“Coaches are often frustrated and puzzled. They look back over their careers and realize that some of their most talented athletes—athletes who seemed to have everything– never achieved success. Why? The answer is that these athletes didn’t have everything. They didn’t have the right mindset.”

So begins an article by Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck. You can read it here.

And here is another excerpt:

Recently we conducted a small study of college soccer players. We found that the more a player believed athletic ability was a result of effort and practice rather than just natural ability the better that player performed over the next season. What they believed about their coaches’ values was even more important. The athletes who believe that their coaches prized effort and practice over natural ability were even more likely to have a superior season.