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25 Carol Dweck Mindset Quotes

Carol S. Dweck is an author, psychologist, and professor – she’s written an incredibly life-changing book on mindset. She researches motivation, personality, and development.

In her book, Mindset: The Psychology of Success, Dweck writes about how we think about our abilities and how to thrive with a growth mindset.

Dweck posits that people with a growth mindset believe they can develop their abilities and focus more on becoming and learning through their experiences.

These fantastic quotes from Carol Dweck’s book Mindset will inspire you to grow!


Carol Dweck on Mindset

Quote from Carol Dweck on mindset and personal development.

“This is something I know for a fact: You have to work hardest for the things you love most.”


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


“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.”


“True self-confidence is “the courage to be open—to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source.” Real self-confidence is not reflected in a title, an expensive suit, a fancy car, or a series of acquisitions. It is reflected in your mindset: your readiness to grow.”


“Mindset change is not about picking up a few pointers here and there. It’s about seeing things in a new way. When people…change to a growth mindset, they change from a judge-and-be-judged framework to a learn-and-help-learn framework. Their commitment is to growth, and growth take plenty of time, effort, and mutual support.”


“Most experts and great leaders agree that leaders are made, not born, and that they are made through their own drive for learning and self-improvement.”


“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 . They’re tackling problems, charting new courses, working on important issues. Maybe they haven’t found the cure for cancer, but the search was deeply meaningful.”


“You try something, it doesn’t work, and maybe people even criticize you. In a fixed mindset, you say, ‘I tried this, it’s over.’ In a growth mindset, you look for what you’ve learned.”


Mindset quotes from Carol Dweck.

“You don’t know what your abilities are until you make a full commitment to developing them.”


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


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


“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. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”


“Many growth-minded people didn’t even plan to go to the top. They got there as a result of doing what they love. It’s ironic: The top is where the fixed-mindset people hunger to be, but it’s where many growth-minded people arrive as a by-product of their enthusiasm for what they do.”


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


“As growth-minded leaders, they start with a belief in human potential and development—both their own and other people’s. Instead of using the company as a vehicle for their greatness, they use it as an engine of growth—for themselves, the employees, and the company as a whole.”


“A no-effort relationship is a doomed relationship, not a great relationship. It takes work to communicate accurately and it takes work to expose and resolve conflicting hopes and beliefs. It doesn’t mean there is no “they lived happily ever after,” but it’s more like “they worked happily ever after.”


“Success is about being your best self, not about being better than others; failure is an opportunity, not a condemnation; effort is the key to success.”


Carol Dweck post on mindset.

“The hallmark of successful people is that they are always stretching themselves to learn new things.”


“Many of the most accomplished people of our era were considered by experts to have no future. Jackson Pollock, Marcel Proust, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Lucille Ball, and Charles Darwin were all thought to have little potential for their chosen fields.”


“Character, the sportswriters said. They know it when they see it—it’s the ability to dig down and find the strength even when things are going against you.”


“Becoming is better than being.”


“Is there something you’ve always wanted to do but were afraid you weren’t good at? Make a plan to do it.”


“Mindsets are just beliefs. They’re powerful beliefs, but they’re just something in your mind, and you can change your mind.”


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


“True self-confidence is “the courage to be open—to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source.”


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