What if the Secret to Success is Failure? Essay

There are many instances in our lives when we feel like giving up, and accepting our failures. It is the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset that stops us, or encourages us. It was just last year ago when I really understood the consequence of a fixed mindset, and the positive outcome of a growth mindset.

Angela Lee Duckworth defines grit as “passion and perseverance to pursue long term goals” (Duckworth and Winkler, True Grit). Grit is putting your mind towards a goal and not to give up, no matter what obstacle that stands in front of you. By becoming a gritty individual, a person gains courage within their self. Having courage, people manage fear of failure and being true within oneself to aim for things they would have never thought they could achieve. Grit is to aspire and succeed in ones future goals in college. Grit is to help maintain effort and interest over time, also to stay committed in spite of adversity. In Duckworth’s studies she showed how gritty people are more likely to become successful than talented people. In a study conducted

Duckworth explains people with grit are those who confront failure and don’t give up easily. She did research on the U.S Army to determine their grit. She realize, if the soldiers had a though of mind of grit they showed good results in their military performance on summer camp. Also, there was a fascinating research she had with taxi drivers relating to grit. Commonly, one would think that taxi drivers make more money in a rainy day. But what she found out was that taxi drivers work less hours in rainy days because they would make the sufficient money they needed for the day. In similarity, she compare this research to talent and grit. One with talent will spent less time on something so they stop immediately once they have proficient. In the other hand, someone with grit will spend longer time and get more out of it.

Grit, what is this? Is it success, is it failure, or is it talent? As Angela Duckworth said “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day-in and day-out. Not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years. And working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” Grit is a combination of strength, persistence, focus, and dedication that helps a person to maintain the optimism and discipline needed to persevere in their goals even if they are head to head with failure. Grit does not depend on talent, IQ, or success. Grit is the ability to fail and learn from your mistake, in order to come back next

According to Judy Willis, “When you are experiencing highly negative emotions or severe stress, incoming information is routed to a different part of your brain”. When the high-level thinking happens, the information routed is to the reactive lower brain. When that happens, the memory is affected, all active learning stops. A fourth way is recognized and valuing incremental progress boosts a person’s motivation and enables him or her to deal effectively with setbacks. According to Dweck, “people with growth mindsets, believe their abilities can be developed though dedication and hard work- brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. Virtually all great people have these qualities.” With a growth mindset, people realized by having a failure in the past don’t mean they will in the future.

Growth mindset and the fixed mindset: The two focal points of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success written by Carol Dweck. Pushing yourself further and further so that you can strengthen your intelligence, versus believing that the knowledge you know and have cannot be brought to a higher level. Even though the book was a difficult read, it really opens the mind to the different views on life, and the many ways that people go about their lives. How the fixed mindset may bring someone to success at first but later in their life lead them to a crisis. Or how the growth mindset may be difficult to grasp and achieve, but it will enact success in the future. The book advises ways to go from having the fixed mindset to the growth mindset, from saying things such as, “Yet those people with the growth mindset were not labeling themselves… Even though

Grit is a predictor of academic, professional, and personal success. Grit can be defined as strength of character or the ability to overcome failure and continue to work toward success. People with grit are not always the people with the most natural ability, but their work ethic and ability to overcome obstacles allows them to achieve success. Grit is a very valuable characteristic in almost any venture, as it gives someone an advantage in overcoming the inevitable obstacles they will face. However, grit is much easier adopted when an individual has a growth mindset.

