Chatterbox: Chirp at Cricket

Please read.

Has anyone heard of the growth mindset? Of not being afraid of failure? Of wanting to TRY AGAIN after you fail?

No? Well, look it up. Growth mindset.

The Politics Thread was a failure. We all know this. It was unorganized, resulting in a lot of confusion and hurt feelings. It was a first attempt, and like many first attempts, it didn’t work.

However, as a person with a growth mindset, my natural instinct was to find the problem, learn from it, and FIX IT! And TRY AGAIN!

Please, may I ask, why not try after you fail? Why not get up after you trip?

When I tried to restart the Debate Thread, (and, BTW, we’re debating about Harry Potter, which isn’t offensive like the stuff about being “privileged” to get arrested for stuff white people aren’t even fined for *coughcoughcough*) I saw an OVERLOAD of the fixed mindset. I saw stuff like, “This is gonna fail, why bother”, “Oh, the last one failed, we can’t try again”, “If we never try, we’ll never fail!” Well, those are the simplified versions of them, anyway.

Let me just remind you of one inspirational song, by Shakira.

“Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

I messed up tonight, I lost another fight

I still mess up but I'll just start again

I keep falling down, I keep on hitting the ground

I always get up now to see what's next

Birds don't just fly, they fall down and get up

Nobody learns without getting it wrong

I won't give up, no I won't give in

'Til I reach the end and then I'll start again

No I won't leave, I wanna try everything

I wanna try even though I could fail

I won't give up, no I won't give in

'Til I reach the end and then I'll start again

No, I won't leave, I wanna try everything

I wanna try even though I could fail

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Try everything

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Try everything

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Try everything

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Look how far you've come, you filled your heart with love

Baby you've done enough, take a deep breath

Don't beat yourself up, don't need to run so fast

Sometimes we come last, but we did our best

I won't give up, no I won't give in

'Til I reach the end and then I'll start again

No I won't leave, I wanna try everything

I wanna try even though I could fail

I won't give up, no I won't give in

'Til I reach the end and then I'll start again

No I won't leave, I wanna try everything

I wanna try even though I could fail

I'll keep on making those new mistakes

I'll keep on making them every day

Those new mistakes

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Try everything

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Try everything

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Try everything

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Try everything…”

~❤️~

See? “I still mess up but I'll just START AGAIN”! “Birds don't just fly, they fall down AND GET UP! Nobody LEARNS without getting it wrong”!

Well, don’t give up. Don’t give in until you reach the end. Try, try everything, try even though you could fail.

Failure is not permanent.

I’ve analyzed the Politics Thread. I learned from our mistakes. In my head, I devised a way to make it work. I KNOW why the Politics Thread went wrong. And I KNOW how to succeed.

I just need to try.

As the saying goes, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!”

A lot is at stake here, you know.

I think that if you give up, it proves you have a fixed mindset. It proves that you give up. It proves that your brain is stuck into a little box, and can’t grow because it’s too afraid of failure.

But if you persist, if you attempt again, I think it proves you have a GROWTH mindset. It proves that you persevere. It proves that your brain is free, and can stretch and grow because it’s not afraid of failing, or anything.

So why the fixed mindset?

I have used the word “try” the second most in this writing piece so far, the most being the word “the”. I did this on purpose. It is, by far, the most important, and I don’t want to use synonyms. No, I do not care about redundancy right now.

"So, I implore you, try." ~Judy Hopps

Try it again. Try debating again.

Made a mistake?

Birds, they don’t just fly, they fall down and get up. Remember Shakira’s words.

Try even though you could fail.