Extend yourself beyond the possible.

 Extend yourself beyond the possible.

Many times people with an evolutionary mindset pull themselves up so far that they do impossible things.  In 1995, actor Christopher Reeve fell from a horse.  His neck was broken.  His spine separated from his brain and his entire body below the neck was paralyzed.  The doctor said, very sorry.  Learn to live like this.  Nonetheless, Reeve embarked on a difficult exercise plan.  This involved the shaking of all the parts of his body paralyzed by electrical stimulation.  Why can't they learn to move again?  Why can't his brain give such orders again, which the body obeys?  Doctors warned that they were not accepting the circumstances and were certain to be disappointed.  He has seen this before and it was a bad sign for Reeve's mindset.  But what else could Reeve really use his time for?  Was there a better job?  Five years later, activity began to appear in Reeve's body.  First it happened in their hands, then in the arms, then in the legs and then in the torso.  He was not fully recovered, but it was visible in the brain scan that his brain was sending signals to his body once again and the body was reacting to them.  Not only did Reeve increase his abilities, but he also changed the whole view of science about the nervous system and the physical capacity for recovery.  By doing this, he opened up a new world for research and showed a completely new path of hope for people with spinal cord injury.

The obvious thing is to thrive,

People with an evolutionary mindset flourish when they pull themselves and stretch them.  When do people with a certain mindset thrive?  When things are safely within their grip.  When circumstances become too challenging - when they don't feel smart or talented - they lose interest.

 I saw this happening when we saw pre-medical students in the first semester of chemistry.  In the case of many students, life had brought them to this goal: becoming a doctor.  And this was the course that would decide who becomes a doctor.  This course is very difficult.  The average grade of each exam is C plus.  Note that this grade is given to those students who have rarely got less than A grade till now.  Most of the students were very interested in chemistry.  But something happened during the semester.  Students with a fixed mindset took interest only when they started doing well immediately.  Students with a fixed mindset who underperformed had a steep decline in their interest and enjoyment.  This course was not confirming their intelligence, so they could not enjoy it.  One student said, "The more difficult the course, the more I have to force myself to read the book and prepare for the exams.  At first I was thrilled about the chemistry, but now whenever I think about it, every time my health starts deteriorating. ”  In contrast, students with an evolutionary mindset continued to work at the same high level of interest even when circumstances became very challenging.  “This is a lot harder than I expected, but I want to do it, so my resolve has increased because of this.  When people say that I cannot do any work, it really inspires me. "  The challenge and interest grew simultaneously.  We saw the same thing in younger students as well.  We gave interesting puzzles to the fifth grade kids, which they all liked very much.  But when we gave them more difficult puzzles, there was a huge decline in the enjoyment of students with fixed mindset.  He also changed his intention to take some puzzles home for practice.  One child lied, "You keep them to yourself."  I already have them. "  The truth was that they wanted to escape as quickly as possible.

 This was equally true in the case of children who were best at solving puzzles.  Despite being a "riddle genius", his enjoyment declined.  On the other hand, children with an evolutionary mindset could not stay away from difficult problems.  Difficult puzzles were his favorite puzzles and he wanted to take these difficult puzzles home.  One child asked, "Can you write the names of these puzzles, so that my mother can buy some more difficult puzzles after they are over?"  Some time ago I read about the great Russian dancer and teacher Marina Semyonova, who devised a new way of choosing her students.  It was a clever test of mentality.  As one former student has said, "Her students first had to go through the exam phase, in which they used to consider how you react to praise and reformist criticism."  Only those who reacted well to reformist criticism were considered worthy. "  In other words, they distinguished the thrill-seekers from easy things - things they were already adept at - from students who felt adventurous at doing difficult things.  I will never forget the time when I first heard myself say, "This is difficult.  it's funny."  At that moment I came to know that my mindset was changing.