WHY A PODCAST?

Have you ever wondered why you are doing something as you do it? You know you want to be doing something else and be productive, but you find your body doing the complete opposite? This is how I felt at the end of sophomore year of highschool. I wanted to study and learn, but I was scared of failure, failure to live up to my own high standards.

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Sophomore year, after moving high schools to pursue more academic rigor, was the first time I was deeply challenged academically. I reached the point where my natural abilities fell short. I had always enjoyed school but now it seemed to be laborious with no real end goal. I was longing for a reason behind the work. I wanted to see how school connected to the real world but couldn’t.  I was confused and I struggled. I knew I could complete the tasks in front of me –and still did– but I also knew my motivation of getting good grades to go to college where I would learn to live in the “real world” was no longer sufficient. I wanted to grow, I wanted to find more sustainable motivators. 

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In the following summer, I realized that my mindset was the factor that was controlling my motivations or in some moments, lack thereof. I finally started to grow when I realized that I had a fixed mindset. This acknowledgement of a shortcoming was hard. I had heard of the terms fixed and growth mindset before, but I had always associated myself with a growth mindset. I knew, in the athletic world, from reading the likes of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle and various works from John Wooden, that talent in sports can be developed with practice. (If you don’t know who John Wooden is, look him up, you won’t regret it.) Even with this understanding in the athletic world, I never understood the true impact mindsets have on daily life. The two mindsets are differing beliefs about qualities such as talent and intelligence. The fixed mindset believes that you cannot grow in these areas, and the growth mindset believes that through practice and effort, your talent and abilities can grow. 

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I saw that my high standards led to me fear failure, a classic trait of a fixed mindset. I knew that to grow and change I needed to know more about mindsets. That is when I read Dr. Carol Dweck’s bestselling novel, Mindset. This new knowledge and furthered understanding lit a fire beneath me. I saw that the change I desired was possible, in any and every situation. From that moment, I chose to change my mindset. I chose to grow. Because now I believed that I could. 

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This path has led me to develop more of a growth mindset. I have researched and learned as much as I can about mindsets. Because of this, I now hold myself to a higher, more precise standard. I used to want to get good grades, to impress others and to score goals in my soccer games on the weekend. Now, I want to develop my abilities, which will in turn earn high grades, I no longer focus on impressing others because I am confident in who I am, and I still score goals in my soccer games on the weekend. I know that will remain constant :) The switch? I no longer desired purely the material results but rather growth and chasing my potential. An added bonus: the material results –grades and success in any area– do not go away even though they are not the main priority.

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My journey of growth and research to understand mindsets and now the even inner workings of the brain has inspired me to share my journey with others. I know from experience how a switch in fundamental beliefs can dramatically change your daily thoughts and actions. I want to help others do the same. So I started a podcast. In Reset Mindset, I will try to help teens and parents alike realize how the fixed and growth mindsets shape life and experiences both inside the classroom and in the real world. I want to give people the steps I used to get to where I am now. If you desire to learn, grow and change, that desire alone is the first step. I started this podcast because I believe that no matter where you are coming from or the choices you have made in the past, that YOU have the ability to change your mindset and grow!