Happy Friday!

Yesterday I posted a new article. The article, “Less Than Perfect,” talks about two different mindsets people bring to their lives, and about how these mindsets have a strong effect on our ability to defend ourselves. It’s long, but I worked hard on it and I think you’ll find it useful on your own journey.

Below, you’ll find a short summary of the two mindsets — but you’ll have to read the rest of the article to find out what they have to do with self defense.

The first way of thinking, which Dweck calls a fixed mindset, emphasizes native talent, inborn abilities, and non-changeable labels like “smart” or “talented.” Inside a fixed mindset, every test you take is a measure of your inborn traits (Are you really smart?). Within this way of thinking, every job you find easy validates your worth as a person, but every task you find challenging creates a negative judgment of your value. From a fixed mindset perspective, it’s better to feel talented than it is to risk failure. Fixed mindset people find it very comforting to think, “I’m smart, so I could have ____ if I’d tried.”

The other way of thinking, which Dweck calls a growth mindset, says that people can change and develop, and that your inborn traits are not as important as what you do with them. This mindset values the process of learning, embracing mistakes as the way to learn how to do better. Within a growth mindset, every test, every challenge, every measure of your skill helps you find ways to improve your performance. An error is never a condemnation of your personal worth. When you find a task hard to do, it does not mean that you are “bad” – or even that you are “bad at” that thing. It simply means you have room to get better. Mistakes and difficult tasks provide joyful opportunities to learn and grow. From a growth mindset perspective, the saddest words in the world are, “Well, I could have ____ if I’d tried.”

Thinking about the book as I did my errands in town one day, I walked into the pharmacy and heard … [Read More]

Enjoy the article … and have a great weekend.