As a teacher we have recently been hearing the catchphrase “growth mindset”. We are integrating training or rather recognition or a growth mindset versus a limiting mindset into our Freshman Seminar courses, and all teachers are supposed to view all of their students with a growth mindset and encourage those who are sleeping through class or talking back, to reevaluate how they view things so that they can learn to develop this “growth mindset”. But really, what is it? We can research and read definitions, and do practice lessons to take back to the classroom, but what does that really mean for us? And beyond us, what does it mean for the students? Or if you aren’t a teacher by day, what would that mean to you?

I am working on making myself better. Maybe you noticed that from all of the blog posts prior to this one. I am learning to be a life coach (something I discovered today I already do a lot of), and I am reading Brendon Burchard’s book High Performance Habits. I was in the process of perusing the first chapter before I took to it with a highlighter and colored pens, and discovered part of the catchphrase, right there. “The mindset you choose to adopt” is the number one bullet point on the malleable things that effect our performance and our ability to change and improve.

So now I am thinking, how do I take this idea, merge it with something I already know too much about, and create a way to make them work for me. And then I realized something else, my mindset was instantly one of a growth and inquisitive nature. I knew a little about this in general, a lot about it in education, and now I wanted to work on how to move it into my new outlook on life, how to apply it to my own growth and attitude about what I am doing.

My changes are not just in learning, but in how I approach my home and keeping it organized and clean, and how I get the outside tasks done for those things I am responsible for, and how to nurture my spirit all within this new mindset, not just of growth but of love, of responsibility, of not being broken but rather on a different path.

What’s your mindset? Do you need help shifting it? What do you do if you find yourself not where you want to be? Feel free to drop me a message!