But will you ever actually be able to achieve success? What you believe about your own ability to succeed may be your answer.

Enter Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University.

In her 2006 book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, she wrote that people are on a continuum based on their beliefs about where their ability to succeed comes from. Some people believe that success is innate. Those people have what she called a fixed mindset. Other people believe that success is based on hard work, learning, and their persistence. According to Dweck, those people have a growth mindset.

She concluded that, although people may...