Growth Mindset VS Fixed Mindset

Happy Sunday all! I hope you've all had a great week, wherever you are in the world. I've mainly been busy prioritizing my self-care throughout this week by not spending too much time on the internet, as spending too much time on the internet does genuinely kill my productiveness.

Anyway, as the title states, I shall be explaining what is a growth & a fixed mindset, as well as explaining the differences between them both. This was another one of those psychology studies which I have learned about back in my 1st year of my Public Services course at college, but had never gotten round to sharing it onto here. The fascinating aspect about this study, is that it can be used to analyse other people's minds. This can mostly be effective for when you are watching studying answer some questions in a classroom. The same method can also apply for when your mind is being studied by somebody else.

What is a growth mindset?

A growth mindset is where you are always looking for ways to learn & grow. This is very commonly used when it comes to making a mistake. For example, when you see somebody being asked to work out a question on chemistry, and they get it wrong, they would want to know where they went wrong in order learn from that mistake.

What is a fixed mindset?

A fixed mindset is where you like to think you are perfect all of time by not making any mistakes. In fact, you try to avoid making mistakes all together for the sake of looking like a genius all of the time. For example, when you see somebody in a classroom copying somebody else's answers in chemistry, because they are too headstrong about making mistakes if they were to provide their own answers. The trouble is that person won't be able to learn how they got their answer in chemistry, as there are no mistakes to help them learn.

Here is the attached picture that shows the characteristics of the 2 contrasting mindsets. Although I may do a separate post on here fir another time, which involves discussing each of them in more detail.

*I began this post on the 29/10/23, but didn't finish it until the 31/10/23*

The 6 thinking hats

Glad to be getting back into my productive stride on my blog again! This is mainly due to the fact that I've not been too majorly occupied with other things going on in my busy life atm.

This is something which I've literally discovered a short while ago. Of course, I made sure I did enough research about it beforehand. In all fairness, all of it was relatively easy for me to understand. Hence, the reason to post it now.

 

*The attached picture of the 6 thinking hats is just one of its many ways of being defined, as it has other ways of defining it. This one happens to be my favourite*

Who is the inventor?

The inventor is psychologist Dr Edward de Bono who had invented the 6 thinking hats in 1985, and his reason for this invention was inspired by coming across structural creative thinking.

What do the 6 thinking hats mean?

The 6 thinking hats overall, are defined as a method to be able to form creative ideas. To do this, every one of the 6 hats (or people in real life) has to have a part to play in order to make planning results happen. I suppose an example of this would be 6 people in a meeting room trying to structure a working plan.

What are my views on the 6 thinking hats?

I think the 6 thinking hats initiative is a great psychological idea of getting a group of 6 people together to create one working idea, as the definitions of the 6 thinking hats will encourage those people to get into their working idea roles without having to get into a panic. With that said, I definitely agree that it's a good initiative that every team participant will get to understand their role of the 6 thinking hats beforehand by preventing panic to find one, as well as learn about one of the 6 thinking hats at the very last second.  

Research source information: https://airfocus.com/glossary/what-are-the-six-thinking-hats/

*I had actually began this post on the 17/11, but didn't get round to finishing it until today*

To raise awareness for #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek

Hello all, I hope every single one of you has had a good week, whatever you've all been up to.😉 As for me, I've been keeping myself busy as usual, in terms of doing coursework, as I've now got more work pilling up which does require my full focus within the upcoming weeks. Most of which has had its ups & downs mood for me in the duration thus this week gone.

While I'm on the very subject of 'work' and yes, I do just mean that subject alone, and it can mean many different things to people when they hear that one word.

In a bid to get involved with raising awareness for MentalHealthAwarenessWeek, I personally want to highlight what goes on in my head whenever I try to work as hard as I can to try and get things done. Especially if it has to be done within a time frame.

As I get given a task to do (more specifically coursework) I like to think to myself: "Okay, this looks easy enough to do". However, I tend to scan the task instructions over and over, (probably about 5+ times) so I can figure out the best way to tackle that given task in my head.

However, a majority of the time, this tactic can heavily backfire on me. My mind will then experience a period of blankness, like it has been totally cleared out with nothing left in it at all. This will lead to me putting my task off for a while, due to the emptiness of my mind not having any room for thoughts to come in and therefore, not do any work.

