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Hello to All of My Study Bunnies!

What if I told you your MINDSET is the one thing that could make or break you in nursing school and possibly even in life?

What if I told you there were only 4 things you need to do differently every day to stay in that Growth Mindset Sweet Spot in order to reap all the benefits? 

The Growth Mindset is probably the most important topic  I will ever cover in this blog and the best part is that it will help you succeed in nursing school, in your future profession, and in your life. [cue dramatic music]. 

WHAT IS A GROWTH MINDSET?

Put simply, a Growth Mindset is an attitude adopted by students in order to thrive in challenging situations. Basically, a student believes they CAN learn, improve, and grow, even though they don’t know how to do the skills at this time. People with a growth mindset believe that their skills, talents, and knowledge can grow with time and effort.

Imagine a little boy named Pete. Pete visits his cousin’s house and his cousin wants to go ride bikes around the neighborhood. Pete does not know how to ride a bike.  

Imagine if that was the end of the story. What would you do if you didn’t know how to do something? 

Let’s take Medication Conversions for example…

Imagine you have just been told you will have a Med Math Exam and you need 100% in order to stay in your nursing program – yes this happened to me [squeaky voice] – we only had 3 chances to pass.

• What do you tell yourself?
• How do you feel about yourself?
• Do you doubt your abilities?
• Do you feel challenged by the idea or does it make you feel insecure?
• Do you up-talk or down-talk yourself? If you’re not sure if you talk yourself up or down …does your self-talk sound like this:
  • “It’s okay Jessica, you don’t know how to do this yet, but if you put your mind to it and give it the time it deserves – you will be amazing at that.” That’s uptalking.

OR does it sound more like…

• “Gosh Jessica, you are the worst at math. It’s been years since you had to do math. Oh, and there are fractions involved – forget it – why even bother? You’re going to need a miracle to learn that.” 

That’s down-talking. 

It seems nonsensical that Pete would just go the rest of his life never learning to ride a bike, doesn’t it? 

I’m sure you can recall learning how to ride a bike. It has probably been a while since you rode a bike – can you still do it even though it’s been a while? Of course, you can – and you can probably still do all the cool tricks too. 

As a child – you did not allow lack of knowledge stop you, because you were born without knowledge of how to do anything! We were blank slates and we literally learned everything we know – we even learned how to down-talk ourselves and stump our own growth. We learned to stifle our awesomeness.

This blog post is aimed at helping your reverse the down-talk, convert you to an up-talker, and help you embrace the GROWTH MINDSET.

Put yourself in Pete’s shoes thinking about learning to ride a bike – can you predict what he was thinking and feeling?

• “What if I can’t?”
• “It seems scary.”
• “What if I fall?”
• “What if people laugh at me?”
• “How long will it take for me to learn?”

Most kids have these fears and doubts, but they also have a keen resilience and determination that keeps them moving forward. Kids are remarkable. It’s the very reason why babies get up when they fall as they are learning to walk.

What if I told you someone took that childhood resilience away? What if I told you it was may have been YOU or someone around you that started telling you that you can’t do something? What if I told you that this blog could help you accomplish all the things you set your mind to including performing well in nursing school?

There is so much you don’t know in nursing school.

There are so many skills that you have not mastered.

There are so many concepts that just don’t make sense to you.

I have one small word that you need to start saying to yourself that will change you so profoundly. All you have to do is add this small word to your thinking, start saying it to yourself, and start believing it. That word is …

Adding the word YET to your self-talk changes everything – it opens your mind to the readiness and willingness to accomplish your future goals. The word YET is faith in yourself and your ability to acquire new skills.

The list of things that I did not know in nursing school was massive. I knew nothing about the medical field – I had been a middle school teacher for the past 12 years. So how did I manage to graduate top 3 of my class? One word – MINDSET; aka attitude about yourself and your abilities.

A proper growth mindset combines effort, determination, creative new learning strategies, persistence, and trust in the learning process. Growth cannot happen in a vacuum. Growth requires a little struggle – you will get plenty of that in nursing school. Visit any FB nursing student group if you need proof.

According to the Harvard Online Business school, “Someone with a growth mindset views intelligence, abilities, and talents as learnable and capable of improvement through effort. On the other hand, someone with a fixed mindset views those same traits as inherently stable and unchangeable over time.”

A fixed mindset is the enemy of nursing students. A person with a fixed mindset will say to themselves:

• “I can’t, I’m not good at XYZ”
• “I don’t know how to do this and I never will.”
• “This is going to be hard because I suck at XYZ.”
• “I was only born with these talents, therefore I can’t acquire new ones.”
• “I have always been this way and I will always be this way.”

Sound familiar.

• Do you believe that you can develop your talents over time?
• Do you think people can learn new things?
• Do you trust that hard work pays off?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above statements then you are probably already on the spectrum for the growth mindset.

