Growing Toward Growth Mindset

I had never heard of Growth Mindset as an actual part of academia or way of thinking, but as I listened to the TED Talk and the subsequent videos and information about Carol Dweck, I realized that I was very clearly raised with a growth mindset. I had a single mother for most of my life, and mostly out of strategy and good parenting, but I'm sure sometimes out of necessity, I learned from the time I could speak and walk to solve my own problems. This is not to the exclusion of asking for help when it was needed, but the help I got was not solving the problem for me, it was redirecting my perspective or providing a new tool so that I could do it myself. When I was painfully shy at 8 years old, I was told to call and make my own doctors appointments and handle all business over the phone that was related to my needs. At the time I was painfully self-conscious and nervous about making those phone calls, but they were always on speaker and she was always there to give me prompts if I started floundering. And eventually, I realized that it's alright to make blunders, and it's a wonderful thing to be able to take care of myself and my needs when I can.
     Ms. Dweck's point about wanting children to want challenges and be disappointed when things are easy resonated with me. The classes I've enjoyed most in college have been those where I had to actively and consistently problem solve, and come to conclusions based on work I had to put in, rather than coast through on the coattails of knowledge being spoon-fed to me. The times I would get a paper back that I knew could have been better and yet still got a perfect grade frustrated me, because I wanted to know how to improve and keep growing. I know this post isn't supposed to be an ode to my mother's parenting skills, but I am grateful she gave me the tools I need to have a growth mindset, even when I didn't know that's what she was doing.

Truths expressed in a cat blog.

     I definitely have a clear growth mindset for school. Math and science have not historically been my strengths, but when I had to take those classes and struggled, I would do everything I could and had the time for to work until I understood, rather than working until I got the answer right. Visiting tutoring centers, watching Khan Academy and YouTube videos, asking friends who already understood and paying them in food - whatever it took to get to the point where I understood and could add what I learned to my mental network of how the world works.
     I have a harder time applying the growth mindset to some areas of life - music, for example. I would love to be able to play the piano, guitar, drums, cello, and all of the beautiful things we use to create beautiful sound. I have, over the years, repeatedly attempted to teach myself the ukulele with varying degrees of success, and it's much harder for me to say "not yet" with this, rather than just attributing my lack of skill to clumsiness and being generally not musically talented. I think working harder to be more aware of the growth mindset being applicable to most, if not all, aspects of life will be helpful to me going forward.