A while later, I would've summoned some thoughts to be able to help me get a kick-start on my task. To me, everything I do would be a walk in the park at this stage, as I would currently have enough urge to keep working on my task. That is, until I decide that I've done well enough during that time, so I decide to reward myself by stop working on my task for the moment.

But, before I know it, there comes a day where my task will be due in within a short amount of time. 

I get this sudden urge in my mind saying: "Come on, you need to be doing better, otherwise you are not going to succeed". Moreover on that, it's like there is a drill alike coach who is trapped inside my head that will continuously tell me to keep pushing myself, regardless of my mood and motivation.

Also at that time, my mind would've now inhaled all off that inner drill voice, that it leaves me, as a human being, feeling frustrated for not handling my task the way I had intended to handle it. Sometimes, my lack of urge to try and get any task done, would cruise past the 'due in' time. Yes, I know I will always get frustrated with myself for having to do keep on doing this, but in reality, this is just who I am when it comes to prioritizing work.

All of this even includes me trying to get my blogposts done as quick as I try to get them done. (Including this very post as I speak)

My one outcome is that I hope everyone who just read my long personal insight, will vision this as a beneficial talking point, so it helps them to feel unashamed of admitting of what psychological effects go through their mind when trying to work.

Thank you to everyone who has taken their time to read through this important post, and as always, please feel welcome to let me know your feedback.

What is conformity and how does it make us behave?

Conformity. Something very interesting I've learned recently.

In case if none of you here don't know what the term means, it basically means you're doing the same as everybody else, even regardless if it's something wrong... But with that said, it's always good to simply stand out as your own individual! 

I'm just about to further explain on that...

Example 1:

A good example of conformity, would be when you are officially a member of any uniformed public service and you must therefore, dress and behave the same as everybody else.

But why? It's because it shows respect towards your colleagues, the public and yourself, by physically demonstrating you want to be part of a hard working team.

This kind of behaviour, will eventually transform yourself into a confidently disciplined person, who feels proud to be a part of a team, by thinking that you want to be setting a prime example to those looking up to you. E.g. The public. 

Example 2:

A not so good example of conformity, would be when you go to see your favourite football team play.

Whilst you are either sitting down or standing up, trying to enjoy the game like most people, you then hear a small group of people (at first) shouting rude chants. Some can actually turn racist... Eventually you start to hear more and more people get involved with the rude chanting, even though, it seemed like they never wanted to intend on getting involved in the first place.

You sit there thinking to yourself if it's the right thing to do, by joining in with these people, but then again, you hate the idea of being disrespectful to the right-choiced people around you, let alone turning into a racist. This is where your 'Individual Liberty' and 'Human Rights' come into play.

Final conclusion: You must be able to identify the good and bad examples of conformity, as they both have different consequences.

Thank you for reading through and as always, I much appreciate your thoughts on the feedback. Have a great evening all, whatever you're doing.😉

 

Why is #Anxiety linked with #MentalHealth?

Disclaimer: This will be a follow-up post, in relations to my previous special post. See here: Just a little something for #WorldMentalHealthDay 

Hello and Happy Friyay! Yes, I've been in a great mood this week and I've hope you all been the same way too throughout this week. 

As of such, I've been wanting to talk about for awhile (until it was actually the most convenient time to talk about it. I'll explain in a bit) why Anxiety is linked to Mental Health.

From where I stand, I see this topic of discussion somewhat personal to me, as I suffer from Anxiety time-to-time, hence my reasons for a lengthily break. However, as I'm sure you all know by now, talking to an audience by writing/typing really helps me to feel better about myself, as well as taking a huge weight off my chest. 

Whenever it DOES happen, I start to think about the worst case scenario('s) in regards to what's going to happen? Or will it even get better? In shorter terms, all of the mentioned can be referred to as 'Overthinking'

Reason and being the most foremost as to why it links with Mental Health, is because you will be thinking of too many things at one time, (basic definition of overthinking) causing your mind to overload and therefore not being able to cope with anything for a short period of time, as your potentially putting yourself off your own focus.

Well, I say a short period of time, as it never lasts forever, but in reality, it all really depends on how long YOU go through it all.

