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What is it that determines how people fare in life? It’s the great nature versus nurture debate that has continued for some time.

For some, nature is the prime determinant of how people do in life. For the nature crowd, your abilities are pretty much set at birth. And it is these innate abilities that will determine how you perform. There is little you can do, they say, to alter what nature has given you. It is pretty much a matter of genetics.

On the other side is the nurture crowd. They don’t dispute the fact that a certain component of our intellect is innate. But they argue that our own actions and our environment also play a major role in how we do in life. Our brain is a malleable organ, they say, so we do a lot to change and improve it, no matter what innate abilities we were born with.

And, there are many positions in between these two poles, people who look at our abilities as some combination of nature and nurture to varying degrees.

But now, some psychologists are dismissing the entire debate as irrelevant. It doesn’t matter which is more important, they say. What really matters is what you believe is more important, because it is your belief that makes the difference in yow well you do.

What you believe about your abilities can have a big impact on your motivation and your accomplishments. For example, if you believe your abilities are pretty much unchangeable, you are more likely to give up if you cannot do something. What’s the use, since your ability to accomplish a task won’t change? However, people who believe abilities to be subject to change, who believe we can improve them through our own efforts, are more likely to persist at a task if they have trouble doing it because they feel they can improve and eventually achieve their goal.

Moreover, those who believe ability to be fixed are also unlikely to take on more challenging tasks if they think they do not have the ability to accomplish it, whereas those who believe in the power of our won effort to improve our ability are more likely to tackle tough assignments.

In short, if we believe we can improve, we are likely to do better in life as a result.

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