Fixed or growth mindset — which do you have?

    We live in an uncertain world with all the technological advances we are experiencing， which meanse is a requirement for a change in midset (思维模式）. In order to be on top of our game both personally and organizationally, we need to develop a growth mindset.

    A fixed mindset supposes that you have native abilities and are naturally clever or skilled in certain areas of life. When you receive infonnation about how you have performed in a test or set of tasks t you may worry about how you are judged. Our parents probably said to us when we were young,"Since you scored really well in the test, you must  be clever." However, by being repeatedly told “You are clever” or “You are really good at your job”，a person's self—respect is actually dainagcd.

    The  growth—mindset  person a view life as a series of exciting challenges and  want  to constantly  learn. Brain activity occurs in this mindset when they receive information about what they could do belter or improve. They do not view their abilities as fixed or us failure. Learning is king and the more they practice , the more they know they will succeed.

    What is important is giving praise around process and not around ability. For example , instead of saying"Since you got a great score, you must be clever" f say " You got a great score, and you must have tried really hard". This creates challenge in individuals and the meaning of mindsets is massive for business. Fixed-mindset managers are not fans of giving feedback (反馈）. They do not want to stretch themselves or others because they fear failure. Therefore their business may stand still because there is no risk or innovation (创新） occurring.

    Listen from your own fixed mindset — for example ," I can't  do that” — and answer with a growth-mindset response — “I can't do that yet!" Remember  there is no such thing as failure and there is s only learning. If you don't fail occasionally ，you will never learn to change and grow.

    In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity; others say that competition is bad because it sets one person against another and because it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.

    I have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death affairs. In their single-minded pursuit of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.

    However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which values only the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn't matter because I really didn't try.” What is not usually admitted by themselves is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot. Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of the true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one's self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve (缓解) can we discover a new meaning in competition.

    The ability to speak more than one language certainly has its special benefits.It enables you to work in another country or interact with people whose language is different from your mother tongue.Cognitive（认知的）  psychologists have been interested in how bilingualism（双语能力）shapes the mind for almost a century.There are those who suggest that in order to speak one language,bilinguals have to suppress（抑制）the influence of the other.In the past three decades,research had argued that this unique form of language processing trains the brain in the use of abilities known as "executive（执行的）functions" such as ignoring irrelevant information or shifting attention. Bilinguals of different ages and cultural backgrounds have been shown to be faster and more accurate than their monolingual（单语的）peers when performing cognitive tasks demanding these abilities.Furthermore,it has been argued that bilingualism may lead to a delayed onset（发作）of symptoms associated with dementia（痴呆）.

    But the scientific community recently has become increasingly skeptical of the bilingual advantage.One of the main points of criticism is that differences between monolinguals and bilinguals when it comes to executive functions are not always apparent.It appears that research on bilingualism is at a turning point.We need to pursue a new approach to understand,beyond those individual examples of executive functions,how the bilingual mind works. We have attempted to address this challenge by testing whether bilinguals and monolinguals differ in terms of how accurately they can assess their own performances.This ability is called meta cognition and is associated with other areas where bilinguals have been shown to have an advantage.

    In our research,we presented participants with a situation in which they had to observe two circles on a screen and guess which one contained more dots.Sometimes the difference was obvious,making the decision easy,while at other times the decision was very difficult (for example,one circle contained 50 dots and the other 49).Participants were then asked to determine how confident they were in their decision on a scale from less to more confident than normal.

    During the course of two experiments,we found that bilinguals and monolinguals were equally likely to choose the circle containing the highest number of dots.However,monolinguals were better able than bilinguals to discriminate between when they were right and when they were wrong.In other words,bilinguals had less insight into their performance than monolinguals.This went against our initial predictions,as we expected to find a bilingual advantage in meta cognitive processing.These results indicate that bilingualism may be associated with cognitive disadvantages as well as benefits.

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    Luke has always been my closest and constant companion these past five years. In fact, he is very friendly to me especially when I take care of other furry friends in our shelter.

    There have been a lot of forest fires during the summer season. Not far from our shelter, a forest caught fire during this hot summer. Luke rushed towards the forest where flames send out a terrible heat. There's no longer any hope at the moment to wait for Luke to come back to the shelter. In fact, I was waiting for the firemen to announce me his death in the forest. Suddenly, a fireman burst into my office and informed me that my dog Luke succeeded in saving four cats which were trapped by the flames. Luke seized the kittens, one by one moving them to a safe place.

    I immediately accompanied the fireman to the forest to pick up the rescued kittens, but Luke was not there. Then we heard the sound of a dog came from the forest barking furiously. The firemen followed the tracks of the dog until they found him barking loudly by the side of an injured fireman who was lying on the ground.

    That day, I was very proud of Luke for his two heroic actions. I paid a visit to the fireman accompanied with my adorable Luke. What a memorable scene when the fireman hugged Luke tightly to his chest! “One thousand thanks, Luke, for saving my life,” the fireman said.

    This true story of love shows us that pets are kind, loving, and caring. We should love and protect them. Don't belittle them. Little animals can make enormous things for humans.

Not only is second-hand shopping good for the planet and your wallet, but new research finds that the more conscious(关注的) of style you are, the more likely you are to shop for second-hand clothes.

It is often assumed that those who shop for second-hand clothes do so to save money or reduce their impact on the environment. In fact, according to the research. style-consciousness is a bigger predictor of second-hand shopping than frugality or eco-consciousness.

Style-consciousness is very different from fashion-consciousness. Fashion is all about the "new" , and is constantly evolving. Style, on the other hand, is about expressing long-term individual identity.

Fashion shoppers are used to a continuous supply of new trends and fast fashion products. Fast fashion works quickly to replicate ( 复制) an ever-moving stream of fashion trends, generating large volumes of low-quality clothes. The impact of fast fashion on the environment is significant and well-documented. Globally ,the fast fashion industry creates 92 million tons of waste per year. Less than 15 percent of clothes are recycled or reused.

A style-conscious person expresses themselves through their clothes. These shoppers want second-hand clothes that show their personal style and values. They look for authentic and original pieces and avoid mainstream trends and fast fashion. They buy clothes that are timeless, well-made and all ow them to express their individual identity.

Going against the fast fashion trend, growing numbers of people are shopping for second-hand clothing. And the number of second-hand stores is also increasing. The research suggests much of this growth is due to shoppers considering themselves to be style-conscious.

We hope with increasing numbers of second-hand stores, markets and online platforms selling a range of quality, pre-loved clothes at different price points for different budgets—coupled with the growing acceptance of second-hand shopping—shoppers will consider buying second-hand more often. Not only are you helping the planet, you are also likely to be doing it with style.