Whether you think you can, or think you can’t – you’re right.*
Henry Ford

I’ve found that the growth mindset and grit go together.*
Angela Duckworth

When it comes to optimism,
Don’t think happy, smily people
denying reality,
Rather think of people who determine to
keep going
until they succeed, arrive,
Or push through to a better possibility.
Angela Duckworth’s definition of an optimist is:

they thought of temporary and specific causes for bad events, and permanent and pervasive cause of good events.*

The reverse is true for the pessimist.

There’s a link between Duckworth’s grit and
Carol Dweck’s growth mindset.
I thought you may like to see how you agree or disagree
with the following four statements:

Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can’t change much.

You can learn new things, but you can’t really change how intelligent you are.

No matter how much intelligence you have, you can always change it quite a bit.

You can always substantially change how intelligent you are.*

If you disagree with the first two and agree with the second two
then you have more of a growth mindset
and you are more likely to be optimistic and to keep moving.
Agree with the first two and disagree with the second two
and you have more of a fixed mindset
and are more likely to be pessimistic and to become stuck.

Of course,
The good news is that we don’t have to be held in
a pessimistic/fixed mindset world;
We can learn our way out of it.

A good place to begin is to find some people
who respond to failure and success differently
to those who have influenced you through your life,
Whether this means reading their books,**
Asking to have an hour with them if you buy them a coffee,
Or get involved in dreamwhispering.

*Angela Duckworth’s Grit;
**Check out Carol Dweck’s Mindset as well as Angela Duckworth’s Grit, or, for a comprehensive list of ways and means, Anna Katharina Schaffner’s The Art of Self Improvement.