Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (Updated Edition)

“When you’re lying on your deathbed, one of the cool things to say is, ‘I really explored myself.’

Robert Sternberg, the present-day guru of intelligence, writes that the major factor in whether people achieve expertise “is not some fixed prior ability, but purposeful engagement.” Or, as his forerunner Binet recognized, it’s not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.

You have to work hardest for the things you love most. And when it’s music you love, you’re in for the fight of your life.”

John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach, says you aren’t a failure until you start to blame. What he means is that you can still be in the process of learning from your mistakes until you deny them.

Even in the growth mindset, failure can be a painful experience. But it doesn’t define you. It’s a problem to be faced, dealt with, and learned from.

I’ll never forget the first time I heard myself say, “This is hard. This is fun.” That’s the moment I knew I was changing mindsets.

“When you’re lying on your deathbed, one of the cool things to say is, ‘I really explored myself.’

“I think intelligence is something you have to work for . . . it isn’t just given to you.

“I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures. . . . I divide the world into the learners and nonlearners.”

Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better?