Think Big

For more than 40 years, Stanford psychologist Carol S. Dweck has studied the science of how our self-conceptions influence our actions. Her work offers great insight into why thinking big is such a big deal.

Dweck’s work with children revealed two mindsets in action – a “growth” mindset that generally thinks big and seeks growth and a “fixed” mindset that places artificial limits and avoids failure. Growth-minded students, as she calls them, employ better learning strategies, experience less helplessness, exhibit more positive effort, and achieve more in the classroom than their fix-minded peers. They are less likely to place limits on their lives and more likely to reach for their potential. Dweck points out that mindsets can and do change. Like any other habit, you set your mind to it until the right mindset becomes routine.

When Scott Forstall started recruiting talent to his newly formed team, he warned that the top-secret project would provide ample opportunities to “make mistakes and struggle, but eventually we may do something that we’ll remember the rest of our lives.” He gave this curious pitch to superstars across the company, but only took those who immediately jumped at the challenge. He was looking for “growth-minded” people, as he later shared with Dweck after reading her book.

Why is this significant? While you’ve probably never heard of Forstall, you’ve certainly heard of what his team created. Forstall was a senior vice president at Apple, and the team he formed created the iPhone.

-         Taken from The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Garry Keller with Jay Papasan (Bard Press, 2012), page 91-92.

In the same way, growth-minded people are highly creative people.

Change your mindset, think big, think growth, think creatively.

God, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)