Mindsets! We often don’t focus on them, but they are crucial to learning! Having the right mindset can cause us to learn and absorb so much more. What I learned in Physics this week is that we must discover our current mindset first, realize what steps we must take to achieve our ideal mindset, and be committed to taking those steps in order to improve so that we can become better learners.
Mindsets.. What are they?
I don’t know about you, but I generally don’t pay any attention to my mindset. I just assume that I should have a positive attitude, so I focus on that, but everything was put into perspective for me this week.
I learned that there are two types of mindsets one can have- Fixed and Growth
When people have a fixed mindset, they rest in the comfort of knowing what brings them success. They’re often closed off to others’ ideas, and failure is viewed as a negative part of their life. Constructive criticism can be viewed as a personal attack. We can all relate to, or often have, this mindset, because why try something different and challenge yourself if what you know brings you success? In a growth mindset, everything is viewed as a learning experience, even failure. People with growth mindsets still see their opinions as valuable, because they are, but are open to accepting others opinions as well and value them equally to their own. They are grateful for constructive criticism, because it’s a way for them to grow and better themselves. Interesting right? After hearing about these mindsets and learning more about them, I realized that I needed to ask myself…
Which mindset do I have?
Discovering my mindset-
Isn’t that a scary question? It’s kind of like asking yourself- “Are you ok with admitting to not always challenging yourself for the sake of success?” To answer that question, yes and no. After discovering the two types of mindsets I think to myself, yes, I can definitely see myself doing that in the past, but I have a pretty good growth mindset now, as an eager freshman at an advanced high school. Then I have to further reflect and think, am I just to scared to admit to having a fixed mindset, or am I really on the path to a great growth mindset? To be honest, I don’t really know the answer to that one. What I do know though, is that I’m partially ok with admitting to having a fixed mindset because I want to get better! To me, the first step to getting my ideal mindset is to finding out what areas I have a fixed mindset in, and admitting it to myself so that I can know which areas to work on. The main areas of my life are dancing, school, operating (and hopefully programming soon!) lights at my church, and being a Christian. I definitely have a fixed mindset in dance. I of course want to learn and get better, but sometimes I can get discouraged by those who are better than me or just not having enough time to sink into practicing in order to get better. Plus I’ve been dancing since I was two, so the thought of putting in a ton of effort into something I know I do well in at the level I’m at isn’t very appealing. In school, I honestly think I do have good growth mindset. I am so excited to absorb new knowledge about all of my subjects and just learn to be a good learner! My school also assists me in developing a better growth mindset because we do a lot of collaborative work, so that helps me to be open to others’ opinions, though I really do love and value others opinions because they are either the same as mine, or something completely different that I could’ve never thought of and I think that’s just awesome. Being a freshman also helps because I’m only starting to develop my system of success so there’s no way I would fall in a routine that I could never grow in. Failure is something I will have to work on though, for in previous school years I was so used to success that failure would make me stress out. Growth mindsets cause you to look at failure as a way to learn, and that will be difficult for me to adapt to. Next, lights! Oh how I love my lights. They are a whole new passion for me, and make me so excited. I’m not sure where my mindset is on this one honestly, because I can see aspects for both. I have a fixed mindset because I’m the youngest lights operator in my church, and it makes me feel special, and like that’s something most can’t achieve. I believe I do have a partial growth mindset because I just want to learn, learn, learn all about these lights. I want to push myself and start programming even though it’s really difficult. Lastly, but certainly the most important, being a Christian. I’ll admit, total fixed mindset here. It’s so easy to just go through the motions. I guess what I’m scared of is the effort it will take to get super close with God, and then maintaining that. Wow. I really thought I had more of an overall growth mindset than that. Well, time to get growing!
My next steps-
Alright, now that I’ve admitted to myself that I have a lot of growing to do, it’s time to figure out how I’m gonna do it! My main obstacle: time. Never enough hours in the day right? I either need to pull back, or schedule myself in enough time to push towards my goals. For dance, I should practice at home for fifteen minutes on the days I’m not going to the studio. For school, I need to view failure not as an embarrassment, but as just a way to make me better. As for lights, I often look forward to going into to practice programming, but end up getting too tired to go in. How am I ever going to get the skill without practicing? The answer is I won’t, so when I plan to start programming, I have to keep the promise to myself and go through with it. I’ll thank myself when I get to watch my first programmed song playing out in front of me on a Sunday. Faith-wise, the answer is simple- 10 minutes in my Bible everyday is a must.
Questions and Conclusions-
Though all this mindset stuff is really cool and interesting, I certainly don’t have it all figured out yet. I know you have to work on getting a growth mindset, but once you have one, is there a way to get a better one? If you have a really good one, is there anyway to get better? Simply, can you still grow in your growth mindset? Other questions I have are sourced on why I think a lot of us have fixed mindsets, lack of passion. Once I picked up lights I was almost obsessed with them, I wanted to learn everything and jump in right away. Is it possible to only have a fixed mindset because you’re not passionate in something anymore? And if so, should you stop doing that thing and replace it with something else your more passionate about to acquire a growth mindset, or is that just giving up? Overall, I think learning about mindsets is so essential to my learning this year. I think it’s very easy for us to have fixed mindsets, because we don’t know about the types of mindsets before we discover them! So now that I have, I look forward to becoming a person with a growth mindset. It gives me hope, and excitement. And New Year’s resolutions! 😝
Thank you to Mr. Battaglia for introducing me to all of this crazy and interesting stuff! Couldn’t have started my journey to a growth mindset without you! Here’s a video he provided me with that really helped me get more info on each mindset! I used some of it in this blog, and it’s definitely essential to look into! Welcome to growth mindsets peeps!
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