Carol S. Dweck - We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don't like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves ext...

Welcome to the Daily Quote – I'm Andrew McGivern.Today's quote comes from Carol S. Dweck, Stanford psychologist and author of "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success."She wrote:"We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don't like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary."This quote destroys a comforting lie we tell ourselves.The lie goes like this: "Those people are special. They were born with talent I don't have. They're different from me. So of course they succeeded."It's comforting because it lets us off the hook. If they were born special, then our ordinariness isn't our fault. We can stay exactly where we are and blame genetics.But Dweck spent decades researching high achievers. And here's what she found: they weren't born superheroes. They were ordinary people who did something extraordinary – they committed to growth.Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team. He wasn't born the greatest. He made himself the greatest through obsessive practice.J.K. Rowling was a single mother on welfare when she started writing Harry Potter. She wasn't born a legendary author. She became one through persistence.Your idols started where you are. Ordinary. Maybe even less than ordinary. What made them extraordinary wasn't their starting point. It was their refusal to stay there.Dweck calls this the growth mindset – the belief that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work.The opposite is the fixed mindset – the belief that talent is innate and unchangeable. That you either have it or you don't.Guess which one keeps you stuck? And guess which one creates champions?So here's the question: What have you been avoiding because you think you weren't born with the talent for it?Because here's the truth – you probably weren't. But that doesn't matter. Champions aren't born. They're made.And you can make yourself extraordinary too.That's it for today. I'm Andrew McGivern – I'll see you in the next one with another Daily Quote.