Do you have a positive mindset and believe in your success? You have more drive and passion according to researchers

According to a new study, a positive attitude, what researchers call a “growth mindset” or growth confidence, is associated with both greater willpower and greater passion.

People who believe they will succeed are much more passionate and have a greater willpower compared to the others, this is what Hermundur Sigmundsson, professor at the Department of Psychology at NTNU, says.

Sigmundsson has been working for many years to discover what enables people to achieve their goals. Now Monie Professor Monika Haga from the Department of Teacher Education at NTNU have joined forces in a new study.

The study

The two looked at 1,548 participants between the ages of 13 and 77 to evaluate various factors needed to become good at something. First, they considered the passionthe determination and the participants’ belief that they will be able to achieve their goals. Here, of course, there are large individual differences.

Then, they compared participants who had the most positive attitudes to those who had the least confidence that they would succeed.

We find big differences in passion and determination when we compare the five percent who have the most positive attitude with the five percent who are the most negative.

These groups are different: High passion and determination are directly related to positive attitudes in adults.

Our findings can help us better understand the connections between different factors. These are in turn linked to how satisfied people are with their lives, how they feel, what they have already achieved and what they are learning.

When we know more about what characterizes people with different attitudes, we can also better understand how we can motivate different groups. We can thus convince people to set long-term goals and make an effort to achieve them. This is what Sigmundsson calls “get the feeling of I CAN“.

Confidence in growth is important to much of our society. This applies to school, sport, work and family life.

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