Growth Mindset

(Our brains need challenges to get stronger 

just like our muscles. Source)

Carol Dweck's ideas on having a growth mindset make a lot of sense to me. I wasn't aware of her work before but I agree with a lot of what she says. In particular I agree with her thoughts on focusing on the improvement instead of past results and encouraging people to get out of their comfort zones.

In order to play winning poker it's more important to analyze one's thought process instead of being results oriented. For example, when I started out in poker I was a pretty bad player compared to my peers. They had years of experience and I had never played poker before in my life. Needless to say they got the better of me. However, I am a very competitive person and couldn't stand being worse than them. I did a lot of research, analysis, and practice on my own until I was not only the best player at our home game but became good enough to make a living at the game.

In my internship at Tinker AFB this summer a significant amount of time was spent on resiliency training due to a rise in the number of suicides in Air Force Civilian Service. The focus was on being resilient and not quitting when life gets hard and to recognize what we are grateful for. With Carol's growth mindset and Air Force's resiliency training it seems to me that there has been an increased focused in the area lately.

As an INTP personality type, getting out of our comfort zone is a big struggle for us and something that I had trouble with in the past. For example, I would choose my major based on whether or not it required a public speaking course. That fear seems pretty silly now. Although public speaking still makes me uncomfortable, I don't make big sacrifices just to avoid it. Now I have an increased confidence and look for ways to challenge my comfort zone.