Carol Dweck Ability

I played competitive soccer for a very long time, and right before one outdoor season, I got the news that I was dropping a level, and it shattered my heart. I thought I wasn’t good enough for the competitive team. When I showed up to the first practice, I thought to myself, ‘This is going to be a long season’. These girls couldn’t quite play like how I was used to; quick, intense, and losing wasn’t an option. I acted like I was better than them because I had played at a higher level for most of my life. I thought that if the coach would see how much of a better player I was, they would send me back up to the more competitive team. However with each practice and game, my frustration grew and I started yelling on the field, things like what to do, what we should have done, and if we messed up, I made it quite obvious that I was frustrated. I just really wanted to get back to my old team, that was my only goal. When my coach called me off of the field for a “substitution”, I was utterly confused. I was doing the best out there so shouldn’t I stay on? When I got off the field my coach sat me down and told me to smarten up and shut up or I wouldn’t be getting on the field again. He told me that he knows I played on a better team, but my attitude needed to improve because this was my

I went home full of excitement and quickly recounted to my mom the success I had that day at baseball. I went to bed that night with more confidence than I thought possible and looking forward to another day of baseball. Made my way through school that day visualizing my performance that afternoon for tryouts. With more excitement than nerve I began the second day of tryouts. Thursday we worked on throwing and catching skills, friday was batting. An area in which I struggled a little more than others but with confidence pouring out of me I stepped into the box. Even with the confidence boost working on my skill I struggled heavily and was not happy with my performance. So trying to keep my confidence up I tried to finish that day of tryouts but I could tell that the coaches were less pleased with my performance that day. There’s not a much faster way to be served a large slice of humble pie than to realize you may not be all that you once thought you were. So keeping that in mind I finished the day doing my best. When we gathered together to make final cuts I could feel my heart beating in

Throughout the duration of middle school, I had always engaged in played volleyball. When middle school was over, I spent my whole summer at volleyball workouts at the high school, because it was something that I really did take pleasure in doing. I went every time, without exception, when they were offered. When it came time for tryouts, I felt that it was unquestionable that I had made the team, because I had played before. In life, however occasionally the plans that you make for yourself don’t work out. I didn’t make the team and it bothered me to start with. I knew that I still wanted to play volleyball, but not being able to play wouldn’t be the end of my world. The following days I began to look around online at some places in the area that would entitle me to still play volleyball.

When I showed up to softball tryouts at the beginning of my senior year, I was convinced that I was going to be put on the junior varsity team for the fourth consecutive year. I was sure that I would never be moved up to varsity, regardless of how hard I played. My junior year I was embarrassed to be one of only two juniors on J.V. I was so self-conscious, that I had considered quitting so that I wouldn’t be the only senior not on varsity. However, I decided that quitting would be more humiliating than being on J.V. and forced myself to play my final season of softball. I showed up to tryouts the first week of school, and I played with every ounce of effort that I had. When teams were announced, I was legitimately shocked to find out that I

It is my junior year of high school and basketball season is right around the corner. I am on the verge of either making varsity or junior varsity this year depending upon my skills. Went through the tryouts and was able to make the junior varsity again for my second year with coach Maloney. I was all excited to play there again seeing I was one out of the three kids that made it back there again. From there it was Cam, Anthony, and I who thought would lead the team because we were the only ones who knew how to run Maloney’s offense and defense well that’s what I had thought was gonna be the case but in reality it wasn't. I thought I would be a starter for the team, but in reality I ended up being a bench player or how I thought of it as a

I was doing everything I could to make Rock Ridge’s volleyball team. I was working out almost every day, I went to every volleyball open gym, and I went to many clinics and camps. Making this team was very important to me, and I didn’t know what I would do if I didn’t. I’ve been working very hard to get a spot on the team. However, nothing could mentally prepare me for the three-day long try-out process.

In 2014 I began attending Chase High School. I would always joke about how I would be the one to get lost and hide in a locker until three o’clock but when the first day rolled around I wasn’t nervous because I knew most of the seniors and I was on the volleyball team. I loved my freshmen schedule, I had classes with all of my friends, I liked most of my teachers and best of all I had first lunch. Volleyball season was starting off decent, we hadn’t won any games but we were having fun and I was a starter. After about three games into the season the JV team was practicing one day in the AUX gym and that is when my volleyball season took a turn for the worst. We were practicing our hitting lines and it was my turn to hit, the setter set me up but they pushed the ball too far back and

We learn from Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success, that there are two different mindsets: the fixed and the growth. When you have a fixed mindset you think it is set in stone what your qualities and intelligence are. You usually lack motivation to try again, usually try to avoid challenges, they tend to ignore criticism; even if it’s just constructive, and they often feel threatened by other people’s success. A growth mindset is when you believe you can grow your basic qualities. You usually pick yourself back up when you get knocked down, embrace the challenges that are thrown at you, learn from criticism, and see the success of others as a form of learning.

