: Get Better, Waste, Wasting Time, Growth Mindset, Stretching Yourself

You’re in charge of your mind. You can help it grow by using it in the right way.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Wise, Growth, Mind, Growth Mindset, Right Way

Important achievements require a clear focus, all-out effort, and a bottomless trunk full of strategies. Plus allies in learning.

- Carol S. Dweck

source: Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.67, Random House

topic: Focus, Achievement, Effort, Growth Mindset, Trunks

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

- Will Durant

topic: Inspirational, Life, Motivational, Daily Work, Top Management

Wow, that's a really good score. You must have worked really hard.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Growth, Wow, Score, Growth Mindset

What did you learn today? What mistake did you make that taught you something? What did you try hard at today?

- Carol S. Dweck

source: Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.235, Random House

topic: Mistake, Growth, Trying, Growth Mindset

For twenty years, my research has shown that the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want to be and whether you accomplish the things you value.

- Carol S. Dweck

source: Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.6, Random House

topic: Views, Years, Want, Growth Mindset

I believe ability can get you to the top,” says coach John Wooden, “but it takes character to keep you there.… It’s so easy to … begin thinking you can just ‘turn it on’ automatically, without proper preparation. It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you’re there. When you read about an athlete or team that wins over and over and over, remind yourself, ‘More than ability, they have character.'

- Carol S. Dweck

source: Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.97, Random House

topic: Growth Mindset

Your failures and misfortunes don't threaten other people. . .It's your assets and your successes that are problems for people who derive their self-esteem from being superior.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Wise, Self Esteem, People, Growth Mindset

Ask 'How will they learn best?' not 'Can they learn?'.

- Jaime Escalante

topic: Growth, Growth Mindset

If you don't give anything, don't expect anything. Success is not coming to you, you must come to it.

- Marva Collins

source: Marva Collins (1990). “Marva Collins' Way”, Tarcher

topic: Giving, Growth, Growth Mindset

Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it the most versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass appreciation.

- Walt Disney

topic: Appreciation, Communication, Mean, Live For Yourself, Explicit

What can I learn from this? What will I do next time I'm in this situation?

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Growth, Next, Situation, Growth Mindset

...when people already know they're deficient, they have nothing to lose by trying.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: People, Growth, Trying, Growth Mindset

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

- Stevie Wonder

topic: Inspirational, Life, Motivational, Growth Mindset, Integrity And Character

Effort is one of those things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Wise, Mean, Giving, Growth Mindset

Test scores and measures of achievement tell you where a student is, but they don't tell you where a student could end up.

- Carol S. Dweck

source: Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.66, Random House

topic: Achievement, Growth, Test Scores, Growth Mindset

Why seek out the tried and true, instead of experiences that will stretch you?

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Growth Mindset

A company that cannot self-correct cannot thrive.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Self, Growth, Thrive, Growth Mindset

Vowing, even intense vowing, is often useless. The next day comes and the next day goes. What works is making a vivid, concrete plan.

- Carol S. Dweck

source: Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.228, Random House

topic: Growth, Useless, Vivid, Growth Mindset

When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world. In one world (the world of fixed traits) success is about proving you’re smart or talented. Validating yourself. In the other (the world of changing qualities) it’s about stretching yourself to learn something new. Developing yourself.

- Carol S. Dweck

source: Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.15, Random House

topic: Smart, Quality, World, Growth Mindset, Stretching Yourself

In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening. So rather than thinking, oh, I'm going to reveal my weaknesses, you say, wow, here's a chance to grow.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Thinking, Challenges, Growth, Growth Mindset

If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Children, Mistake, Giving, Growth Mindset

Choosing a partner is choosing a set of problems. There are no problem-free candidates.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Wise, Problem, Partners, Growth Mindset, Problem Free

This is hard. This is fun.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Fun, Growth, Growth Mindset

Teaching is a wonderful way to learn.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Wise, Teaching, Way, Growth Mindset

We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.

- Carol S. Dweck

source: Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.90, Random House

topic: Thinking, Idols, People, Growth Mindset

More and more research is suggesting that, far from being simply encoded in the genes, much of personality is a flexible and dynamic thing that changes over the life span and is shaped by experience.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Personality, Research, Human Nature, Growth Mindset, Suggesting

The whole point of marriage is to encourage your partner's development and have them encourage yours.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Wise, Development, Partners, Growth Mindset

This point is . . . crucial,” writes Dweck. “In the fixed mindset, everything is about the outcome. If you fail — or if you’re not the best — it’s all been wasted. The growth mindset allows people to value what they’re doing regardless of the outcome.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Writing, People, Growth, Growth Mindset

It’s for you to decide whether change is right for you right now. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. But either way keep the growth mindset in your thoughts then when you bump up against obstacles you can turn to it, it will always be there for you showing you a path into the future.

- Carol S. Dweck

topic: Growth Mindset

So what should we say when children complete a task—say, math problems—quickly and perfectly? Should we deny them the praise they have earned? Yes. When this happens, I say, “Whoops. I guess that was too easy. I apologize for wasting your time. Let’s do something you can really learn from!

- Carol S. Dweck

source: Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.179, Random House

topic: Math Problems, Growth Mindset