Growth Mindset

I have heard of Carol Dweck before in a few of my classes! I learned about it in my Social Psychology course (which I really enjoyed, so if anyone is wanting to take that class, I definitely recommend it!), Mythology & Folklore, and Biochemistry. My Biochemistry professor, Dr. Sims, really was into this concept that he even included a large paragraph about it in his syllabus! In Social Psychology, we learned about the implications of a growth and fixed mindset and how that affects one's ability to make decisions about the present and the future. I also learned that it was best to have a growth mindset and that there are ways to nurture one at a young age. For example, instead of endlessly praising a child when they do something well, one must praise them in a way that makes them want to develop that skill even further. 

For myself, I think I have mostly a growth mindset. There are times when I do have a fixed mindset, but it doesn't last very long as I think that nothing is impossible. For example, when I first started studying for my PCAT, the review book was so big and daunting that I never thought I could get through it or even score very well on my PCAT. Then later on, I thought back about how important it was to do well and that it was worth a try even if it didn't work out. Also, it's best to give your everything in something that you can do as long as you can do something. So then I buckled down and studied the book cover-to-cover and got a 91st percentile on the PCAT. It's moments like these that give me faith in myself and that push me to be my best, to be honest. 

Throughout my four years at OU, I found that everyone has the ability to learn and do well in classes. It's just entirely up to their ability to push themselves--myself included. When I am faced with an unexpectedly difficult class, I make it my goal to do well regardless. And even if I fail, it was a good experience and I learned something new from my failure that I can apply in the future. For this new semester, the majority of my classes are public-speaking based with lots of solo presentations. I am not someone who is comfortable with public speaking and so I think that it will be difficult at first. However, like they say, "practice makes perfect" so I hope to gain a new skill this semester with all the presentations I have to do. Growth mindset will help me with this because even if I mess up in front of a large crowd, it's okay! 

Terrified cat on a raft in a swimming pool.

"All the good stuff is outside our comfort zone" meme by Laura Gibbs. Source: Growth Mindset Memes.