Growth Mindset: Beyond School

Cute Pomeranian to Brighten Smiles (image source from Wikipedia)

I wanted to make my final post about growth mindset beyond school. I had learned a lot throughout my undergrad and this class, and my motto is to stay positive. No amount of stress is worth my mental health and I hope I can relay that message to everyone. Everything that had happened had led up to this moment to be humble and grateful. After college, I strive to continue on my education to apply for graduate school but with my pace. I do not believe I need to rush pursuing my career until I am ready mentally and financially.

Growth Mindset - Keep Moving Forward

(Image source from cheezburger)

There has been this mindset I had been using since I started college. I recently had a conversation with my friend how close graduation was coming and school was coming to an end. This motto was, "There is no such thing as perfection, but the best version of yourself" and I still stand with it. I may not had made the perfect grades, have perfect attitude, or the most negative person, but I have to make the best of it. As my undergrad is wrapping up, I realized I can still better my grades after college, continuously improve my attitude, brighten my career, or stay creating a positive mindset. I am always learning about myself and I can always improve.

Growth Mindset: Feedback

Trying to Understand (cheezburger)

When giving feedback, I should never be biased. I always read the whole thing before I critique it and try to understand it from their perspective. When I give feedback, I always try to be positive because there is no need for negativity. Everyone has their own creative writing, different levels of writing, and their own purpose for writing. When giving critiques, it should not be judgmental and mean. Feedbacks are about asking questions to understand, giving critiques to better their posts, and sharing your thoughts. It's mainly looking for red flags and helping others to better their projects.

Deborah Maue, Giving Creative Feeback, Link

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.