The best advice for trying to avoid your Anxiety by overthinking too much, is to take everyday as it comes. Do everything one step at a time, so your mind will be able to adapt to the one priority you intend to prioritize first, in order for you to succeed at trying to accomplish something. My biggest example of this would be coursework. With that said, I'm sure many of you can relate to that too.

Furthermore, keeping with the "Do everything one step at a time" strategy will make life a hell of a lot easier for you when you try to get any work done, as well as making you feel good about yourself when you acknowledge that's the strategy to success.

I hope I've taught you all something, by gaining a more in dept understanding of why that link is strongly paired between the two factors. 

Bottom note: Research definitely helps to gain more knowledge.

Thank you for reading, please do feel free to notify me and I hope to publish again soon!  

What is beneficial about "Looking forwards in life"?

I'm back!😁 

Yes, I purposely took a long and fore filling break, because A: I've been on holiday recently. B: I've been having trouble with what to talk about. This is why taking this lengthily break helped me to cook up new ideas for some upcoming posts...

In this case, this one is related to our defeat against the Italians 2 Sundays ago. I will admit, when we lost, I felt the tears running around in my head and they were screaming to be let out by me, as I was so whelmed up by everything that's happened during the whole game. In the end, I realized that it was only best to reflect on the team's journey during this tournament and looking forward in life. (Explanation coming up)

 

Fun fact: This is a popular quote which can be explained in many different ways!

What does this quote mean?

It means, that you acknowledge something great is eventually going to happen to you in life, but in order to achieve that greatness, you HAVE to keep looking forwards at your future and not think too much about what happened in your past, as you cannot change it.

What is beneficial about this quote and why?

If you keep reading this quote over and over again, your mind will eventually become so hyper focused on working on your plans and goals for your future.

Don't get me wrong, it is always a good thing to reflect on your life journey, as well as your past achievements, (if necessary) to help give your mindset some ideas on how to succeed for next time and do better than ever.

Furthermore, never forget about all of the obstacles you had to face and what you had to do to progress through them, as they will always be a useful reminder of your mindset tactics in favour of your success. 

What are the best examples to use and why?

One of them being what I was talking about previously. The England V Italy game. I can sense the players' heartbreak and frustration on how they succeeded in every game right up until the final, when the players got tired and were struggling to keep up. 

During their loss at the end of the game, they had the whole night to pause and reflect on their journey and how they can improve for next time. As this reflecting moment was showing on live TV, I can imagine the teary reaction of everyone else watching, as they can feel the players' emotions when THEY show them after their team lost. It was so powerful.

This is where they start talking on their social media platforms, that they were extremely proud of their tournament journey, their teammates and their support. In which, will help encourage them to look forwards to their next journey in life.

That's all for this post.

Thank you for taking your time to read through. Please feel free to let me know what your thoughts are in the comments or in person. Have a good evening!

   

Why do people get overhyped about football?

Wow... 7 months I've been blogging now! I'm so honestly amazed of how I've managed to stick to it for this long. 

*Inserts applauding noises here*👏🏻

Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying their week, as well as the Euro 2020. Yes, I say that, because we are now through to the quarter finals, where we will be playing Ukraine on Saturday.😄

Since we're on the topic of football, I thought about specializing this post for just such an appropriate occasion.

I just like to justify that football is NOT for everyone, so I honestly see no need for people to criticise one another, just because it's a popular sport worldwide. (Almost)

What is it about football that makes it so popular?

For starters, they began making European and almost worldwide tournaments back in 1888 by a guy named: William McGregor. Link here: https://www.google.com/search?

Secondly, as the ever-growing tradition became so successful, It attracted many fans from all over the globe! At this stage in time, the sport lovers will now vision football as "The best thing ever" As of such, they feel the need to brag to other people face-to-face or on the internet that you MUST know about football.

Finally, the players make a HUGE impact on their fans, by playing in the games, influence people on social media and even appear on adverts to gain more popular with the public, as well as the advertising company they appear on. This encourages the public and fans to know more about them, due to the high law of attraction they are gaining.

What thoughts and emotions run through your mind during a football atmosphere?

Let's say you're a mass Chelsea supporter (My supported team btw) and you love going to every single game at their home ground to see them play.

During the game, you would be sat there feeling tense, as you don't know who is going to score yet. This phrase is known as 'The waiting game' The more tension you build, the more your heart starts beating.

