After a month of New Year’s resolutions, February begins, the parking spots at the gym and the seats in the classroom are a little easier to find. Why? While we started the year with the best intentions, our resolve to be healthier, better students, or whatever your overall goal for the year was has begun to waver. If this is you, fear not! Losing sight of resolutions has less to do with the inability to commit to a goal and more to do with your personal mindset.
By recommendation from a friend, I recently read Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by a Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck. While it was recommended to me for insight into teaching strategies, it benefited me most as a student. If you are a student struggling to find some motivation or are just an individual looking for a push in life, I strongly recommend this book. However, if your schedule prohibits you from a lengthy time commitment, there’s an online quiz that you should definitely check out as well as the cheat sheet version below. I mean who isn’t obsessed with online personality tests?
What’s it About?
This quiz shows how you respond in the face of adversity. Your mindset significantly impacts your actions, and your actions impact your future. That’s why having the right type is so important!
Fixed Mindset
For many of us, myself included, having a fixed mindset is an easy rut to get into. This type of mindset amounts to, “You are what you are given.” Essentially, you have a fixed set of skills. You are either good at math or you aren’t. You’re not a public speaker or you are. You can grow in what you are good at, but if you lack a fundamental skill, there is no hope. Intelligence is seen as unalterable. People with fixed mindsets aspire to maintain an image of intelligence which ultimately leads them to “avoid challenges, give up easily, see effort as fruitless or ignore useful negative feedback” (Dweck). People with fixed mindsets tend to be intimidated by the success of others and often do not reach their full potential.
Growth Mindset
Unlike having a fixed mindset, having a growth mindset encourages improvement. It’s the idea that though you might not be great at a particular class, task, or skill, by confronting challenges with hard work, you can become better at anything. The ultimate goal is personal growth. It encourages embracing challenges, putting forth an effort to achieve goals, learning from criticism, and being inspired by the success of others (Dweck). People with growth mindsets tend to achieve higher than those without them.
The Takeaway
Be mindful of your mindset. Instead of focusing on projecting an image of success, focus on improving. Challenges grow you so embrace them.