What Mindset by Carol Dweck taught Me about Potential
Aug 18, 2025
The image above was captured in April, beneath the vast skies of the Middle East.
The water lay impossibly still, a shimmering mirror reflecting the brilliance of the sun.
I drifted on the surface of the Dead Sea—the lowest place on Earth—cradling a book that spoke of reaching our highest potential. In that surreal stillness, the paradox was alive within me: to be held at the lowest point of the world while contemplating the peaks of human possibility.
The book was Mindset by Dr. Carol S. Dweck.
The moment absolutely surreal.
The message truly is life-changing.
I devoured a whole chapter, floating there in the stillness, my body surrendered to the saltwater’s embrace, my mind suddenly untethered and light. Her words seeped into me like currents, carrying a truth I had always known but never named — that our capacity to grow, to learn, to change, is infinitely greater than the narrow stories we have been told.
Months later, I found myself back with Mindset once again, this time not in the ocean but on my couch — pen in hand, underlining, scribbling notes in the margins like whispers to my future self.
The first reading cracked something open in me, like sunlight breaking through heavy clouds.
The second became a building of bones and breath, a new foundation forming — steady, expansive, alive.
The central message of Carol Dweck is simple yet profound:
“In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits… In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work.”
It is a shift from I am to I can become.
From I can’t to I can learn.
In a fixed mindset, failure feels like a verdict on who you are. In a growth mindset, failure becomes feedback — an invitation to adjust, to try again, to strengthen.
The first time I read Mindset, it felt as though someone had handed me a mirror that reflected far more than my face. It showed me my patterns — the places where I had clung to a fixed mindset for safety, afraid to fail, and the moments where I had unknowingly stretched into a growth mindset, stepping into the unknown and surprising myself with what I could do.
I could see it in the small risks and the big leaps — launching my blog, saying yes to leading workshops, retraining in new modalities. Each time I chose growth, joy followed, even when challenges walked beside it.
The second time, I read it through new eyes — not only as a seeker, but as both a Vision Therapist and an Intuitive Wellness Guide. I realised that mindset isn’t simply about doing more or achieving more; it is about believing differently.
Belief — in oneself, in one’s abilities, in one’s potential — can be as powerful as any therapeutic tool.
I have witnessed firsthand how a shift in belief can change the way someone learns, heals and lives.
As a Vision Therapist, I see mindset in action every day. A child struggling with eye tracking might arrive believing they are “bad at reading” — a belief that has quietly hardened into a fixed identity.
Through vision therapy, encouragement and small daily wins, that belief begins to shift: I can get better at reading.
Their posture changes.
Their eyes track more smoothly.
Their confidence lifts.
One young patient came to me convinced she was “bad at reading.” Her parents shared that she had been avoiding books for years. This was classic fixed mindset language: I’m bad at this, therefore I can’t get better at it.
Through vision therapy, we worked not only on her eye tracking and visual stamina, but also on her language. I encouraged her to say, I’m still learning to be a stronger reader and to celebrate each improvement — no matter how small.
Halfway through her block of Vision Therapy this child began to see herself differently. The day she finished her first chapter book on her own, she beamed, “I’m a reader now.”
That is the power of shifting the story you tell yourself.
The Mindset of Healing
Dweck writes:
“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.”
Healing — whether from physical injury, vision challenges, emotional pain, or burnout — is rarely linear. I have seen clients arrive expecting fast results, only to feel discouraged when progress feels slow.
That is where mindset becomes medicine.
As an Intuitive Wellness Guide, I help people recognise that “slow” is not “stuck.”
Each small shift — a deeper breath, better sleep, less anxiety in social situations — is proof of movement.
Healing is not a static process; it is the heartbeat of change.
Too often, we approach wellness with a fixed mindset: This is just the way I am. This is my body. This is my pattern.
Healing is not a verdict.
Healing is a series of micro-moments where we choose to lean into possibility.
Healing is the belief that even in the slow seasons, our nervous system, our body and our emotional patterns can change with the right support and consistent practice.
Dweck shares:
“Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better?”
This line landed like a truth-bomb.
So many of us stay in the comfort zone, only doing the things we’re already good at, because the risk of failure feels too big. The learning zone…. that space where you stretch yourself is where the magic happens.
For me, this has shown up in teaching workshops.
The first time I led one, my heart was pounding so loudly I was sure everyone could hear it.
I reminded myself: I am here to grow.
That mindset took the focus off being perfect and put it on being present.
I once worked with a teenage athlete who came in for vision therapy after a concussion. He was used to excelling in sports, but therapy exercises felt slow and awkward. “I’m terrible at this,” he told me.
So of curse we reframed this thought pattern: “You are gaining new skills, just like you train in the gym. The awkwardness means your brain is learning.”
Within weeks, his coordination improved and he started bringing that same growth mindset to his sport recovery — focusing on progress, not perfection.
There was something poetic about reading part of this book while suspended in water so dense it holds you up without effort. Mindset teaches that growth is not always about pushing harder — sometimes it’s about finding the environment, the tools and the inner belief that will hold you while you learn.
For me, that looks like:
⭐ Encouraging patients to celebrate progress, not perfection.
