Successful People Have 2 Types of Goals, a Stanford-Trained Mindset Expert Says. Without Both, You Won't Reach Your Potential. Eduardo Briceño says that ambitious people often fall into a mental trap that prevents them from achieving long-term success.

There are two kinds of goals, and if you focus too much on one kind, you may find yourself running in place — stuck in the mud of your unrealized potential.

Mindset expert Eduardo Briceño knows this firsthand. When he was young, he set ambitious goals and achieved them: He went to an Ivy League school, then got a high-paying venture capital job on Wall Street. But as the years went on, he wasn't sure what he was moving toward. He was chronically stressed and empty, and even developed a distressing condition called myofascial pain syndrome.

He decided to go back to school to figure out what he really wanted to do — simultaneously completing a master's in education and an MBA at Stanford — and during that time, he met the famous psychologist Carol Dweck. She introduced him to a concept she'd developed called "growth mindset," which focuses on effort over achievement.