If your team was to score and win the game, your mind automatically gets these thoughts of joy that your team had achieved something that day, feeling very proud of their progress. Also, you feel relieved that they've managed to score in the first place, by lifting a heavy weight of your shoulders l.

However, if the opponent team was to score and you lose the game, you automatically gets these thoughts of frustration and anger that the other didn't deserve to score, due to them playing dirty or your team were genuinely playing poorly. Whilst these thoughts happen, you can physically feel the tension running through your body like electric and you need something else to take your mind of it.

This can also be the same scenario when you actually go out and play football for real.

So realistically, your thoughts and emotions are playing on a seesaw when it comes to watching and playing football, as you don't know which way the game will make them tilt to. If this makes sense to anyone?

As I happen to like football, I know what I am talking about here.

Thank you so much for reading through my what ended up being a long post today.😅 Please feel free to comment or let me know in person whatever your thoughts are on this topic and I'll try to post again over the weekend. See ya!

Why is it important to make yourself into an example?

I said I'll hopefully be back in 2 days time from my previous post... and I was right! Anyways, I hope everyone is enjoying their week right now, as I currently am. Hence I feel like creating an exciting post today.

In this post, I shall be highlighting the several ways of "Making yourself into an example" as well as talking about why is it important.

*After reading this post, I guarantee that you'll be feeling inspired to give my advice a try!* 

  

How can you make yourself into an example?

• Be positive - This will reflect good on other people including yourself.

• Highlight your interests - This will encourage your audience to the same.

• Motivate your mood to the audience - This will help THEM to feel motivated with whatever they wish to achieve. 

• Give out a backstory - This will help people to understand you better, as well as praise you for your journey and inspire THEM to tell you theirs in order for THEM to be praised.

• Be knowledgeable - This will help your audience to remember and keep any useful advice for becoming THEIR own example figure.

Why is it important to make yourself into an example?

It is important, because you need to learn how to cope with your journey in order for you to become a successful person in life. This means that you MUST overcome the obstacles in your journey to help your mind become stronger and show no fear to anything.

Furthermore, by self tackling these obstacles throughout your success journey, you will be able to have the built-up confidence to express those feelings of courage, motivation and determination to anybody your audience.

As of such, you may wish to become an entrepreneur. (I suggest looking on Instagram would be a good place to start)

Thank you for reading through. Please feel free to let me know what your thoughts are in the comments or in person. Even if you wish to share your own example ideas with me.

I hope to post again sometime this week. Have a gooden!😉  

"Show up!" Motivational Quotes

Hey everyone, I hope you're all having a good week thus far. Especially now the Euro 2020 has now begun recently, and I'm happy that England have won their first game. Hopefully, we'll be able to make it past the group stages!

I feel like I need to address my readers with more verbal motivational content, well... look no further!

What does the expression "Show up" mean?

It means you MUST make an effort to attend every single thing, regardless of how you are feeling. For example: Running classes

• When you are feeling too tired to go to class - SHOW UP!
• 
  
• When you lack confidence about performing on stage - SHOW UP!

• When you feel nervous about walking into a huge room with 50 people - SHOW UP! 
• When you don't feel like exercising when you have to - SHOW UP!
• 
  
• When you have to face your fears - SHOW UP!
• 
  
• When you attempt at trying something new and don't succeed - SHOW UP!
• 
  
• When you get humiliated by failing at something and wish to quit - SHOW UP!

My advice to you all: Whenever you have a bad day and you feel like you can't do anything, READ THESE QUOTES OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Make sure you have a long hard think whilst you read them, as they will help to get your mind motivated with whatever it is you will eventually be facing.

That's all for now. Thank you for reading through and please feel free to let me know about what you guys think.

Remember to keep following this blog and I'll be back soon!

How does your mind play tricks on you and how can you deal with it?

Ello all, I hope you're all enjoying your week so far... For me, I had a great day at College yesterday, and I did some Maths revision this morning. (Just in case I need to retake my final exam the following month)

In this post, I will be highlighting all of the ways that your mind plays tricks on you... as well as the best ways of how to overcome them.

Remember: 

YOU are capable of being your own worst enemy, so always be careful with what you think about.

Keep repeating those words.

