the first step towards a growth mindset

While I had never heard of Carol Dweck, I had heard of the growth mindset. It's interesting because the first time I had heard about it was actually my Intro to Business class last semester. My professor was encouraging us to read a book that maybe Professor Dweck had written that was about the growth mindset and he explained to us what it was. It fit nicely into the class because a lot of people did not do well on the first exam, and he was encouraging us to not get discouraged and give up but rather have a growth mindset. He wanted us to learn from our mistakes to do even better on the next exam. I remember that afternoon after class I called my mom to discuss with her what he had said.

Just keep going: action overcomes fear.
Image created by Laura Gibbs 

Thinking back through my education, I think I have a growth mindset. I went to a very challenging college preparatory school that was very difficult in high school especially. During that time, I faced a lot of academic challenges where I would have to study a lot and was faced with feeing very tired and very discouraged at times. However, with each grade I got back that wasn't the score I wanted or whatever the situation may have been, I would always try to discover how I studied wrong or different ways that I could improve for the next time. I agree with the ten year olds in the studies who said that they liked a challenge! I enjoy pushing myself out of my comfort zone because I do not like feeling anxious. I know that if I do something enough, it will start to feel easy and everyday. This is why I like to try new things and overcome the feelings of nervousness or anxiety that I may get before doing something that scares me. 

Some other aspects of my life that I think this applies to is my career search. Last summer, I was looking for an internship and didn't hear back from several of the advertising agencies that I had applied to. An agency I was very interested in working at offered me an interview, but I couldn't get to Fort Worth, Texas on the day they wanted to interview and the offer ended up falling through. After that process, I felt discouraged about my future and had feelings of maybe I was in the wrong major. However, with the growth mindset, I could look at my attempts not as a failure, but as "not yet" like Professor Dweck had mentioned. Sure, I didn't get an internship last summer, but that doesn't mean that I won't ever have one or that advertising is the wrong field for me. It just means that I was not going to have an internship yet. Now, with another year of classes under my belt and some experience working for the student-run advertising agency in the Gaylord College, I believe that I will be an even better candidate since I have more knowledge and experience to offer. 

Education and career aside, I feel like I could also apply the growth mindset to other areas of my life as well. Like the thirteen year old mentioned in one of the videos, I could also apply the growth mindset to my relationships. I had never considered doing anything like that before today, but I could see how it could be beneficial. I wish as a freshman I had heard about this because I felt frustration in that I was not making new friends as quickly as I would have liked. If only I had known that it didn't mean that I was failing at assimilating, it just meant I wasn't feeling close to people yet. I think this could be a huge turning point in how people approach relationships especially because they take so much time to grow. Deep friendships don't form overnight, but rather over longer periods of time as you get to know and trust someone. In addition, I think it could be helpful because friends get in fights or have disagreements, and that doesn't mean the relationship has failed. Rather, it is just a challenge and if you run from the challenge, it could have a huge impact on that friendship. The growth mindset could help sustain the friendship and even improve it by learning how to communicate with each person and learn what bothers them, what makes them happy, how they feel loved and cared for, etc. 

Some of my personal goals this semester is to balance my time better. Last semester, I was very stressed trying to balance between two jobs, classes, and a social life. I have organized this semester where I think my schedule will flow much better. However, I am still worried that I may be trying to do too much. Some classes I am excited for are advertising media and this class. Advertising media because I think I will learn a lot from my professor about advertising and how to create great campaigns. He seems very knowledgable and works for a firm in L.A. that controls $16 billion dollars of advertising money around the world. Therefore, I think I can glean a lot of knowledge from him. I am also excited for this class because it will push me out of my comfort zone and force me to be more creative. I have a problem with reading a story or something and getting stuck with a one-track-mind. The re-telling of the story we did earlier this week was difficult for me for that reason. Here, the growth mindset could come into play because I can lean into the challenge of developing my creative process to come up with new stories and think of really good ideas rather than just going with the first idea that pops into my head and writing an OK post. In addition, this could help with my advertising career since it is such a creative field.