Mindset.

[quote=Sir Wellington]It's the name of an awesome book I'm reading by Carol Dweck. In short, she divides people into two groups: those with a fixed mindset and those with a growth mindset. If you have a fixed mindset you believe you were born with whatever skills you have and you have to play the hand you were dealt. This translates to you wanting to avoid failure because because success is what proves or validates your ability. If you can't do something, you shouldn't. If you have a growth mindset, you believe that whatever skills you have can absolutely be increased (to a reasonable limit). Every problem is a challenge to push your limits and every failure is a lesson to learn. You aren't concerned about the worth or validity of your abilities; you're concerned with making them better. If you can't do something, then figure out how. These two beliefs are simple enough, but they define the progress of your life. More related to League, they define how you progress through solo queue. By now it should be obvious: If you have a fixed mindset, you'll play a game looking to prove you can carry or that you can win, and that glorious win is all you want. The consequence? You might progress up a few ranks if you were placed under your skill level, but ultimately you'll stay in the same tier/division and you will never advance through higher and higher tiers. This obviously sucks. On the other hand, when you have a growth mindset, you don't queue up just to win more LP, because you understand that [b][u]if you actively try to improve or learn something in each game[/b][/u], you will ultimately be a better player and rise to the top. When enemies, allies, and the ELO gods say you're a scrublord that should uninstall, you just think "challenge accepted." and EARN that promotion because you put in the effort. A very striking characteristic I saw in nearly every interview/spotlight of pro players is that not only did they overcome the odds to get where they were, but they did so in the face of many, many people telling them they couldn't do it (even their own parents - let that sink in a little.) I started ranked at 800 ELO, which was near the bottom of Bronze back in Season 2. Through learning the game, improving my skills, and addressing + fixing my weaknesses, I reached Gold III last season. It wasn't because "I was a gold player playing at gold level who just rose to his elo" like I read on the boards this afternoon. I was a scrub back in S2, hahaha! It was because I developed my skills as a player over many hundreds of games and earned my spot in Gold. So here's the bottom line: Whenever you face tough problems and difficult times in life, you can choose to either be afraid of failure or see it as an opportunity for growth. You WILL fail (a lot), but if you use failure as a lesson and [b]keep putting in the effort, the hard work[/b] - it will pay off one day and you'll realize just how far you've come.[/quote]