Exploring the Growth Mindset

Growth vs Fixed Mindset

After listening to the TED talk, I realized I had never really considered the idea of a growth mindset. I knew the general ideas talked about, but I didn't realize there was a term for it, let a lone a term full of studies behind it. In my elementary school, I remember being given tests that were purposefully too hard for us. Little did I know this was a growth mindset test. Even in a class I've taken at OU, we were never given failing grades (grades below a 50%). To the professor, it was more of a fair assessment that he could see we were trying and grasping some of the concepts even if we didn't quite have a hold on the whole thing. I see this is being extremely beneficial. The most I've ever learned has been from being challenged. Over the summer, I had my first internship doing IT work in a field I had never really experienced before. I was doing data management for a private oil and gas company that had me working projects I had zero experience in. In those 3 months, I believe I learned more about practical application than I had learned through all of my classes in three years at OU. That's not saying OU didn't prepare me for the real world, but that experience was invaluable and played a huge role in my most recent interviews that lead to job offers. As for evidence against the growth mindset, I can see how many people may not like the challenges they face through it. There are many people who would prefer to breeze by as long as they can until they're nearly forced to try harder. To me though, through my personal experience, it is the challenges that we face that help develop us the most into who we are today. I'm looking forward to the acronym challenge as it's something I already do to help with my sometimes spotty memory!