Contrary to the growth mindset, a fixed mindset means that you believe that your abilities, talents, intelligence, or personality traits are given and unchangeable. You’re born with what you’re born with—and that’s it.

How we view what we consider to be our personality is one of the most basic beliefs a human being carries around through life. It is found that people with a fixed mindset believe that success is just the affirmation of our inherent traits—our intelligence, abilities, or talents. There is no point in trying to do or learn new things, because if you were to be good at it—you already would have known it.

These two mindsets manifest from an early age, and shape a great deal of our behavior, relationships, and approach to failures and successes.

Believing that your qualities are carved in stone creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain moral character, well then you’d better prove that you have a healthy dose of them. It simply would not do to look or feel deficient in these most basic characteristics.

As you can see, unlike the growth mindset, a fixed mindset is very debilitating and can cause different hurdles throughout our lifespans. The fear of failure forces us to stick with what we’re good at, and never take a step forward.

What’s even worse is that a fixed mindset doesn’t only affect a person who has this attitude, but their whole social sphere. These people tend to see others as competition, rather than find them as inspiration. The fixed mindset causes people to have a hard time being happy for other people’s successes. Therefore, it’s hard to be true friends with them.