Our school was never very good at sports and only about five girls would be cut. I was jittery the day that the varsity roster was to be posted; I wanted nothing more than to be part of the team. After classes ended, I walked to the athletic board, where the varsity roster would be posted. I anxiously scanned the list for my name. I scanned it again. As my eyes ran over the page a third time, my heart began to sink. I hadn’t made the team. I was one of five girls who were cut from the varsity team. In a daze, I went to practice. Instead of focusing like I usually did, I went through the motions. The five of us who made up the junior varsity team had a separate practice with the assistant coach. After the sting of failure finally faded, I began to work harder than before. I showed up early to practice and stayed late every day. Every weekend I spent at least two hours on the field practicing. I was determined to make the coaches regret putting me on the “JV” team. As the season ended, I didn’t stop working to become better. Any day that was not too cold, I could be found on the field. When spring came, I joined the soccer team, hoping to improve on my endurance and speed. Over the summer, I spent at least two hours every day running and practicing. When the field hockey season rolled back around, I was ready to show off my skills and make the varsity

At tryouts all I wanted was to be on that team. All I thought had to do to reach my next goal was work hard. I remember walking down that back stairwell, full of students, rushing to get to the clear front doors of the school, where the list that my goal depended on was surrounded by my teammates. I used my height to my advantage and peeked over the crowd. My anticipation was quickly crushed, though, by an all encompassing sadness of not making the core team, but secondary one. That sadness quickly morphed into an unbridled anger. I was angry at myself, my teammates, God, but especially my coach, who I would later find out made promises to parents from the past season that their children would be starters. I never let the anger show during that forgotten season, I made some good memories and grew closer to people I thought I couldn't, but that anger was bottled up and needed escape. I needed revenge and that came in the form of club volleyball. I made the top team, and grew exponentially as a player, even playing on an older team for nationals. I came back ready for that next school season. I walked into the air conditioned, orange lighted, smelly, old gym full of confidence. I could do anything and no one was going to stop me from reaching my goal. I did make the core team that year. My goal I’d wanted for a year was completed and yet left me feeling unsatisfied and wanting more. These memories block out many others I’ve made in a wonderful six year volleyball career. It has formed me into the volleyball player I am today and that unsatisfied feeling gave way one of my next goals now, to play volleyball for a collegiate program at a division one school. But the only way to get that dream, as I have learned so many times, is work hard, pursue what you want, and never let anyone decide your fate for you, because if they do, it won't fulfill the goals you have chosen for

When I first went for tryouts, I felt that since I had been playing volleyball since 7th grade, this would be no sweat. The tryouts were two hours for three days and I had tried my hardest every minute for those three days. Then I got cut. It was a horrible feeling, knowing that I would not be on the team that year and most likely any of the other years to follow. What would I do after school? Will people think of me differently? I quickly

On July 1st, I had a volleyball tryout and I thought I could not do it and that I would not get on a team. I was so nervous I couldn't stop thinking about the tryout all day. I had kept thinking to myself that I wasn't going to make the team. That night I went to the tryout and I tried my best and I tried to have fun and be happy. Towards the end of the tryout they sectioned us off on to courts to play, I was so let down because I was not on the best court and I kept thinking that I would be on the second team which was the B team. After the tryout, I went home very

Sophomore year came, and I was nervous because now there was jv dark and varsity to worry about. I came to tryouts, and gave all my effort on volleyball as well as my friends. They had made the teams, and I never expected to be in jv dark. My best friends didn 't made it to jv dark but I couldn 't miss this opportunity. In addition, I was depressed that I could not be with them, but I needed to be in a team that I knew it was going to help me become better. It surely did because now there was more tasks that I could do. My serves were something no one could receive. Consequently, the only horrible part of jv dark is that I never had the chance to play. I came to practice everyday and I followed instructions, I never complained if we ran, but the coach never showed me that I could be in the court. I did showed her, I tried to show off my abilities in volleyball for her to notice. As a result to that she always put me aside. In effect of this, it brought me down I

The condition of such a powerful force is referred to as the mindset. Dr. Carol Dweck, one of the world leaders in the area of motivation, is famous for her works on this concept. As a Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology lecturing at Stanford University, she conducted an extensive research on why people succeed and fail and how to achieve success. On the concept of mindset, she has lifted people up with her works and shown the world the effect of mindsets on where a person eventually ends it. The over 30 years she spent on the research about the reasons for the situation described above gave us much we know today about mindset.

Here comes high school. My friends and I from middle school all went to the same high school, and played volleyball once again. The only difference between us was when I was on the B team they were on the A-team, and when I was sitting on the bench they were playing. We got to high school and things didn’t change, they were on JV as a freshman, and little old me was still on the freshman team. I decided that for the next year they weren’t going to be better than I am. I worked so hard the summer going to my 10th grade year.