Landons Cool Mind Book

What Have you realized about your own grit and effort?

Well what I’ve realized is that I can be lazy sometimes and just take the easy way out and not power through it. Lately I’ve been trying to do that. Yes, I can be a lazy guy but when my minds fixed on something its focused on that until I succeed. A great example (at least for me) is that I often don’t finish my drawing because I either get bored, give up or don’t want to do a certain part. Well, that was the case for this one drawing but I told myself to just suck it up and do it and boy was it worth it

After finishing this drawing I felt soooo accomplished. It took over 15 hours to make. I felt really good afterwards and started to find something new to draw. I found a cool drawing of a character called “Deathstroke” and am almost finished him. I want to feel that accomplished again.

Where Do You Show These Skills Best?

When I played soccer, I sometimes complained about going to practice but when it was game day I played my butt off. I ran the hardest on the field when I was forward and saved a ton of shots when I was goalie. I was a beast. When I got scored on though I usually tell myself that I suck or I’m the worst goalie. My dad is usually by the net to motivate me and help my growth mindset. Later games I no longer said that stuff but said “damn, I should have had that. What if next time I do this...” or “that was a close one. How can I improve my techniques?” And that definitely helped me grow as a player

How Could You Use Those Skills More?

As you may know I collect Funko Pops! and am still expanding my collection. There are a lot of ones that I want but the one I want the most is either Anti-Venom (Eddie Brock) or The Flash unmasked. Both of those are over 100$ which is a lot of money for a Pop!
Lately Ive been trying to save up for one of the two by putting spare change in a jar, helping my mom and dad around the house and finding cans to bring to the can depot for some extra cash. The hard part is, is saving. I have a bad habit of spending right away on a Pop! That would look good in my collection instead of waiting. I could use a growth mindset more by not saying things like “I shouldn’t have got that one I’m so dumb” or later look at it and feel stupid for getting it. Instead I could say “well, now I know not to get that line but at least its a new one to add to the collection” or “ If I don’t like this, might as well sell it for some money to go towards the more expensive ones” this is also known as an impulse buy.

Now I have to briefly explain one of my fixed mindset areas. The one that I am choosing is playing video games. Sometimes when I play games like Call of Duty, it can be frustrating because of dying to spawn campers or I’m just straight up playing bad. When I’m frustrated I usually tell myself fixed mindset speech like “I’m so bad at this game” or “I need to quit I’m trash.” Something along those lines. I think I have that mindset because Ill look at my K/D (kill to death ratio) and see that I’m like 5 and 18 on my off games and once looking at that ill tell my self that I’m bad at the game and I end up believing myself. One way I could change this is to say the same thing but opposite when I do good. Like “I’m too good at this game but I could be better if I did...” another way is instead of saying that I suck I could say “this is an off game. What if i did... to get him from behind” or something like that.

How have your thoughts on intelligence changed as a result of new understanding?

Well, my thoughts have changed a lot as I understand what intelligence means more now and that you can be either fixed mindset or growth mindset. You can be intelligent but you can be even more intelligent instead of just sticking with your knowledge now. You can always learn more and gain more knowledge it all just depends on if you want to or not.

Can you think of a time you received fixed mindset praise? Or a time you received growth mindset praise? Did you notice a difference in your success?

Ok, so I actually can’t think of a time where I got either of those. I’m not sure if this counts but I get a lot of good jobs from my dad but i dont know if that’s growth or fixed.

How have your thoughts on school changed as a result of new understanding?

Before I thought that if you did good in school you where a nerd and like learning awards. Now I want to get those as it would not only make me smarter but it would also be good to put on a job application. Also, before I hated school so much and thought it was so. Stupid. I still dont like school just not as bad as I did and now realize how important school really is.

What are you willing to fail at this year in order to learn?

Everything and anything. Anything you fail at is a learning opportunity. It would be nice NOT to fail at everything but at least if I do end up failing ill know what to do better next time and how to perfect it. You just need to keep on going no matter how many times you fail.

What factors can you identify that will help you succeed?

Actually paying attention in class for starters. I do do that just listing it. Another thing could be getting your homework done earlier like right after school instead of doing it all at 10 o’clock at night. Taking notes is also probably a key thing. One last thing would to use your class time very wisely.

How will you keep your growth mindset time after time, task after task, through failure and success?

I will do that by doing constantly telling myself growth mindset talk to motivate me to power through things. One of my favourites sayings is “no pain no gain”, without failure or pain you will gain nothing. I just need to keep on reminding myself that over and over again so I can just power through whatever I need to do

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