My Take on The Growth Mindset

Before today, I had neither heard of Carol Dweck, nor the "growth mindset." The spectrum I see myself on for the growth mindset is that of wanting to improve, more than worrying too much about a grade. Due to anxiety that I usually get from pushing myself, I still do worry about my grades, if I did poorly, and I feel like I have failed, but I have more often began to believe that is the result of the system, as mentioned by Carol Dweck. This system would be that of "failing" a student rather than showing that they just have not gotten there "yet." Surprisingly, I can only find examples of this mindset for myself in academia, and not outside of it.

I have learned that my mindset both towards and the way I learn changes a lot in a small amount of time. Whether it be my interest toward subjects and the idea of learning, or the way I learn, I have improved a great deal since the beginning of my undergrad. My biggest challenges to this day, however, are pleasing myself with how much I have learned at the end of the day. My "failures" resonate more than my successes, so my A's essentially have no positive effect on me, but any grade less than that has me overthink. This mindset, to this day, is something I am trying to get around. Because of this, I would be greatly interested in this type of growth mindset throughout the upcoming semester(s).

My personal learning goals would be to do my best; to care less about results, and more about the effort I am putting in. I am not worried about any particular classes, because if I would, then I feel as though I would perform much less. I am, however, excited about my molecular biology class, as I find interest in the subject.

Not particularly true, as it does bring me down, but it is something I am working on!