Example 1:

You are at home currently doing some English revision, when all of a sudden... you begin to struggle with how to answer one particular question and your thoughts have gone all "blank" as you cannot think about anything at all.

At this stage, your mind starts playing tricks on you by muttering these kind of words: "You'll never do it, so just give up now" "I'm such a disappointment" "I will always be stupid, because my friends can do these easily but I can't"

One way of managing these mind tricks, is by memorizing all of your previous achievements when doing revision tasks, as they will help encourage you find the success in completing them, Another good way is just to simply take a break, so your brain will be able to recharge its batteries in order to help you think better.

(These are all of the things I do, when I experience these problems whilst doing revision - They really help!)

Example 2:

You are on your own somewhere, with no one else around in sight, (let's say in your bedroom) then out of the blue... you start to feel angry about something you did in the past or even just recently which you were not proud of.

Again, your mind starts playing tricks on you, however this time, you experience something called: "self confrontation" which means, you say bad things to yourself in order to make you feel bad or imagining yourself saying these bad things to another person and imagining THEIR anger. This is where you unnecessarily compare yourself to somebody else, as your "self confrontational" mind tricks have now built up your intensity level to no longer think straight.

The best and foremost way of handling it, is to break the habit of comparing yourself to other people and not dwelling about your past, so you will be able to ensure yourself to keep on pushing through with your life no matter what. Although, using "self confrontation" may actually be a good thing for you, as it helps to practise test the mental strength of your own mind, so when someone starts having a go at you, you'll be able to soak up their negative words like a sponge by doing all of that practise.

(Believe you me, this is something which I do almost on a daily basis! And it works a treat in reality!)

Thank you ever so much for taking your time to read through this long post. Please do feel free to comment or message me in person about a similar experience you may haver had before.😊

But just before I end this post, I thought about sharing one of my favourite songs with the above title. 

*Warning, this song contains explicit words* 

 

  

 

My useful advice for blocking out negativity

Hi all, I hope everyone is well and happy, and I am very pleased to announce that I have now finished all of my Maths exams! Woohoo!🎉 This means, I now have more free time on my hands, meaning, I can start posting more regularly again.

As the above title says, I would like to advise everyone out there in the world, that negativity is just words that come out of people's mouths. Yes, I know it does sound blunt, but this is how I personally choose to see it. In addition, I am secretly hoping that everybody else would agree with me on this opinion.

 

Here are the bulleted points on the various ways of how you can block out the different types of negativity:

• Jealously - When someone happens to say mean things about you for no reason, it means they are annoyed, because they haven't got your kind and caring qualities, in which, they enjoy putting other people down to their poor standards. Give them a sarcastic laugh and say "Hehe, that is SO funny." This shows you don't care about their negativity.

• Criticism - You begin to realize that somebody or more, is constantly targeting you with verbal abuse, as they do it for their own personal entertainment. If it gets too much to handle, talk about it to friends or family who will help you to stand up to them, by saying "What's your problem?" This should make them go silent. 

That's all I have for today. Thank you for reading through and please feel free to tell me your thoughts on this topic, even if you would like to share about a similar experience you may have had.

See you all soon!

 

"You VS You"

Hey all, I was indenting to make a post earlier in the week, however, I've been keeping myself occupied with yet more coursework. In addition, my 1st Maths exam is only around the corner now!

Fortunately, I now have some time for myself at the moment, which means that I can fit in a blog post today.😉 

You're probably thinking to yourself: "What does this expression mean?" it means that you keep on saying or doing negative things to yourself to make you feel bad if you were to make a mistake, when really, YOU try to battle it, by taking your mind off it all and working on making progress to make YOU feel better again. Does that make sense?

Example 1:

You are currently enjoying your session at the gym, when all of a sudden... you make a mistake where you thought you didn't push yourself hard enough to be able to achieve your working out goal. (Whatever that could be)

At around this point, that is when these negative thoughts enter your mind and keep on saying to your inner self: 

"Do you know what, I really don't think I can do this, it is too hard for me" 

"I keep messing up all of the time, because I keep on repeating these silly mistakes" 

"If I cannot achieve this goal, then I don't think I'll be able to succeed in life"

This is where your better YOU enters you mind, by continuously looking for every single way to overcome your thoughts, in order to redeem your working out progression, so that you're able to maintain your focus and keep moving forward.

