Growth Mindset: Grow by Watching Others

For week 9, I decided to explore other people's ideas of growth mindset.
I came across a meme made by Carmen that inspired me more than the others.

Take the Stairs link

It's really true that there is no easy way out or a fast track to getting to success. You have to go through the work and take the long route for anything that's worth doing. Sometimes we often get discouraged by such a long road ahead of us, especially if the travel is going to be over mountains and through valleys. We have to remember our end goal and remind ourselves that each obstacle will make us stronger.

Week 8: Growth Mindset

This week I decided to learn more about growth mindsets. I came across an article called "6 Bad Mental Habits that Sabotage Your Success".

Here's a excerpt from the article that I really liked.

"No matter how much talent or experience you possess, if you can't gain control of your mind, you'll never achieve great things. You can't reach the next level of success unless you believe you're capable of accomplishing more."

Help Each Other Stay Positive link

Here are the 6 Bad Mental Habits listed:

1. Making excuses
2. Catastrophizing the future
3. Seeking audience approval
4. Believing self doubt
5. Putting yourself down
6. Second guessing yourself

I think these are all things that bring negativity into our lives and hinder the potential of what we could be. We can all work to stop doing these 6 things in order for our lives to thrive.

Week 7 Growth Mindset: Meme

Work for It link

I find this to be incredibly true especially when I think about my future career. It will require a whole lot of work and it is never easy but it is what I love and that's what keeps me going. I am glad that it is difficult though because it challenges me and makes me resilient. It's important that the thing you love requires hard work because then you know that it's worth it. Anything worth doing is going to require some work. If it's extremely easy, then you'll never grow and become better at what you love doing.

Growth Mindset Challenge: Growth Beyond School

Recently I challenged myself to do something that I would of previously ignored. I changed my cabin air filter and engine air filter. I ignored doing this for my car because I tend to think that I won't be able to do anything that is car related since I know nothing about it. Usually, I just take my car to the dealer and they take care of everything. However, this time I challenged myself to learn more about simple fixes for my car and I found out that some things are a lot simpler than they seem! Changing a cabin air filter is extremely easy and doing it yourself is a lot cheaper. Don't be afraid to learn.

Change a Filter youtube

Growth Mindset Challenge: Tell a Friend

This week I challenged myself to tell a friend about growth mindset. It's amazing to see how many people have never heard of this but then can relate to it so well. I shared the basic idea and the videos that I learned in this class. I also found a picture with some tips on how to train yourself with the idea of growth mindset. I think it's important that we can share our knowledge with other people to help them grow.

Growth Mindset flickr

Growth Mindset: Growing My Writing Style

This week I tried the Dear Diary writing style. I got this idea from another student and I had a lot of fun writing it. It reminded me of writing in my diary as a kid and it made writing really easy. I also used more dialogue in revising one of my stories. I had avoided doing this before because I found it difficult to think about the right format of using quotations and punctuations in dialogue but I pushed myself to learn more about it and practice it. I'm glad I was able to do that this week because it helped me with my growth mindset and helped me become a better writer. 

Growing by Writing Wikipedia

Growth Mindset: Difficult is NOT Impossible Meme

For this week's growth mindset challenge, I decided to look at some memes.
I found this one in particular to be inspiring.

Difficult, but STILL possible Link

I decided to share this on my blog because I think this is one of the most difficult concepts to overcome when it comes to learning. Often time we put up a wall whenever we run into something that is difficult and we think that there is no way to solve it. If we keep trying and thinking, then we may actually find a solution. It may take longer than planned but difficult doesn't mean that it is not possible. This is really useful to remember because you can only grow by accomplishing challenges.

Growth Mindset Challenges: Growth in My Other Classes

Growth Mindset Challenges:

This week I focused on growing in some of my other classes. I have realized this semester that being able to work well in groups is really important for learning. My classes this semester require a lot of group work, which I wasn’t too big of a fan of before but now I like it. We learn to really challenge each other and push each other. We ask difficult questions. Working in groups really also holds you accountable to pull your own weight. A lot of the projects we do are separated into sections so that allows me to work really hard so that I can provide something good for my group. I think this helps my growth mindset because I get to learn other people’s learning styles and it helps me not be so closed minded about how things should be done. I get to see a lot of different styles and different perspectives.

Perspective Online Source

Changing My Mindset to a Growth Mindset

      I have never heard of Carol Dweck before or the theory of growth mindset, so I am really glad that this class introduced me to the concept, because I think the "fixed mindset" is something I personally struggle with. I am one of those people who didn't necessarily feel challenged all throughout high school. I could usually get by without really learning much and still get a really good grade, and at the time, I was okay with that. Most people acknowledge my outcome. They ask me what grade I got instead of what I actually learned. I felt good whenever I was praised for getting a good grade on something. Sometimes a good grade reflects good effort, but a good grade doesn't reflect overcoming a challenge. It didn't really hit me until college how much effort I needed to put in to get good outcomes. Sometimes when I didn't get the grade that I wanted, I wanted to give up and I told myself that I just wasn't good enough. I hit a ceiling quick. I slowly, and quite painfully learned that working hard always trumps being smart and the dumbest thing a person can do is quit before they have really even tried.
     At OU, I realized that learning is the main goal of it all. Not just getting a good test score or getting an A. I don't have the best grade in some of the classes that I learned the most in. I realized it doesn't do anyone any good by getting a good grade if you never truly learned the material. Critical learning has been the most difficult challenge throughout my college career. Mostly, I try to cram the information right before a test and sometimes that can get me through one exam but then I forget it and find myself in a predicament when finals roll around.  I appreciate the opening statement of the video because presentation and wording although deemed simple, can actually have a really big outcome on the way a person perceives something.
     I am really hoping that I can change my thinking to a growth mindset so that I can continue to want challenges instead of just doing whatever is the easiest. I hope that I can realize again how fun learning can be and that it really is a marathon and not a sprint. I'm taking Human Anatomy and Physiology of Microorganisms this year which is a bit terrifying. I know they are going to be challenging and are going to require a lot of work. I hope that with a new mindset this semester, I will be successful.

Growing with a Growth Mindset (Kevin Hodgson) flickr