A Reflection on Carol Dweck's "Brainology": The Importance of Having a Growth Mindset

As a freshman entering Community College, I will be experiencing and discovering various new things about the world and myself like many others. There is no doubt that I have received dozens of pieces of advice from my parents, teachers, counselors, and many others. The two essential pieces of advice I will use and other college students can use are the concepts of “delayed gratification” and “having a growth mindset.” Although I feel like 'delaying gratification” is a good piece of advice for succeeding in college, I think that 'having a growth mindset' is better advice for me.

Having a growth mindset is one of the more important pieces of advice that can help me succeed as a first-year community college student. The article “Brainology” by Carol Dweck, shows the differences between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. Most students believe that their intelligence is fixed and each person only has a certain limit on intelligence. Fixed mindsets focus more on how smart they appear, rather than learning and trying to improve their sets of academic skills. Furthermore, students with fixed mindsets tend to reject learning opportunities in school after they are challenged and struggle severely. Someone with a growth mindset focuses on improving and learning from their mistakes.

Those with a growth mindset have the idea that the harder you work, the more your abilities will expand. This mindset helps students to work hard and take in the information so they do not forget it later on like those with a fixed mindset. Despite how smart or talented someone is, no one succeeds in a big way without enormous amounts of effort and dedication. I believe that if I adopt a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset, then I should tend to do better in school.Being able to delay gratification is another great piece of advice for college students like myself. Students in college should work hard on their studies now and enjoy the good things that come later in life such as a good-paying job. In the magazine “Who Gets to Graduate?”, by Paul Tough, explains that Vanessa underestimates how hard she would have to work to succeed in her first semester of college. Delaying your gratification and putting in the hard work is necessary and well worth it in the higher education systems. “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life like a champion” (Ali). Like one of the greatest boxers of all time, Muhammad Ali once said, being able to stop the urge to procrastinate and work hard is well worth it. In the TED Talk “Don’t Eat the Marshmallow Yet!,” the speaker, Joachim de Posada, discusses how delaying gratification leads to success.

For the children in the experiment, waiting fifteen minutes for the second marshmallow is considered hard work. The TED talk states that this test can be used as an indicator of a person’s success in the future because those who gave in to their gratification end up performing worse in school than those who delay their gratification. Having the ability to delay gratification can tremendously increase someone’s chances of success in the future. Although working hard and being able to delay gratification is a great piece of advice, I think having a growth mindset is better for me.

Having both a growth mindset and the ability to delay gratification are great pieces of advice for me as a college student, but I think having a growth mindset is more effective. Having a growth mindset is more important than delaying gratification because if you work hard in school but do not learn anything, there was no point of going to college in the first place. College can be a thrilling experience, but there comes many choices and challenges you will face when first beginning. In addition, many students expect their first year to be filled with happiness from meeting new people and enjoying their newfound independence.

But freshman year of college can be overwhelming with mistakes that lead to high rates of stress, mental problems, financial struggles, and a possibility of poor academic performance. For example, keeping a high-grade point average in the first year of college is extremely important. Having a growth mindset can make sure students like myself accomplish this goal. There are thousands of possibilities when it comes to giving advice to college students to become more successful. In my opinion, having a growth mindset is more effective than delaying gratification to help college students become more successful.