Mindsets

     I would love to say that I have a growth mindset but there are times that I question that assumption.  There are certain areas of my life that I most definitely exhibit the traits of a growth minded individual, but there are other areas that I tend to be more fixed. My education has definitely influenced my mindset, it is something that I was starting to discover after I took my first couple semesters of biology. I started to notice that most things didn’t fit into a nice little box, perfectly described, and not worth further debate… quite the contrary is true. How could I learn all of this and not reflect on my own self; was I not a dynamic living creature like the ones I was studying? If the evidence shows that I am an animal born of the same inherited and ever changing DNA as the rest of the life on Earth, then I too must not fit in a nice little box, perfectly described, and not worth further debate. It makes sense that we can change our mindsets, it is in our best interest to be adaptable as a species. Both the Ted Talk with Carol Dweck, and the paper “Why do beliefs about intelligence influence learning success? A social cognitive neuroscience model”, which features Dweck as a co-author, explain how the mindset can truly dictate the success or failure of a student and that the students mindset could be changed from fixed to growth. My success before coming back to school was due to a fixed mindset, where I had unearned confidence in my abilities and that confidence allowed me to do well in my work up to a point. Having a fixed mindset eventually was detrimental because once the foundation of my beliefs about myself were exposed to be hollow, my confidence started to collapse, and my performance at work felt more performative and less substantial. I decided to come back to school to gain that confidence back, but this time I would earn it. My success today is due to my hard work in school and although I’m worried about where I may eventually end up after I graduate, I will at least know that I earned my way to wherever that is. My past mindset does come back from time to time, especially when I am under stress, and when it does it can be really defeating and affects my studies. When I do have better control over my mindset I can do almost anything, or so it seems. I can’t point to any specific examples of how a growth mindset has benefitted me, but there is a certain level of energy you can feel as a student when you have confidence in yourself that is grounded in reality, that confidence comes from the realization that you are indeed capable.