What spoke to me most was the differences in the way people with a growth mindset and people with a fixed mindset respond to challenges. I saw some of myself and my own behavior in Zweck's description of students with a fixed mindset: while I do enjoy being challenged, I think what I enjoy most is being good at the challenge. I like to do things right, and I can become quite frustrated when I can't do something correctly right away. Running away from the challenge and doing something easier is definitely a temptation for me, because just as Zweck says, I don't want to embarrass myself. I think my frustration when I'm not immediately good at something, as well as my fear of failure and embarrassment, stem from a fixed mindset. It is so freeing to think that my intelligence and capabilities are not fixed and that I'll be capable in the future of doing things I'm not capable of doing now. Put that way, it seems like a simple and obvious idea, but I think many of us don't carry that attitude with us in our day-to-day lives. Failure becomes less permanent, and therefore less scary, when I say to myself, "Just because I'm not good at this now doesn't mean I never will be!" This mindset is invaluable for the beginning of the semester, when in many classes I'm faced with all the tests and projects and labs I "need" to ace all at once. Zweck's ideas have helped me to slow down this week when I get overwhelmed and to remind myself that I'm in these classes to learn and not to be perfect.
Zweck's short video "Make Challenge the New Comfort Zone" is also helpful for the beginning of the semester, because it is a call to crave challenge rather than ease. I like that she says we should feel cheated when we do an easy task, because challenge is what stretches us and makes us better. It's easy for me to fall into the mindset of just getting through each class as easily as possible and being happy when something is easy. This video is a great reminder that challenge is good for us and we should want and even create challenge. Craving challenge is a completely different way of approaching school than usual, and it really does change my attitude towards my more difficult classes.
For example, the class I'm most worried about this semester is Quantitative Analysis, which is a chemistry class that requires analyzing unknown samples and determining the amount of certain chemicals in those samples. The lab is done independently (no lab partner) and we're graded on our accuracy rather than just completing the lab. This is very different from anything I've done before, and when I first heard all the requirements for the class, I started to get nervous about working on my own and having to be so accurate. When I tried to apply the growth mindset to my attitude about the class, I realized that if I want to do research (or any detail-oriented job, really), it will be important for me to be able to work independently and accurately, whether the work is in a lab or a hospital or an office building. This class has the opportunity to be a wonderful learning experience for me, and while I'm not expecting to enjoy every second of it or to never get anxious about it, I appreciate that I have a chance to practice working in a lab and to get better at many different skills. What a different attitude! Thank you, Carol Zweck! And thanks to Laura for introducing the growth mindset to me.
I like this quote (and the cute cat!) because I have trouble with
not trying things out of fear of embarrassing myself or failing.
This is a great reminder for me!
(Image made by Laura Gibbs at Growth Mindset Resources.
Original image from cheezburger.)
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