Learning to have a Growth Mindset instead of a Fixed Mindset

I actually have never heard about Carol Dweck until I watched these videos. I see myself more towards the fixed mindset regarding my school work. I often times will get frustrated if I don't achieve the grade I set out for myself instead of congratulating myself on how far I have come since the beginning of the semester. 

I see myself also having a fixed mindset when it comes to my extracurricular activities as well. When I was in band in middle school and high school, I would often get discouraged if I couldn't play a certain note or become frustrated if I couldn't play a certain line of music. Instead of congratulating myself from doing better than I first started, I would get mad at myself for not getting it right. 

Ever since I began my time as a student at OU, I've learned that it's okay that if you are struggling with something. A lot of times professors will see your improvement and will be impressed with how far you have come and so will the people around you. I think the biggest challenges I face when I have to learn a new thing is that I think if I haven't done it before, I will immediately be behind my classmates when it comes to learning something new. I've noticed that it is kind of scary when you have to learn something new in a class in college and then will have to be graded on it later in the semester (ex. learning how to use different applications, etc.).

I definitely think I'm interested in learning more about growth mindset this semester. I would love to talk to my mom about this (she is a middle school teacher) as well as some of my friends that want to be teachers some day. I'd like to have their input on it. I would also like to try different styles of writing my blog posts for this class. I think I will find that if I write my blog post out ahead of time on paper and then read them, I will catch my mistakes easier than just writing it on here from the get-go. 

I am worried about my Public Relations Publications class this semester. My professor on the first day said that we would be using Photoshop and playing around with graphics a lot in his class. That immediately made me worry because I do not have any experience using either one of those! A personal goal I have set for myself this semester is to become more proficient in both of those things. I  have also set another personal goal for myself to attend more of my professors' office hours. I think that I will see that my grade will drastically improve if I do so. 

I think in general I need to apply a growth mindset for my every day life. I need to congratulate myself for improvement instead of getting frustrated at myself for not achieving what I had originally set for myself. 

After all, as my mom always says, "Practice makes perfect and Rome was not built in a day!"  

(Translation: Rome wasn't built in a day by Sue Strickland's Cheezburger gallery)