Basically, individuals with a fixed mindset often feel measured by a failure, sometimes permanently. Unfortunately, failed attempts are viewed as a label rather than an opportunity to plan a new path of succes. On the other hand, an individual with a growth mindset views a failed attempt as an opportunity to take action, to confront obstacles, to keep up with their schoolwork, and/or to better manage and organize their time. Growth mindset individuals believe that qualities can be developed, expanded, and eventually result in a successful outcome. A second lesson learned is the power of labels and the stereotype of ability; this lesson is undoubtedly one of the most enlightening. Dweck discovered in one of her studies that, “... ability praise often pushed students right into a fixed mindset, and they showed all the signs of it too. When we gave them a choice, they rejected a challenging new task that they could learn from. They didn’t want to do anything that could expose their flaws and call into question their talent” (72). One’s mindset determines their reaction to labels and stereotypes. An individual with a fixed mindset will settle for a positive label and chose stagnation and permanent inferiority rather than risk losing the label; whereas,

When discussing grit, it is important that one understands both sides of the argument. The persistence to complete a goal and the ability to endure adversity is the core of what it means to have grit. Growing up, children were often told the common phrase, “If at first, you don't succeed try, try, again”. This quote is often used to teach children to never give up, a way to ensure that they can triumph over adversity and grow upon their grit. The discussion of grit has grown over the past couple of years with advocators of grit like, Angela Duckworth, having written books and doing lectures on this topic. The same can be said for critics of grit, like David Denby, who has done articles for “The New Yorker”, criticizing the value of just

There are two different mindsets that help to shape our lives, fixed and growth. In Mindset by Carol Dweck, these two methods are compared in how they affect the lives of individuals. Dweck focuses around the growth mindset being a better alternative to the fixed mindset, with the following reasons: Challenges - Fixed mindset tends to avoid challenges while a growth mindset embraces them. Obstacles - A fixed mindset tends to give up easily while a growth mindset tends to persist, regardless of any setbacks. Effort - A fixed mindset perceives effort as something pointless while a growth mindset perceives effort as a way to achieve mastery Criticism - A fixed mindset tends to ignore any feedback that is negative while a growth mindset tries to learn from criticism received Success of others - A fixed mindset feels threatened by the success of others while a growth mindset gets inspired and tries to

In an article called “Brainology” Carol S. Dweck argues that there is a fixed mindset and growth mindset and I agree because Dweck says “not everyone has the same abilities or that someone can be as smart as Einstein, but Einstein wasn’t even Einstein until he put in the years of focused hard work.” So this tells me that if you have a fixed mindset you’ll be afraid to look smart so rather look dumb. On the other hand, if you have a growth mindset you’ll put in the hard work and achieve greatness. So either give up or we fight for what we want. We’ll either fail and quit or fail and get back on the horse and be something in

Dweck believes that someone who possesses a “growth mindset” is almost the polar opposite of someone who has a “fixed mindset.” A person with a growth mindset is able to think positively and see the silver lining of an unfavorable situation. They are able to improve from their mistakes, and always finds a way to become better at different aspects of life. Growth mindsets come with an open mind, making these people extremely versatile in any circumstance. In addition, their mindsets increase in complexity through maturity. They believe that as long as anyone puts in the effort, they have the potential to succeed.

Have you ever set a long-term goal and were so determined to meet that goal no matter what happened? Angela Duckworth states, “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in and day out. Not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years and working really hard to make that future a reality”. Sticking with a long-term goal, when you seem to have hit every bump in the road possible means that you contain grit. In class, we discussed how talent is inversely related to grit. Angela Duckworth did a study and made high school students take her grit test. In this test, she realized that the more grit that the student possessed, the higher chance that student would graduate.

People with growth mindsets are always opened to learning more to improve themselves. According to Brainology, “intelligence is something gained through effort and education.” The quote shows how intelligence is not something you are born with but it's something you must put effort into. I identify with a growth mindset because throughout high school I worked hard and put a lot of effort into gaining intelligence . If I didn’t understand a subject I

Grit is the power of passion and perseverance. Passion and perseverance are not qualities that everybody has. Not everybody who sets a long-term goal achieves it. People who have passion and perseverance are most likely to succeed in life, because passion is what gives us the ability to stick to a goal for a long period of time, and perseverance is the motivation to continue pursuing our goals. Passion and perseverance are the bridges to achieve your goals. In the TED talk “Grit: the power of passion and perseverance” Angela Duckworth explain what will help you to succeed in life and she called it Grit, which she defined it as passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint.