A Growth Mindset

I have heard of a growth mindset before, but never about Carol Dweck until today. I'm not too sure of where I had heard of this concept, but it was probably in an old class or at a work training. In terms of where I fall on a spectrum between fixed and growing mindset I would say I am working my way up to being more growth mindset. I am really hard on myself and I think that it was something transferred to me subconsciously through grade school and my family. I take bad grades very seriously and as I have grown I have learned to embrace my "failures". When I would get a grade I didn't want I would think that I was dumb and that I had not learned anything at all when in reality I did have some knowledge of the material, but would need to expand and grow my knowledge to fit that of my teacher's standards or liking. 

When I would do sports I would beat myself up over missed swings or catches, but if I were to think about it in a growth mindset it would push me to improve upon those aspects of my sport. If I thought about it as a failure it made me want to quit and give up, but thinking about it and taking it as a challenge pushes one to work harder. This could also be said in the way of criticism. I would take it very personally and shut down, but as I have welcomed this mindset I realized that negative criticism is meant to help you improve. People usually give out criticism to help you learn not just because they feel like it which has been a thought to helping me deal with and understand criticism. My goal is to give people helpful feedback and not just give them lame "good posts" to spare feelings and to also embrace the feedback of others to help myself improve and gain more from the class. 

I will try again tomorrow.

(from the Mindset Cats Blog)