A Hard Question, Embarrassing Moments, and The Growth Mindset
How much have you improved since the pandemic?
A Question
My teachers have had unique ways to make students introduce themselves.
My favourite was when our teacher asked this mindboggling question to know us. It was so unique that the class was left scrambling to find the perfect answer for a good first impression.
“What is one thing you dislike about yourself?”
(Think about it for a moment.)
A few gave one-word answers.
Traits like:
Short-temper
Caring too much
Negativity
Several students, however, leaned on the extremes. Either, they liked themselves so much they couldn’t find a single fault — or they were the typical gen-z and hated themselves.
The former response caught the teacher’s attention the most.
Modesty was dead and self-love was peaking in finding oneself flawless. But, everything in excess — even the good things — can be turned toxic.
If you can’t find faults in whatever you do, you might have a fixed mindset, as opposed to a growth mindset, where you are a student for life.
Which mindset do you have?
The 2 Mindsets
Most of us who are stuck in the rut have a Fixed Mindset.
The term pretty much means what it says.
Things might or might not be going well. Yet, you’d not do anything out of the blue and go forward with the same ol’ shit instead of improvising and improving.
Traits of this mindset:
Judgemental
Dislikes changes and challenges
Limited horizon
Whoever has the Growth Mindset, however, is gold.
Traits of this mindset:
Open-minded
Willing for new ideas and changes
Always learning and accepting challenges
Believe in upgrading yourself
If you have a fixed mindset, the world will move forward, but you won’t be able to.
You have to get out of your comfort zone to get out of staying “fixed”.
Staying too complacent and giving no space to grow is perilous for your future.
Sunshine all the time makes a desert.
You want to be an ever-expanding tree than a potted and dying plant.
Here’s how you can develop the vital growth mindset.
3 Ways to Develop the Growth Mindset
»Listen to Kabir Das
Kabir Das, a famous Indian poet of the fifteenth century, penned witty and practical lines. One of them said,
“You should always keep the person, who criticizes you, near you.”
Keeping your friends close and enemies closer makes sense.
The latter will always show you your weakness to improve on.
As an example, my mother and my closest friends at times speak blunt truths to me. I don’t like the moment, but I always try to improve on what they say because I know they care for me and they are right.
Another example is moments you hate.
Incidents when you embarrass yourself to death.
Nobody likes defects in oneself or remembering moments where you embarrassed yourself. Yet, if you don’t reflect on your days, you don’t get an opportunity to grow — to get better in the future.
Instead of turning red whenever it is mentioned, think about it.
Where did you go wrong? How did you react? What can you learn?
Make a note of such experiences.
Keeping these hard-earned lessons in your mind against doing the same mistakes over and over again is worth it.
»The Power of “Yet”
"I don't get it."
"I just can't do this."
"It didn't work."
Whenever you feel that some activity is proving impossible for you, add the word yet at the end of the sentence.
So, you can’t do the task … yet.
It is not the end of the world.
»Alter Your Thinking
This is the best way to develop a Growth Mindset:
Empathy, self-love, and understanding.
Instead of saying,
I failed, and I embarrassed myself. => I am proud I even tried as that took courage.
There is no way I can make this work. =>I can do this, and I will try my best.
I made a mistake. =>I can learn from this.
I give up! => I'll use a different strategy.
This is too hard. => This may take some time.
See the difference?
Grow high, touch the sky, and burn the world with your radiance. The stage is set.
The performance depends on you. And only you.
On Penguins...
The fluffy puffy cute li’l animal called penguin?
This is also the most perplexing, complex, and terrifying creature of the animal kingdom.
One:
Once in a while, a penguin will leave its colony and head towards the interior of the continent (Antarctica). It will leave food, water and safety behind.
Possibly to leave Earth forever.
Most scientists believe that the penguin is depressed and is committing suicide. Others point to the possibility of other medical conditions the birds are exposed to.
No autopsies have been performed yet on these rogue creatures.
Until then, we can never unravel this mystery.
Two:
Another terrifying deed emperor penguins do is kidnapping.
Once in a while, a female will miscarry. It is traumatizing for them, and even more traumatizing is what their crazy hormones make them do next.
Save Your Eyes. Get Rid of Mobile Addiction
Nature gifted us beautiful organs we are wasting.
None of them is perhaps as affected as our eyes.
It is hard to imagine a life without screens. They have literally become our life, especially since the world had to shift online.
How did the past generations even survive without this little rectangular glowing thing?
Hell, how did I live without being stuck to the mobile pre-pandemic?
Then, my screen time wouldn’t cross half an hour. (Sounds impossible!) Now, until a few days back, I was ignoring how much time I spent wasting my eyes on my mobile, which was likely more than the average 4.7 hours.
For all the screens, the average deteriorates further: 10 hours or around 40% of your day!
Your eyes and your mental health are damn precious.
I say this as a person who has been affected in both areas.
The first step to curing this addiction is putting away the mobile. It is easy.
The next part is hard. So, you kept the device away. What do you do next? Almost everything is based on screens!
Here is what I do.
Book recommendation
You know the dreamy feeling you get when you think you have touched perfection in this wacky world?
The elated and fulfilling experience after reading the magnum opus?
My words wouldn’t be able to do justice in praising Book Lovers.
This book contained everything not shown enough love.
In every traditional romance, there is a cold blonde girlboss of a woman who is the villain and gets dumped in the end. In Henry’s book, the protagonist was this kind of woman — a complete 180 ° from the traditions.
And care for Nora, the female lead, I did!
There’s nothing better than a subversion of cliché tropes.
One major reason for awarding the book 5 stars is that instead of shaming her for preferring her career over love or villainising her for remaining childless while having other “feminine” traits, the book celebrated her choices.
The male lead added to the charm of the book.
Charlie — witty, handsome, and endearing— made me swoon with his words. All things that didn’t make much sense about him held meanings, which you’ll only get to know towards the end.
Their bond felt natural like two puzzle pieces rightly fitting into each other.
The banter between the couple made me break into a laugh several times. The prose flowed flawlessly, the dialogues realistic and engaging. You really yearned for them to stay together.
The third act conflict that kicked in was surprisingly not based on miscommunication like 99% of romances are.
The adults acted like adults for the first time.
Priorities were set straight. Hearts broke.
However, romance isn’t all that this book is about.
This book also explores interpersonal relationships and derives a side conflict out of them, adding the thrill. We got to see the wonderful dynamics between Nora and her sister, and Nora and her late mother — and how these affected her life.
This is a book written about book lovers by a book lover for book lovers.
With so many items served fresh out of the oven, why don’t you try this as well?
❤❤
Loved this... especially that part “...typical genZ and hated themselves” Haha so true sometimes 😅
Loved your perspective of adding “yet” to our negative self-talk. Loved this edition!