Growth Mindset

This Youtube video by user Matthew Mettoyer (link here) breaks down the core differences between what is called the "growth mindset" and the "fixed mindset." This philosophy put forth by Dr. Carol Dweck really resonates with me. The attitudes and practices that help define the growth mindset are things I've been trying to incorporate more into my day-to-day life, and I think my major successes can all be attributed more to perseverance and tenaciousness rather than natural skill or talent.

I feel like I see the growth mindset in action on a daily basis. In a language acquisition context, we talk about how pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and seeking out challenges to test yourself are necessary for success. I've seen students come in every day during a semester to practice their pronunciation or check out books to read in other languages, and in the short time from the beginning of a semester to the end, the amount of progress is really impressive.

I hope as this class continues on, I'll be able to participate in more and more of the Growth mindset challenges. I really want to make my last semester a memorable one, and I hope to get as much out of it as I can. It's really easy to let stress bog you down and make everything seem impossible, but to me, the growth mindset is almost cathartic in a way: if you can't succeed at first, you WILL be able to stretch and push yourself to meet the challenge eventually. That's a really comforting message for a lot of people.

To end this post, I've got one more video. This one is a clip from Sesame Street featuring Janelle Monae singing "The Power of Yet" (link here). I was torn between the two videos, so I decided to just include both!