Growth Mindset: Easier Said than Done

Part of my [almost] daily routine is to check my Timehop app. If you don’t have it, get it now.

Welcome back. As you’ve probably discovered [or if you already knew] Timehop is a nifty little creation that pulls up all your archived posts and pictures from your various social media platforms. Mostly, it’s a form of addictive torture for me — like the car wreck you can’t look away from — a series of “oh my god I can’t believe I posted that,” as I look at a stupid picture or comment from when I was 19 and thought I was super cool.

Today’s Timehop didn’t quite elicit those face-palm feelings, but it did get me thinking. Even asking myself a very poignant question:

“Do I really believe this?”

What you can’t see in that Timehop photo is the caption I posted with it. Something along the lines of wholeheartedly believing in that quote. But there are times when I’m not so sure…

I am incredibly insecure about my intelligence. I don’t see myself as “naturally smart,” but desperately want others to think I am. I want to be known as a hard worker, someone who possesses a growth mindset, but also as someone who people say, “man, she’s smart.”

Unfortunately, sometimes I feel like I am persistent, motivated, and invest more effort than I knew I could, but I don’t feel the growth. I don’t feel more capable or astute.

For now, I guess believing (or fake-believing until I truly convince myself) in the quote above and investing in the actions that it entails would be the smartest decision I could make moving forward.

Maybe intelligence isn’t just something I “feel,” growing, something that can be easily measured based on my own informal and biased self-assessment.

Perhaps if I discover a new way to define or measure my intellect, I will feel differently. Perhaps.

Day 10