To do this, you need to stop right where you went wrong and have some time to think. I know this is not an easy task to do at this exact moment, as you're currently in no mood to think about anything. A top tip would be to think about how you have achieved your previous working out goals, then by using this strategy to do the one you are working on step-by-step. This way, you'll be able to achieve every little step, as it they allow you to repeat them over and over again if you don't succeed first time.

(Doing revision would be the exact same example given related to this one, as I still struggle with doing it now)

Example 2:

You are someone who has done some terrible things in the past, all because you were suffering from mental health difficulties. By now, you are a completely changed person, however, you sometimes experience these breakdowns of constantly feeling guilty, as these past times re-enter your mind to haunt you.

How can you help your better YOU to feel right again? It may sound simple, but again, not easy! Remember, when you suddenly begin to feel at your lowest, you will be in no mood to think about anything good. 

Talk to a friend/family member, counsellor or alternatively an anonymous help hotline number (if that makes you feel more comfortable) about these constant guilt thoughts, as you're helping yourself to battle your bad self, as well as inhaling all of that encouraging and positive advice to allow you look for further opportunities to improve on yourself.

That's all for today. Thank you for reading through and please feel free to comment or let me know about a similar experience you may have had. Bye for now! 

  

  

The psychological benefits of taking a break from the internet

Well, I'm back from what I've just stated in the above title: "Taking a break from the internet" This was because I wanted to be more productive with my spare time, rather than spending long hours surfing the wonderful world of the internet.

More to the point, I feel like advising you guys about how taking a break from the internet can really make you feel more engaged with yourself, otherwise more positive.

*Hence as to why I had a decent day yesterday*😁

My main objective of this topic, is that everyone who reads this post, will feel encouraged to follow my discussed examples when they decide to come off the internet for awhile.

How does spending long hours on the internet make you feel?

For me personally, I always feel completely normal. However, DO NOT be deceived by that statement!

Let's say, after about 3 hours later of casually surfing the internet, you start to experience this feeling of your mind going 'blank' which means, you've wasted all of that time just looking up random stuff (if you like) that has now overpowered your important train of thought. To put it in more basic terms, you can no longer think straight.

This is what most people refer to, as it's their way of feeling 'normal' but the reality is, this will only make you feel depressed, by not wanting to do anything productive in your life.

What productive things can you do to take a break from the internet?

One of the things I've been doing lately, is going out for long walks in my local area. By doing so, will help to take your mind off with whatever is bothering you, as you focus on how many miles you intend to do, as well as getting to your chosen walking destination. Don't forget to focus on how brilliant you feel about doing it too!

Learn how to play a musical instrument. In my case, I've been improvising at my drumming skills. Even though I don't actually own a drum kit, I just use any surrounding hard surface to tap my hands on and create different rhythms.

Improve your reading skills, by reading actual books. (Not a kindle tablet) I have various books in my room, which I use to either use to educate myself or to get myself 'lost' in the author's story. What I mean by that expression, is focusing on what the story is about.

Do home-based workouts to help increase your current level of fitness. (See: The psychological benefits of working out regularly  For further explanation)

This brings an end to this topic. Thank you for reading through, I really hope you've learned a lot by reading these chosen examples and please feel free to talk about any similar experiences you may have.

I shall see you soon.

   

"Putting yourself in other people's shoes"

Once again, I've recently been keeping myself occupied with revision, so I haven't found the time to make a post on here. But here I am now, and I somehow feel like talking about the expression in the above title.

This expression: "Putting yourself in other people's shoes" means that you try to imagine yourself how other people are feeling or how other people see the world.

A good example of doing so, would be to imagine how your friend feels about going on a rollercoaster. You may find going on a rollercoaster a walk in the park, but however, your friend sees this task as the most traumatic experience ever.

This is when you think about all of the emotions that are currently going through their head, anxiety, fear, panic and doubt. Use your vision of how you see the whole 'going on a rollercoaster' scenario, to help your friend to be able to "Put them in YOUR shoes."

With enough explanation, they'll eventually see your vision that going on a rollercoaster isn't so bad after all! 

I think I've covered every detail for this topic now. Thank you for reading, do feel free to comment about a similar experience you had with this expression, and I'll be back soon!