Week 8 Growth Mindset

(Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset; online source, www.edventures.com)

    As with anybody, there are some things I'm better at than others. Some, I'm good at but I have to really challenge myself, others come naturally, and still others I'm not sure I'll ever be good at. I do try, however, to challenge myself to improve in every aspect of life (not just academics) where I have room for improvement, which is what's most important about growth mindset in my opinion. So, I'll just highlight a few things to expand on this.

     Some things that definitely come naturally to me are as follows. I'm always ready to meet minimum requirements, as well as going beyond the minimum. I really don't find myself looking for praise from others, as I'm satisfied with critiquing myself and improving based upon my own judgement. I often tend to look into the future and see long term potential in situations more easily than most people do. I love the way this class is designed for that reason: it allows me to really challenge myself beyond what I might have previously thought capable. For example, I've always loved fictional stories, especially mythical ones (such as Harry Potter, Divergent, etc.) but I've never believed myself capable of writing anything of that nature. With this class, I've been able to choose my own path throughout the semester and that has allowed me to expand my writing creativity. Since assignments are pretty self paced and also are based on completion, rather than quality per se, I've been able to work on projects of this nature and found that it's actually something I feel I can do well.

     Of course, there are also things that I struggle with on a regular basis. I don't like pushing myself out of my comfort zone, for instance. I've never been comfortable in social settings, however I try to push myself to overcome that on a regular basis. My desire to learn Spanish has been hindered by my social anxiety but I've been working hard to overcome that struggle. I recently acquired a pin pal of sorts, whom I text occasionally to give myself practice in the language. I'm hoping that in time this will help me ease my way into more face to face conversations with less stress. Another thing I struggle with is my own self doubt. I'm very self critical and I tend to shut down my own efforts without even giving myself the chance to succeed. My Spanish language skills also exemplify this, although I pushed through it and overcame that obstacle. When I first decided to learn Spanish, I was very inspired but I very quickly convinced myself that I couldn't learn Spanish. Then, I decided not to pursue my language minor as initially intended. Thankfully, I had a teacher that really encouraged me for my last required semester of Spanish for my major and he convinced me that I could complete my minor. I'm now much more confident in my Spanish skills and although I struggle regularly with social anxiety, I'm now certain that I will eventually be fluent in Spanish. 

Overall, I think it's just a good rule of thumb to push ourselves and others to be the best that we can be. If we can do that, life will be pretty great.