Carol Dweck Fixed Mindset Quotes & Sayings

Like my sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Wilson, these teachers preached and practiced the fixed mindset. In their classrooms, the students who started the year in the high-ability group ended the year there, and those who started the year in the low-ability group ended the year there. But some teachers preached and practiced a growth mindset. They focused on the idea that all children could develop their skills, and in their classrooms a weird thing happened. It didn't matter whether students started the year in the high- or the low-ability group. Both groups ended the year way up high. It's a powerful experience to see these findings. — Carol S. Dweck

Beware of success. It can knock you into a fixed mindset. — Carol S. Dweck

This low-effort syndrome is often seen as a way that adolescents assert their independence from adults, but it is also a way that students with the fixed mindset protect themselves. They view the adults as saying, "Now we will measure you and see what you've got." And they are answering, "No you won't." John Holt, the great educator, says that these are the games all human beings play when others are sitting in judgment of them. — Carol S. Dweck

After seven experiments with hundreds of children, we had some of the clearest findings I've ever seen: Praising children's intelligence harms their motivation and it harms their performance. How can that be? Don't children love to be praised? Yes, children love praise. And they especially love to be praised for their intelligence and talent. It really does give them a boost, a special glow - but only for the moment. The minute they hit a snag, their confidence goes out the window and their motivation hits rock bottom. If success means they're smart, then failure means they're dumb. That's the fixed mindset. — Carol S. Dweck

What allowed me to take that first step, to choose growth and risk rejection? In the fixed mindset, I had needed my blame and bitterness. It made me feel more righteous, powerful, and whole than thinking I was at fault. The growth mindset allowed me to give up the blame and move on. The growth mindset gave me a mother. — Carol S. Dweck

Believing that your qualities are carved in stone - the fixed mindset - creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. — Carol S. Dweck

The fixed-mindset premise that great geniuses do not need great teams. They just need little helpers to carry out their brilliant ideas. — Carol S. Dweck

As a New York Times article points out, failure has been transformed from an action (I failed) to an identity (I am a failure). This is especially true in the fixed mindset. — Carol S. 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. 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. — Carol S. Dweck

Another way people with the fixed mindset try to repair their self-esteem after a failure is by assigning blame or making excuses. — Carol S. Dweck

And this is part of the fixed mindset. Effort is for those who don't have the ability. — Carol S. Dweck

In the fixed mindset, setbacks label you. — Carol S. Dweck

Becoming is better than being. The fixed mindset does not allow people the luxury of becoming. They have to already be. — Carol S. Dweck

Actually, people with the fixed mindset expect ability to show up on its own, before any learning takes place. — Carol S. Dweck

Fixed mindset makes you concerned with how you'll be judged; the growth mindset makes you concerned with improving. — Carol S. Dweck

Studies show that people are terrible at estimating their abilities. Recently, we set out to see who is most likely to do this. Sure, we found that people greatly misestimated their performance and their ability. But it was those with the fixed mindset who accounted for almost all the inaccuracy. The people with the growth mindset were amazingly accurate. When you think about it, this makes sense. If, like those with the growth mindset, you believe you can develop yourself, then you're open to accurate information about your current abilities, even if it's unflattering. — Carol S. Dweck

The fixed- and growth-mindset groups started with the same ability, but as time went on the growth-mindset groups clearly outperformed the fixed-mindset ones. And this difference became ever larger the longer the groups worked. Once again, those with the growth mindset profited from their mistakes and feedback far more than the fixed-mindset people. But what was even more interesting was how the groups functioned. The members of the growth-mindset groups were much more likely to state their honest opinions and openly express their disagreements as they communicated about their management decisions. Everyone was part of the learning process. For the fixed-mindset groups - with their concern about who was smart or dumb or their anxiety about disapproval for their ideas - that open, productive discussion did not happen. Instead, it was more like groupthink. — Carol S. Dweck

What's more, it's not as though the fixed mindset wants to leave gracefully. If the fixed mindset has been controlling your internal monologue, it can say some pretty strong thing to you ... The fixed mindset once offered you a refuge from that very feeling, and it offers it to you again.
Don't take it. — Carol S. Dweck

In fact, every word and action can send a message. It tells children - or students, or athletes - how to think about themselves. It can be a fixed-mindset message that says: You have permanent traits and I'm judging them. Or it can be a growth-mindset message that says: You are a developing person and I am interested in your development. — Carol S. Dweck

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

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. — Carol S. Dweck

On the whole, people with a fixed mindset prefer effortless success, since that's the best way to prove their talent. — Carol S. Dweck

When people with the fixed mindset opt for success over growth, what are they really trying to prove? That they're special. Even superior. — Carol S. Dweck