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 mudof 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 waschronically stressedand empty, and even developed a distressing condition calledmyofascial 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 psychologistCarol Dweck.She introduced him to a concept she'd developed called "growth mindset," which focuses on effort over achievement.