In April 2023, we read MIndset: The Psychology of Sucess in our I4GBookClub because we understand that the mind plays an important role in the level of success a person can attain in life. In fact, it is where success begins!
We invited Oluwatoyin Akande, a Content Creator and Storyteller who also enjoys reading to share some of the things she learnt from the book with our community.
Here are 4 lessons we learnt from the book review
1. Effort over natural ability
You don’t have to be naturally gifted/talented to be excellent at something. You can learn anything over time if you are determined and you put in effort. If you’re not good at something, its not because you are not intelligent its because you have knowledge gaps that need to be filled.
2. Change your mindset
There are two types of mindset; the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.
Someone with a fixed mindset says “I am naturally born with a specific level of talent and intelligence. I can’t change it, its who I am”
Someone with a growth mindset says “If I put enough effort, I can learn and increase my intelligence, my creative ability and my improve my skills to become a better person”
The mindset you have would greatly affect how far you are able to go in life so, if you have a fixed mindset you need to change to a growth mindset. You are capable of more than you imagine.
3. Don’t be afraid of failure
Failure is simply a problem that needs to be faced, dealt with and learnt from. Its only a part of your life not your identity. Think about babies, they are not afraid of failing. They keep trying to learn how to walk even if they fall many times, they get back up and try again until they finally start walking well. They just know that if they keep trying, they will eventually get it. This is a prime example of growth mindset. Growth mindset says that anybody’s full potential is unknown. Its impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil and training.
4. What does success mean to you
For many people, success means not failing. They believe if you don’t try, you don’t fail. But a better way to look at it is TRYING. The people we admire and look up to were not great when they started what you admire them for. They had to put in effort over time to get better- they had to keep trying. They didn’t see failure as a bus stop, they tried till they got what they wanted. Don’t stop trying!
At the core of it all, you can always learn something new, improve yourself and become great at what you do if you can actually give yourself time to learn and keep trying until you get what you want.
We hope you learnt something valuable from this blog post. If you would like to be a part of our #I4GBookClub, join us here
Tell us something you have learnt from this blog post.