What we speak to ourselves frames what we become

Today I was reminded of all those situations when my ideas were presented as someone else's innovation. I would like to share one of the incidents here. My idea was to put up road safety posters as paintings all over the school campus as an awareness program. I shared this idea with a student in class 6 and asked her to put it up to the vice principal, madam. The student did the same.

After a couple of days, I saw my own ideas as posters on the walls of the school campus. I was happy. I asked other teachers about this change. They said, "It is being hoisted by the English department under the guidance of the vice principal, ma'am."

 

The purpose of sharing this is not to put down my respected vice principal, maam, but to introduce us all to the kind of mindset we all have.

 

We all face such stealing and backbiting in our lives, be it in our studies or in our professional lives. This fills us with much negativity, grudges, and anger, burning out much of our energies. As you read this post, you will gain insight into the kind of people you are surrounded by. This post will also help you choose wisely the crowd you want to hang out with.

 

As I was trying to figure out what I should post for today, I came across this anonymous quote.

 

"When you know your worth, you move differently."

 

We are all served plates of external standards, judgements, and opinions about our capabilities and worth. We all have challenges to meet and benchmarks to fathom. In due course, we forget our own worth and indulge in activities of stealing, cheating, and deception among employees. This brought me to the concept of mindsets we hold.

 

A mindset is the result of self-perception and the beliefs people hold about themselves. There are two types of mindsets. One is a growth mindset, and another is a fixed mindset.

 

A person with a growth mindset believes that their talents can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and input from others. They know their worth, so they don't fear the challenges. They don't focus much on looking smart; rather, they emphasise more on learning. They thrive on challenges and know that failure does not define them. They see their failures as a springboard for growing and developing their own abilities. Consider, for example, that things went wrong in your project and you don't have much time to rectify them. This challenge may shatter some of the employees, but for people with a growth mindset, they will just not give up. They will use this as an opportunity to show that they can improvise and present. In one of my classes, my students were young. My PowerPoint presentation would have made them enjoy the class, but they did not have a smart board. So, I took the book, showed them pictures, and enacted in front of them some of the situations, and they enjoyed the class very well. The challenge could have been crippling, but my belief in my worth gave me ideas to improvise and present. We all have these qualities within us, but we do not use them, and thus they are rusting and fading in the environment. Some of the characteristics of growth mindsets are as follows:

 

1. They believe in themselves.

2. These people have a great passion for learning.

3. They are curious, and they do not fear asking questions.

4. They value every effort and believe that it really counts.

5. They focus more on progress than on results.

6. They don't fear challenges.

7. They learn from their mistakes.

8. They take calculated risks.

9. They appreciate feedback.

10. They don't dwell on their past.

11. They don't give up easily.

 

To sum up, I would say the four corners of a growth mindset are as follows:

 

The other kind of mindset is a fixed mindset. These people think that their talents are innate gifts. You cannot add to it or reduce it. They see themselves as either good or bad enough to meet the challenge. For them, there is no middle way out. They say to themselves like this: "I am not going to study for the exam because I will fail regardless." Some of the characteristics of fixed mindsets are as follows:

 

1. They believe that intelligence and talents are static and unchangeable.

2. They have a tendency to avoid challenges, hence the failure.

3. They do not pay attention to the feedback from others.

4. They view others success as a threat to their own position. They jealous.

5. They hide their flaws so as not to be judged by others.

6. They don't believe in putting in effort. They see it as worthless.

7. For them, feedback is like potential criticism.

8. They easily give up.

 

To sum up, I would say the four pillars of fixed mindsets are as follows:

 

Mindset is based on our belief system. So we can change our mindset.

 

In my next two posts, I will be talking about how to acquire a growth mindset and how to praise kids.

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2023