IQ, hard work, or face value and luck?

In the TED talk "Persistence is the Key to Success", the speaker is Angela Lee, who used to be a seventh-grade middle school teacher.

In teaching, she found that IQ is not the only difference between the best and the worst students. Some students with good academic performance have low IQ scores. On the contrary, some very smart children don't do so well in their studies.

This caused her to think, are those successful people different in childhood? If so, what are these differences?

So, she made an in-depth investigation and research from the perspective of psychology:

Went to West Point Military Academy; Go to see the national national spelling bee; Interview the best salespeople.

In the end, she found that the key factor to predict children's success is not family income, grades, IQ, appearance and figure, but the attitude towards setbacks.

She found that successful people treat setbacks with optimism when they are young, and they care more about the nutrients they have learned after setbacks than the failure itself.

This is a unique thinking, called "growth thinking".

Lifelong achievement

The initiator of "Growth Thinking" is Carol Dwek, a famous psychology professor at Stanford University.

In her book Lifelong Achievement, she pointed out that according to her understanding of ability development, there are two different modes of thinking: fixed thinking and growth thinking.

The fixed thinking mode holds that intelligence and other abilities are innate and cannot be changed.

The growth thinking mode holds that talent is only the starting point, and people's intelligence can be improved through exercise, and they can do better as long as they work hard.

In a fixed mode of thinking, success comes from the result of things and can prove a person's talent and ability.

In the growth mode of thinking, success comes from doing one's best and from learning and self-improvement.

People with fixed thinking patterns think that they failed in exams, lost in competitions, were rejected and so on. It means that they are losers and don't have this talent. Moreover, they will not learn from their failures and correct themselves. On the contrary, they may just want to repair their self-esteem and are unwilling to face challenges.

The growth thinking mode holds that failure means failure if you don't grow up and try your best. When you encounter setbacks and challenges, you will regard it as an opportunity to improve yourself and constantly improve and progress.

Fixed thinking

Research shows that growth thinking plays a very important role in many fields, such as business workplace, interpersonal relationship, education and so on.

In the workplace, leaders with growth thinking are better at listening to other people's criticisms and suggestions and paying more attention to employees' personal development; Employees with growth thinking are more competitive in challenging tasks such as cooperation and negotiation.

The challenges they encounter are only step by step, and the failure of the test only shows that they still need to work hard. They will find advanced methods in failure and constantly improve themselves in failure.

As China people often say, "You gain wisdom after learning a lesson, and you gain an ability after learning a lesson." Skills are practiced, and only by tempering things can one achieve something.

Wang Yangming is giving lectures in Jiangxi, and a local official often goes to listen to his lectures.

One day, he found Wang Yangming and said, "You speak very well, but I am busy with my official duties and can't come to your lectures often."

Wang Yangming said, "Why do you want to give up your job and practice?"

The official asked, "Can I practice at work?"

Wang Yangming replied: "Kung Fu is practice, and the world of mortals is the Dojo."

Every anger and failure in life is an advanced way of practice.

For others, these things may be poison, but for practitioners, they are all nourishment for the progress of life.

Fixed thinking

The biggest problem for people with fixed thinking is that they are afraid of challenges and always set limits for themselves.

In the workplace, we often hear a sentence, "but I'm just a XXX."

"I'm just a team leader, I'm just a copywriter, I'm just a salesman, I'm just an employee ..."

When you say this, you set a limit for yourself, which is the most taboo thing in a person's growth process. If even you feel that you are just an employee, then your upper limit is only a "good employee".

In my mind, set a ceiling for myself, how can I grow?

Don't build an invisible wall in your heart. As long as you don't hurt your bones, you can try anything impossible

"Trying" seems simple, but many people stop here because of "fixed thinking", which makes you afraid of action, because it means that there is the possibility of failure.

As Carol Dwek said in her book: People with fixed minds don't accept the perfection of the future, they must realize it now.

And doing nothing can maintain the perfect feeling at this moment.

Think of growth thinking as a habit.

The most anxious time at work should be the stage of finding a job. People with fixed thinking will regard the failure of interview after interview as their own lack of ability, while people with growing thinking will regard each interview as an opportunity to communicate with different industries.

When looking for a job, people with growth thinking will improve their resumes according to each interview, so that the system will recommend high-quality job opportunities for you more accurately and improve the efficiency of job hunting.

In the interview, when asked why he left his last company, the growing people will attribute the problem to the need of growth, while the people with fixed thinking will attribute the reasons for leaving to the company, colleagues and so on. HR heard such an answer, and the interview result can be imagined.

Of course, growth thinking and fixed thinking do not exist separately. Each of us has growth thinking and fixed thinking. For example, a gentleman has a villain and a villain has a gentleman.

This is a never-ending exercise, not afraid of failure, not afraid of shame, to try, and strive to tilt the balance slightly to growth, focus on the future, and believe in the power of hard work.

When you take growth thinking as a habit, your career path will be smoother and smoother!