Embracing The Journey of Change with Adaptability and Growth Mindset
The plans and strategies of mine on strengthening adaptability and growth mindset
The Look-back
In the last two years, so many things in my life changed. I faced a variety of challenges, whether its academic or non-academic aspects, which have forced me to be an adaptive person. I had to switch from dealing with people face-to-face to communicating through online platforms, from going out with friends to staying at home, from sitting in lecture classes to online learning. A lot of things changed.
The Realization
From the first lesson of the Soft Skills class of Generasi GIGIH 2.0 by Yayasan Anak Bangsa Bisa & GoTo program, I realized that becoming an adaptive person is so much needed to live in a world that is VUCA.
In the VUCA world, we need one key to strive in it; adaptability. Adaptability makes us embrace change and deal with it. It makes us more resilient (Gigih!) and helps us stay relevant by opening ourselves to try different things. These valuable impacts of being an adaptive person can be strengthened by a growth mindset.
Having a growth mindset means that we believe that our skills and abilities can be improved and refined through effort and perseverance. In other words, we believe that our talents can be developed; through hard work, good strategies, and input from others. A growth mindset opens up the door to new opportunities, new beginnings. It drives our motivation that could lead to higher achievement.
“There’s a secret. Good teachers and good method. These two things change people.” — Yohanes Surya
From the video above, I came to realize that there’s always hope, there’s always “striving for bigger goals” with a growth mindset that leads to success. Just like what the speaker believes: there is no “underperforming” individual as long as they have the right mindset and are taught properly.
The Change
There is one change that I am going through right now, that is the beginning of being a part of Generasi GIGIH 2.0. For me, this is a huge and challenging change. I had to study several courses about Python and SQL which I barely used on campus (I usually do practices in R Studio) before starting the technical classes. The preparation was so much fun and I gained a lot of new knowledge from it, but, still, I wasn’t used to it. Every time I apply that knowledge to practice making a data portfolio, this thought always comes to my mind: is this the best I can do? what’s next?
Being in a learning program outside of campus with a lot of people is also new for me. A lot of people here are very enthusiastic, very confident, very proactive that sometimes makes me insecure about the way they speak their thoughts so detailed and fluently. This thought always comes to my mind every time I listen to their speaking: what can I learn from them? what should I do better next time?
The Overcoming
With all of the new things going on at the beginning of my journey as a part of the Data Analyst track at Generasi GIGIH 2.0 by YABB & GoTo, I need to plan on what I am going to do to adapt, to get used to this change, to keep up the #GIGIHspirit for the in-class learning sessions ahead, and to fly higher as #SiGIGIH with a growth mindset.
To overcome the challenges, to get used to the change, for the challenges I stated above that I have to face, I found out what I need to do:
- Be clear of what I can and can’t control. I can control how I react to all my classmates speaking up their thoughts in class. I will praise them and try to learn from them. I will take it as my motivation to speak up more, as well as to share my thoughts. I will even approach them to make friends. There’s a saying “your friends are an indication of what you value.” I want to always value openness, confidence, and willingness to try. I know that I can’t control how they would react to me approaching them, but I’ll try my best to be friendly, not make them feel annoyed, and not make them regret having me as a friend. I’ll try to grow for good with them and support them so that not only do I feel more confident but also we have each other as our support system.
- Think of how I’ve successfully dealt with change in the past. About me having to learn new technologies, like Python and SQL, I’ll face it with belief that I’ll eventually be able to get through it because I know that I’ve successfully dealt with practicing R Studio before. I believe that I can face this change just like I did before. Not only believing, but I’ll also practice more on applying what I learned about Python and SQL to make more data portfolios so that I get a sense of their real uses in real cases.
- Step back and consider the long-term effect. On the first day of class, I was so hesitant to speak up my opinions. Now that I look back at it, there was actually nothing I should be afraid of. I was learning, I still am, learning is a process, and it’s okay to try to speak up and share rather than regretting keeping what I know to myself. From now on, I’ll encourage myself to be more active in class and to be more communicative to my group.
- Focus on what I know. Rather than saying “I’ll never know it.” “I’ll never be able to do it.” I’ll focus on what I know while I try to develop new things that supported it. I’ll work on a deeper understanding of data analysis algorithms so that not only do I focus on what I know (how to operate R studio) but also adjust and use the algorithms that are similar on Python and SQL.
Those ways of getting used to change can be enhanced by a growth mindset. I need to work on strengthening my growth mindset to face the challenges better.
There are ways that I could practice to strengthen my mindset, such as:
- Not blaming others. I’ll focus on myself; focus on the things I do that might cause my failure instead of blaming others’ success.
- Aiming for self-awareness. I’ll see failure as an opportunity to learn, find solutions, and do better by applying the lessons learned from it.
- Avoiding negative, fixed mindset self-talk. I’m actually already used to doing it. I sometimes compliment myself while looking at a mirror and doing my hair or applying skincare by saying nice things. I’m aware that this is a good thing to do to improve my confidence and happiness every day.
- Asking for feedback and listening to it. I realized that feedback plays a big and important role in having a growth mindset. I’ll ask for feedback from my friends because I know that finding solutions on my own is hard sometimes. This will be a great thing to do to improve and develop my way of strengthening my growth mindset.
- Not overreacting to failures. It is said to be natural to fail when I am learning and improving. I’ll keep on trying to see failures from different perspectives so I won’t fall into a fixed mindset phase.
- Not comparing myself to others. I won’t compare myself with others’ achievements or others’ experiences anymore. Instead, I’ll continue developing and improving my skills to become the best version of myself.
- Celebrating small wins. This will boost the positivity in my life because it can be the way to track incremental achievements and work toward much larger goals.
The Conclusion
Despite having so many things that keep changing in my life, I’ll keep on developing more adaptability skills while never forgetting to be myself, never forgetting the purpose of my life. I’ll also continuously strengthen my growth mindset by not being easily satisfied and keep striving for bigger goals. As stated in the title, I am going to embrace the journey of change with adaptability and a growth mindset!
Lastly, I’d love to wrap up this writing with my favorite slide of the presentation in Adaptability Soft Skills Class by Generasi GIGIH 2.0:
