The growth mindset allows people to value what they’re doing regardless of the outcome. - Carol S. Dweck

CEOs face this choice all the time. Should they confront their shortcomings or should they create a world where they have none? Lee Iacocca chose the latter. He surrounded himself with worshipers, exiled the critics — and quickly lost touch with where his field was going. Lee Iacocca had become a nonlearner.

A no-effort relationship is a doomed relationship, not a great relationship. It takes work to communicate accurately and it takes work to expose and resolve conflicting hopes and beliefs. It doesn’t mean there is no “they lived happily ever after,” but it’s more like “they worked happily ever after.

It is always useful to ask: is there a more interesting way of doing this?
But sometimes the answer may be no. It is then that people need to learn to apply themselves: when there is a painful process or nothing of interest to learn from the task. This is where ‘self-regulation’ comes in. These are essential skills that we use to help ourselves when tasks are long, complex or unpleasant. These skills can be taught, and students who have mastered them do far better than those who haven’t, both in the short run and in the long run.