Ashley Merryman on Developing Mindset

Ashley Merryman is the author of two New York Times bestsellers: NurtureShock: New Thinking about Children and Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing. In this episode we discuss why she’s a Nationals fan (5:20), the power of sports and the community it builds (7:20), why she cares so deeply about excellence and competing (10:37), “flow” (14:15), emotional agility and grit (18:53), Angela Duckworth (25:40), differences among children and self-fulfilling prophecies (28:04), being perfectionistic in preparation and adaptable in performance (33:55), the importance of technical skill vs mentality (40:35), Ashley’s introduction to growth mindset (43:02), if her thoughts regarding growth mindset have changed at all over time, and the idea of fixed mindset vs growth mindset (48:12), if she believes people have innate “gifts” (56:15), epigenetics (1:01:25), if a fixed mindset could be helpful in performance (1:08:26), knowing your audience (1:17:43), strengths, weaknesses, faith, humility, and modesty (1:22:30), the humble leader vs the arrogant leader (1:30:25), why she became a lawyer and not a psychologist (1:36:38), the “challenge vs threat” concept (1:42:49), the value and process of competition (1:53:20), the relationship between growth and competition (1:54:40), and participation trophies (1:59:03). Thank you so much to Ashley for coming on the podcast! You can check out Ashley’s website here. Also make sure to follow her on twitter @AshleyMerryman. I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening. -Brian