The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. Carol Dweck , a leading researcher in the field of developmental psychology, makes the distinction between entity and incremental theories of intelligence. Entity Learners see their overall intelligence or skill level at a certain discipline to be a fixed entity. Incremental Learners are more prone to describe their results with sentences like “I got it because I worked very hard at it” or “I should have tried harder.”
Dweck’s research has shown that when challenged by difficult material, learning theorists are far more likely to rise to the level of the game, while entity theorists are more brittle and prone to quit.
In the long run, painful losses may prove much more valuable than wins. Arm yourself with a healthy attitude and draw wisdom from every experience, “good” or “bad”. You will make it down the road happily if you’re able to stay course, the real challenge in range of long-term perspective when you are under fire and hurting in the middle of the war.
Maverick 