Feedback Thoughts
Earlier this week in my sociology class, my professor spoke about the importance of finding one's "flow" in life. Flow is a concept coined by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi which refers to time spent doing a task that is so engaging that you lose track of time and lose awareness of your surroundings. It is the perfect intersection of challenge and your current skill level, such that the more time you spend in "flow," your skill level will increase proportionally to the challenge. If a given task is very challenging but your skills lack in that area, you can experience anxiety. If the opposite is true and your skill levels are too high for the challenge being presented, you will grow bored. My professor's lesson was that we should strive to fill our lives with as much time in "flow" as possible. As someone who grew up with a fixed mindset and who was afraid of anxiety-inducing tasks, I always preferred boredom to a challenge. Rarely did I find myself in "flow," even while doing things I told myself I enjoyed.
As James Hamblin discusses in his article "Don't Call Kids 'Smart'," I was told from a young age that I was "smart." In hindsight, I can see how such a label did nothing to further my ambitions but rather, led to a fixed mindset wherein I was afraid to challenge myself due to my fear of failure and the subsequent loss of said label. Hamblin writes that high-achieving girls, in particular, are victims to this labelling and that this discourages their entry into fields like math and science. As a girl with a longstanding interest in STEM fields, this pressure to prove myself as worthy of sitting at the same table as my male peers has haunted me. Now that I know that the root of this problem lies in my fixed mindset, I can work towards remedying that.
I want to enter the medical field so reading Anna Kelsey-Sugg and Ann Arnold's feature "A fixed mindset could be holding you back," was insightful. The authors discuss how new doctors, who have often been at the top of their class their entire lives, face severe anxiety and crippling self-doubt when making mistakes that have serious consequences. Once a mistake is made, they question their competency and their position as a medical professional altogether. However, it is possible to implement a growth mindset environment in a hospital by fostering an atmosphere where the entire medical team can meet to discuss improvements in patient care rather than blaming certain individuals or the situation itself.
Looking back, it has always been constructive collaborative criticism that has encouraged me to grow as a person and develop my skills. I, like many others, don't enjoy being singled out and don't want to disappoint any members of a team I am in. I also dislike when people are accusatory of others while offering feedback, especially if it's their first time making a certain mistake. So when my team as a whole discusses how we can solve certain problems, I envision how I am contributing to the problem and am able to correct myself and progress as a person.
As James Hamblin discusses in his article "Don't Call Kids 'Smart'," I was told from a young age that I was "smart." In hindsight, I can see how such a label did nothing to further my ambitions but rather, led to a fixed mindset wherein I was afraid to challenge myself due to my fear of failure and the subsequent loss of said label. Hamblin writes that high-achieving girls, in particular, are victims to this labelling and that this discourages their entry into fields like math and science. As a girl with a longstanding interest in STEM fields, this pressure to prove myself as worthy of sitting at the same table as my male peers has haunted me. Now that I know that the root of this problem lies in my fixed mindset, I can work towards remedying that.
I want to enter the medical field so reading Anna Kelsey-Sugg and Ann Arnold's feature "A fixed mindset could be holding you back," was insightful. The authors discuss how new doctors, who have often been at the top of their class their entire lives, face severe anxiety and crippling self-doubt when making mistakes that have serious consequences. Once a mistake is made, they question their competency and their position as a medical professional altogether. However, it is possible to implement a growth mindset environment in a hospital by fostering an atmosphere where the entire medical team can meet to discuss improvements in patient care rather than blaming certain individuals or the situation itself.
Looking back, it has always been constructive collaborative criticism that has encouraged me to grow as a person and develop my skills. I, like many others, don't enjoy being singled out and don't want to disappoint any members of a team I am in. I also dislike when people are accusatory of others while offering feedback, especially if it's their first time making a certain mistake. So when my team as a whole discusses how we can solve certain problems, I envision how I am contributing to the problem and am able to correct myself and progress as a person.
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