The Power of Growth and Wanting to Learn

Hi reader,

The idea of a “growth mindset” was an idea that was taught in high school and was told to be “hunger” to learn and to problem solve. From the TED talk, The power of Believing That You Can Improve, by Carol Dweck says more schools should follow how Chicago schools grade non-passing students. The Chicago schools give failing students the grade on “not yet,” and she says that gives the students that they are on a learning curve and not a downward curve. This will allow students to have a growth mindset and will be able to think that they will be able to pass the course at a later date. I remember from my physics class we used a system where people had many opportunities to master a “learning target,” and this allowed students, including me, to continue to learn the material and master that learning concept.

Another concept to a growth mindset, addressed by Anna Kelsey-Sugg and Ann Arnold in A fixed mindset could be holding you back — here's how to change it, they stated that people who have a lot of experience or deal with hardships are likely to build abilities of a growth mindset. When I started working at Ace Hardware in my hometown, I started with a fixed mindset because I did not know to help people. But after getting a feel for the job and I started to find ways to learn from other coworkers so that I can help other people out with their problems. Now as a four-year tenure at Ace, I continue to learn things that I don’t know and now I spread around knowledge to other coworkers and customers so that they have the knowledge that I acquired a couple of years ago. That knowledge that I acquired would not have been possible if I did not have a growth mindset, and I currently see many coworkers that don’t bother learning new information that better help them in situations with customers.

One of the biggest challenges as a learner would be giving the right about feedback. An article, Why rejection hurts so much — and what to do about it, written by Guy Winch talks about how rejection can cause damage to the person received it and can cause even more damage when it is self-inflicted. The article says that scientists placed people under an MRI machine, and they found that when the person relives a rejection the brain becomes active in the same place as where people experience physical pain. Knowing this I will need to be careful that I give good and helpful feedback without hurt the other person or saying that did not put enough effort. I will need to make sure that the people get appreciated for their work, but also give them something to improve on.