FOR a minute, imagine that none of us will be here tomorrow; that today is the last day granted to us on this earth. What would the mind’s natural response be? It would drift away, instantly, from the unwanted complexities into which it has needlessly entangled itself, and place us in a condition where we value life more than we ever have, treating our final moments as the most expensive treasure we possess.

This happens because the mind values what turns scarce. Living under the perception that time is unlimited, it throws us into whims and desires and squanders the one resource that can never be recovered. Steve Jobs told Stanford’s graduating class in 2005 that remembering he would be dead soon was “the most important tool I’ve ever encountered” for making the big choices of life, because in the face of death all pride and all fear of embarrassment simply fall away. Scarcity is not the enemy of ambition; it is its origin.

The growth mindset values every moment and compels a human being to move towards his destiny, directing energy to constructive use and averting the negativity the mind naturally carries. The term belongs to Carol Dweck of Stanford, whose 2006 book Mindset separated two views of ability. The fixed mindset treats intelligence as an inheritance, as unchangeable as height. The growth mindset treats it as a........

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