No matter what your current ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.

What did you try hard at today?

Praising children’s intelligence harms their motivation and it harms their performance.

Picture your brain forming new connections as you meet the challenge and learn. Keep on going.

The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it's not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset.

Vowing, even intense vowing, is often useless. The next day comes and the next day goes. What works is making a vivid, concrete plan.

If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.