Reading Reflection #2

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

"For twenty years, my research has shown that the view you adopt of yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life."

This quote exemplifies the general theme of the book. The book focuses on two different mindsets: The fixed mindset and the Growth Mindset.

In the Fixed Mindset, you view your character, your personality, and your strengths & weaknesses as something that you are born with and cannot be changed. The Growth Mindset, however, is the other end of the spectrum where one believes it is up to them if they want to change any of these characteristics. Those with the growth mindset confront challenges and are not quick to give up. In addition, the Growth Mindset emphasizes that you can acquire any skill you want if you put the time and effort into it. It is clear in this book that Dweck, the author, is trying to convince her readers that the Growth Mindset is the superior mindset and leads to greater success than the fixed mindset.

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

I think the idea of the Growth Mindset in this book connected with the idea expressed in class that entrepreneurs are relentless with their ideas and have to overcome hardship. From lecture, we constantly hear how important it is to be resilient and the most important part of having this characteristic is being of the Growth Mindset and believing that you can learn from failures and use them to become more successful. 

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

The exercise would include an assignment of a bunch of different situations where we would have to answer how we would honestly react to the situations. After writing how we would react, then we would click a link to a website explaining the difference between the growth and fixed mindsets. After reading the link, for part 2 we would have to explain, based on our answers, if we have more of a fixed or a growth mindset. Finally, for part 3 of the assignment, we would reflect on how we would have acted in those situations and explain how we could have made the situation a learning experience that could bring us closer to success rather than having a fixed mindset. I believe this would give students a tangible feel of what both mindsets mean and the benefits the growth mindset can have.

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

My biggest surprise when reading this book is how frequent it is for someone to be almost completely fixed or completely growth oriented. This made me realize the power of a growth mindset. This is because I know that you can change from a growth to a fixed mindset. Because this change is possible, I believe it shows that once someone begins to switch from the fixed to the growth mindset, they begin to realize how beneficial it is and quickly convert to the other end of the spectrum of having an almost completely growth mindset.