Having a Growth Mindset, Striving for "Yet"
Before this week I had never heard of Carol Dweck or the growth mindset concept. It is very fascinating.
While I had never heard of the growth mindset, I certainly grew up with this idea. My mom always encouraged the process more than the result, to the point where I never questioned my ability to do anything as long as I tried hard. This now translates into every aspect of my life. At work it is always the process that is most important and I am constantly striving to improve my logistics tactics because they are not there "yet". I am continually improving upon them by taking on new work challenges.
This also applies to my school work. When I first transferred into OU many, many years ago; it was a culture shock and a failure. While it did get me down at times, I constantly strived to finish and now I will graduate in December. For the last ten years it was always, "I'm not there yet; but I will be if I keep working at it."
Some of my biggest learning challenges are, perfection. I always strived for straights A's and perfect papers; but when I came into OU I realized that not everyone learns the same and not everyone is perfect. I could accept my failures because I continued to bounce back and challenge myself. I am glad to know that this is a practice that is becoming more widely spread. I think it's an important concept for children and adults; because no one is the same. No one learns in the same manner or responds in the same ways to exams, assignments, or life.
I have several personal goals for this semester but my biggest is to learn and achieve a great score on the GRE so that I may attend graduate school. I am not there yet, but I will be.
I really enjoyed your post. I think it is awesome that you grew up with an environment that focused on progress and not result. I agree that this is important for kids because it carries on into other aspects of their life, obviously since it did so for you. OU also changed my perspective on getting straight A's as well. I had never received a B until I came to OU, but I reassured myself that I did my best and that was all I could hope for. Like you said not everyone learns the same way or tests the same way, so it is better to focus on the areas you need to improve on than to focus on the failure as a whole. Great post!
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