your dedication, and somehow accomplished the impossible
—all because you changed the way you thought. Hardwired
in our brains and bodies is a potential greater than we
realize, and all we have to do to unlock it is believe.
Psychology professor Carol Dweck has written about this,
explaining why some people respond to rejection differently
than others, saying the difference between the successful
and unsuccessful often comes down to mindset.^8
According to Dweck, most people adhere to one of two
mind-sets: the fixed mindset or the growth mindset. With the
fixed mindset, people are born with a certain number of
finite abilities and cannot exceed those abilities. With the
growth mindset, however, potential is unlimited. You can
always get better. For this kind of person, the goal is not so
much to be the best in the world but to be better than you
were yesterday. Regardless of natural talent or the lack
thereof, every person has the ability to improve
themselves.^9
When my dad told me to do my best, he wasn’t setting
me up for disappointment. He was teaching me a valuable
lesson about life—it’s more important to try than to rest on
your natural ability. Why? Because you’re capable of more
than you realize, and in trying, you learn something new as
you push past possibility. As a result, you grow, learning
that most skills are not inborn, but learned. Practiced. At
least, they can be, if you’re willing to adopt the growth
mindset and dedicate yourself to the practice that follows.
Even the most gifted people do not have what it takes to