TYPES OF MINDSETS

We are told that our mindset is either FIXED or Growth.  People with a fixed mindset believe we are unchanging. People with a growth mindset believe we have the capacity to develop new skill sets with time and persistence. 

People with a fixed mindset think that their basic qualities such as talent or inherent intelligence are fixed traits that are given and are unlikely to change. They will go through life proving their intelligence and talents rather than improving them.

Curious where you fall on the spectrum?

Take this 3-minute quiz to find out.

WHAT A GROWTH MINDSET IS NOT

Although I genuinely want you to embrace a growth mindset and reap all its rewards, I feel it is important to explain common misperceptions of a growth mindset. 

A growth mindset is not:

• PRAISING AND REWARDING BASED SOLEY ON EFFORT
• CHILLING AND SEEING WHAT HAPPENS WITHOUT EFFORT
• IGNORING PROBLEMS WITHIN OURSELVES AND FAILING TO ADDRESS THEM
• FREE PASSES FOR POOR CHOICES OR HABITS
• HOPING FOR THE BEST WITHOUT PUTTING THE WORK IN
• RELYING ON OTHERS FOR OUR SUCCESS

HOW DO WE GET INTO THE GROWTH ZONE?

1. Tell your fixed persona to chill.

Your fixed persona has been holding you back long enough, they have been subconsciously undermining you, smothering you with negativity, and squashing your awesomeness. It’s time to talk this person down – and guess what – this person is you. This part of you needs to be cut out, shut down, and completely kicked to the curb. 

You need to UP YOUR SELF-TALK and self-love.

Start talking yourself up.

Tell yourself you can and you will.

Add the word “YET” and give yourself the chance to grow.

There are people out there selling millions of self-help books and one of the main topics they discuss is self-talk and its connection to self-esteem and self-actualization. The truth is that self-talk works. We just need to start talking to ourselves in a positive, helpful, and healing way.

You choose the way you talk to yourself. It is a choice.

From here on we need to give ourselves love and grace.

2. Embrace the suck.

Embrace the suck is a mantra one of my favorite professors in nursing school used to say. He was ex-military, very strict, and very cool. He always had a patient story to share for every lecture. He had a way with storytelling – he painted a picture and his stories came back to me during his exams.

Nursing school sucks. It is what it is. You cannot change the nature of nursing school. Stop fighting it, stop complaining about it,  just EMBRACE THE SUCK, and get to work.

I don’t mean to be harsh or insensitive, but I don’t think indulging in negativity is a good use of time. Dwelling on the negative is only going to sour your mood and set you back when you need to do ALL THE THINGS.

Don’t get me wrong – if you need to vent or ugly cry – by all means, go ahead. I get it – we have all been there and I know the value of a good cry – just don’t make this your baseline or habitual. 

3. Reframe your stressors.

Reframing is the practice of changing the way you look at things. Reframing allows us to see things using a different perspective. Seeing things using a different perspective can be extremely powerful. It is the root of empathy, creativity, and problem-solving and it promotes learning. When used, reframing can get you unstuck and rejuvenated – it’s kinda magical.

Let me give you an example:

• Stressful thought: I’ll probably fudge up my presentation in health assessment. 
• Reframed thought: I practiced my presentation a lot and worked hard on it. I may feel nervous or mess up a few lines, but nobody will know. I’ll just continue and do my best.

• Stressful situation: My teacher assigned a group project – I hate group work and I hate relying on others for my grade.
• Reframed thought: This group assignment means I don’t have to do everything on my own. It’s nice to have the extra help. As long as we get organized and communicate, this project should be a success and another learning opportunity.

4. Manage your TO-DO list.

Guess what? Prioritization is a big part of nursing and the NCLEX exam. There will always be a lot to do – you just have to get control and manage that wicked, crazy, list. 

Managing your To-Do list is going to help you stay positive and keep you in a growth mindset. You will feel more accomplished and in control through the use of lists.

Hopefully, you have invested in an academic planner and you treat that planner with the respect it deserves. Your academic planner should be filled with all of the lovely work and important dates are given to you in your professor’s syllabi.

I go into detail about the proper use of an academic planner in my blog post 10 Things To Do Before Starting Nursing School.

I highly recommend making lists based on your academic planner and marking things off your list as you do them. It’s a really good feeling to mark things off your nursing school TO-DO list.

Analyze your To-Do list – is there anything there with low to no value – if so – get rid of it.

You will probably need more than one to-do list. 

Consider these tips:

• Weekly To Do List AND Daily To-Do List
• Break larger tasks or projects into smaller steps or To-Dos
• High Impact List: Make a top 3 Must Dos for each day
  • Ask yourself, which of these would make you feel the best if you accomplished it today – then do that one – talk about a high! Hello Dopamine 🙂

The bottom list is there are only 24 hours in a day and there is an economy to your time. Give yourself grace, prioritize your tasks, talk yourself up, add the work YET as needed, and embrace the Growth Mindset.