⭐ Guiding clients to notice when their inner dialogue slips into “fixed” and reframe it toward growth.
⭐ Practicing the same in my own life, especially when learning something new feels awkward or uncomfortable.
“Effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.”
This is the heartbeat of both vision therapy and intuitive wellness work. Talent, natural ability and even starting conditions matter far less than consistent, intentional effort.
In my own life, this shows up in daily rituals: breathwork, journaling, heart coherence, movement.
These are not grand, once-off events — they are small yet intentional daily acts of growth.
If you want to begin living the growth mindset, try this simple three-step practice:
Catch the fixed voice — Notice when you hear yourself say, I can’t, I’m not, I’ll never…
Challenge it — Ask yourself, Is that true, or am I just uncomfortable because I’m learning?
Change it — Replace it with, I can learn. I am practicing. I am becoming.
Of course don’t forget the fourth step: Celebrate the effort. Anchor your wins, no matter how small, so your brain learns to link effort with reward.
Over time, these small shifts rewire both your thinking and your emotional response to challenge.
Last week I finished reading Mindset for the second time. This time through, it became less of a mirror and more of a manual. I read it with pen in hand, underlining passages and asking myself: How can I live this more deeply? How can I help others see their potential more clearly?
One of my favourite lines that almost stops me in my tracks is “Becoming is better than being.”
A reminder that we are not here to prove ourselves — we are here to improve ourselves. Improvement, in its truest sense, is not about hustle or perfectionism, but about staying open, curious and willing.
Mindset is more than a book. It is a mirror.
It is a map.
It is a manual for choosing possibility over limitation — in your work, your healing, your relationships, and your own self-belief.
Reading it the first time inspired me. Reading it the second time grounded the lessons into my daily life, and into the lives of the people I work with.
The Dead Sea taught me that the right environment can hold you while you grow.
This book taught me that your mindset can become that environment — anywhere, anytime.
The magic of a book like Mindset is that it doesn’t just live on the page — it lives in you.
The words are an invitation, but the real transformation happens when you weave them into your thoughts, choices and actions.
Below is a growth mindset toolkit — part journal, part ritual, part gentle-but-bold nudge forward and definitely part Wild Wellness with Hannah.
Here are some journal prompts to nurture the inner garden of growth.
Where in my life am I currently operating from a fixed mindset? How can I invite growth instead?
What is one area where I’ve been telling myself “I can’t” that I can reframe into “I’m learning to…”?
Write about a time you struggled but kept going. What did that persistence teach you?
Which feedback in my life have I avoided or feared? How could I see it as a gift?
What am I willing to be a beginner at this month?
In what ways do I already embody a growth mindset without even realising it?
Speak the following mindset mantras and affirmations aloud in the mirror, whisper them into your journal or anchor them into your breathwork practice:
I am a work in progress and a masterpiece all at the same time and that is my power.
Every challenge grows my capacity.
I choose curiosity over perfection.
My effort is the bridge between where I am and where I want to be.
Not yet is my doorway to possibility.
Becoming is better than being.
A daily mindset check-in to support your growth and shift in mindset.
At the end of each day, ask yourself:
Did I step into my learning zone today?
Where did I meet resistance, and how did I respond?
What is one thing I can do differently tomorrow?
This keeps your awareness fresh and your growth intentional.
Here are a few embodiment rituals to nurture growth in the body.
Movement: Try something physically unfamiliar — a new yoga pose, a balance drill, a dance step you’ve never done. Let yourself wobble and notice the joy in it.
Breath: Inhale with the thought, I’m expanding. Exhale with the thought, I’m letting go of limits. Do this for 3–5 minutes.
Nature: Plant a seed or tend to a plant as a living metaphor. Every time you water it, remind yourself growth takes time, care and trust.
Here is what I will carry forward, both personally and professionally:
⭐ Your abilities are not fixed. They are like muscles — they grow when you challenge them.
⭐ Failure is not a verdict. It’s feedback.
⭐ Process over perfection. Progress is built in micro-moments.
⭐ Curiosity is a superpower. Ask How can I? instead of Can I?
One of my young vision therapy clients keeps a “Not Yet” jar. Every time she finds something hard, she writes it down with the words “not yet” and places it in the jar.
At the end of each month, she reads them and often laughs — because many of those “not yets” have become “nailed its.”
Try your own version — a journal, a jar, or a voice memo.
Starting to read Mindset while floating on the Dead Sea was a beautiful paradox — the lowest place on Earth reminding me of the highest possibilities within us. Reading it a second time grounded those possibilities into daily life.
Growth, like vision therapy, like intuitive guidance, like healing, like life itself, is a process.
It all starts with the belief that you can become more than you were yesterday.
“Test scores and measures of achievement tell you where a student is, but they don’t tell you where a student could end up.” Carol Dweck
The same is true for all of us.
Here is your Wild Wellness mindset pledge. A daily compass to guide you back to growth, presence and possibility.
Write this somewhere you will see it daily.
I choose to meet myself where I am,
to celebrate the messy middle,
and to honour the truth that my becoming is the most beautiful part of me.
