Synthesis Essay

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Essay

Introduction

"Mindset" by Carol Dweck sheds a light on human motivation and in this work, she discerns between the two attitudes. Two types are attitudes are there: fixed mindset and growth mindset. According to Carol, people having a fixed mindset believes only in talent and claim that they could not do anything if they are not gifted by the Creator. Lack of gifted abilities means they could do nothing and they believe that they are doomed to fail as they have nothing. On the other hand are the people with a growth mindset for whom their hard work matters the most. "Extreme Ownership" describes the ways how leaders of a team influence the performance of its team members. In this book, Jocko and Leif claim that leaders are mainly responsible for everything and impact the world around them. The basic aim of the writers in both the given texts “Mindset” and “Extremer Ownership” is to teach people that they must take the responsibility of anything whether they succeed or fail in life.

Discussion

In both the given texts, there could be witnessed a close connection as they both claim that people, despite blaming the outer world and others, show courage and accept that they are responsible for everything they are gaining. Those who wanted to acquire success in their life do not look for excuses, rather they explore the ways how they could improve them so that they could achieve what they aim at (Dweck, p. 20-24). Denominators in both these texts that I have identified are responsibility and changing the attitude towards life. One must try to bring positive change in his/her life and look upon things from a positive perspective and this could only happen when people would take sole responsibility of their actions and would stoop to blaming their fate and outer source for their failure. Another denominator that could be found common in the ideas preset by the authors is that when something goes wrong in life, a true leader or the winner does not find excuses. One puts aside all the ego and motivates him or her for achieving the set target.

One of the main ideas that bind these two texts provided is that one must try to be better by evaluating his performance. People must put untiring efforts for achieving success in life and even when they fail, they must take it in a positive sense because they did not fail rather they learn something and using that lesson, they would make another try of achieving their set goal (Willink & Leif). When one believes that he/she is in the growing phase where he would be learning from his mistake and develop the desired qualities and skills in him, only then one could claim of having a bright future. The fear of failure is the primary element that discourage people and most of the time people do not try for things only by thinking that they don’t have that skill or ability so they must not try for that and these are the teachings and central concepts that binds both this text together. So as a whole, it could be promulgated that one must own things even when they are not according to the plan and this is the only way one could learn and succeed in life.

Conclusion

Taking a look at both the texts are central ideas being discussed in them, it could be said that the development of the intellectual skills could equate the absence of gifted qualities and by putting little efforts, people would get what they wish for. It could be said that one must not blame others for not having things and skills that he/she thinks could be the only element that would make one successful rather relying on own hard work and efforts would bring one closer to the desired destination.

References

Dweck, Carol. "Carol Dweck revisits the growth mindset." Education Week 35.5 (2015): 20-24.

Willink, Jocko, and Leif Babin. Extreme ownership: How US Navy SEALs lead and win. St. Martin's Press, 2017.