My Growth Mindset

My skills bring success. (from the Growth Mindset Memes)

I like the way Carol Dweck thinks about “rewarded process”. I enjoyed how she wanted us to praise the process kids who engage in a problem to find a solution. Instead of the typical reward for getting the answer “right”, but they should be rewarded for their efforts and progress which I completely agree. I feel like we have this conception that kids should only be rewarded for getting the answer right, but why not be rewarded for their progress and efforts? I believe that kids (or anyone) thinks or strategize a lot differently than others, so it takes longer for someone to get to the answer. In college, I never got rewarded for my grades or efforts; I found that the only reward I am receiving is from myself, finishing my 4 years of college to receive a bachelor’s degree. I think the biggest challenge about this mindset is that not everyone has the opportunity for someone else to reward them. If you think about it, the only way I am being rewarded for my efforts at OU is receiving an email for being on honor roll- besides the fact I’m paying 6k a semester. My mindset growing up about school is that everything I am doing, it is all for myself. Everything I do, every grade I make, every job I get, etc., it is all for me and my future. I think about everything I do now is leading up to my future which I am completely fine with because that is where I want my reward to come in. I don’t want someone else to give me my reward, but me rewarding myself for going so far in life. Everyone has their own growth mindset and how they want to reward themselves, but as long as we all get to our happy place, that is all that matters.