Stanford Doctor of Developmental Psychology Carissa Romero visited FA to explain how much power the brain really has in determining the outcome of stressful situations. I sat down with two anonymous sources who attended the lunch and discovered Dr. Romero’s perspective on how a good mindset can affect your success.

Dr. Romero is the co-founder of PERTS, The Project for Education Research That Scales, at Stanford University. According to their website, PERTS “works with schools, community colleges, and online education providers around the country to develop, test, and disseminate mindset programs and tools for teachers and parents.” Dr. Romero feels that outcomes to any situation heavily rely on the person’s mindset. One of my sources explained that there are two mindsets. Firstly, “a fixed mindset is one where you enter a situation with a predetermined outcome.” The example he or she gave was going “into class thinking ‘I’m not a math person and I’m going to fail this test anyway so why would I even study?’” This mindset hinders the brain’s ability to expand and actually learn the material. The other mindset is called a growth mindset. One source described this mindset as “one where you go into a situation and try to grow from it.” This source also defined struggling as a form of growing: “when you struggle through something, whether or not you are successful in the end, you are growing your brain’s capacity and therefore benefitting from the struggle.”

When asked what was helpful for them that they would want to share with others, my first source said “I think everyone should know that failing is important. While this may seem hard to grasp since we are high schoolers and getting a failing grade on a test may seem like the end of the world, coming back from a failure and learning from your mistakes is very important.” The inability to look at failure with a growth mindset just helps solidify the infamously bad fixed mindset Dr. Romero spoke about. Both sources described this lunch and learn as “a fantastic opportunity overall.” Keep Dr. Romero’s wise words in mind the next time you face a stressful situation to confirm not only your growth but your success as well.