Week 8 Growth Mindset

Something I still struggle with as a growth mindset is my tendency to compare myself to others and devalue my accomplishments. I look at the best of the best and compare myself to them. Either I look at their success and wish I was as good as they are at that specific thing or I tell myself there is no way I can compete or will ever be nearly as good as someone else at something.

Instead I need to value my strength and believe people when they tell me that I am good at something instead of just discrediting their compliment. Acknowledging there are things I'm good at will give me more confidence to try new things or push myself in certain things I'm somewhat good at but have room to improve on. That is another thing; I should start allowing myself the idea that I CAN improve on something I am maybe not the best at instead of writing it off as something I cannot improve on or will never be able to do.

A few things I am good at is being organized and working ahead. I am a notorious planner because I hate feeling stressed and dislike feeling like I don't have time to slow down and do my best work. This has lead to me being addicted to my planner both my physical agenda and google calendar. I set alarms to remind me of events or due dates so that I never feel rushed or like I have forgotten something.

I have improved on my perfectionist tendency a lot in the past year. It used to be that I had to get something 100% right the first time and even the smallest flaw would give me huge anxiety or just crush my enthusiasm. I have realized that I am not perfect but I am smart and dedicated. So if at first you don't succeed, try and try again. This mindset was a hard one to adopt but it has helped me relax and even excel further in my day-to-day life as well as in my academic career. The drive to keep improving until I am the best I can be at something has soothed my nervous tendencies and has helped build my confidence as a student.

Confidence level: Over 9,000

Week 8 Reflections

After looking over my reading notes, I realized that some stories I have a harder time analyzing than others. If I get lost in the story or if I'm just genuinely uninterested I have a harder time brainstorming ways that I can use some of the writing strategies and styles in my own post. Most of the time if I am having issues following a story, I try to read slower and just get through it. This method has obviously not been beneficial to me in my reading notes. A better choice would be if I get a few sections in to the story and am still uninterested, I may be better off just cutting it short and picking a different story to read. Otherwise, I'm really not getting anything out of the story and I'm just wasting my time.

As far as my stories, I think they reflect the same as my reading notes. If the stories are hard to read or if I find them uninteresting, then my story telling suffers. By not understanding the story I read, I have less to go off of when it comes time for me to write my own story. Additionally, I need to get better at detailing out more of my thoughts as I progress through my stories. I tend to know how I want the story to go but I fail to add transitions in my thoughts. The storyline will make sense to me, but my audience will not understand why I am making the connections that I am or they will become lost as I jump through time in my stories. Slowing down and making sure I add in the necessary transitions and details will make the stories I write easier for my audience to read.

Reading other people's stories, I've noticed that I like when they use language and tone similar to the original story. There are a few modern re-tellings that I like more than the original because they are easier to read and make more sense. Overall, I like when the language sounds more ancient and formal compared to the modern way we talk in this century. I also really pay attention to the stories people write where it seems like they are following the story verbatim but then they change a detail or two which consequentially changes the plot of the story. This peaks my interest and throws me for a loop which in turn makes me want to read on. I pay more attention in these types of stories because I can't be sure what minor detail the author may change and how the overall story will change because of that.

I call this my writing fuel