You may have already given it a go. Maybe have been under a different guise but there will have been times in your life where you have needed to do some self-reflection. It may have been during an annual appraisal at work, a coaching session or a piece of coursework. You will have thought about what worked, what didn’t and what you would do differently. Until now, this may be an annual process; how would it feel if this self-reflection was part of your every day? Maybe you need to uncover the power of journaling.
For the December 2019 Book Club book, I decided to do something a little different. Rather than have a book that talks about theory and other people’s journeys, I introduced something a little different. “The Growth Mindset Journal for Teens and Tweens by Iona Yeung*”. Yes, you read this right! For Teen and Tweens. So often as adults, we set ourselves such high standards. We are not very gentle with ourselves. Yet, when we have children around us, especially tweens and teens, we encourage them to explore their reasoning and help them learn from their experiences. How would it feel if we treated ourselves the same way?
This book has Growth Mindset at the centre “it’s designed to help teens and tweens build a growth mindset that helps them embrace challenges, see opportunity in every failure and dream big”. The concept of a growth mindset is one moving into every day; we even see it as part of our teenager daughter’s learning commitments at Secondary School (although, she doesn’t actually recognise it as such!)
Professional Carol Dweck’s (recognised as the developer of the concept of Growth Mindset) research has found two main mindsets about learning: Fixed and Growth. Those who have a fixed mindset believe that intelligence, skills, and talents are innate and can’t be changed. Those that believe in a growth mindset believe that these can be changed or developed with effort, learning, and persistence. You can watch more about how to get a growth mindset in this great TedTalk from Dweck. The power of mindset has been touched upon in previous book clubs; if you haven’t already, then you need to check out “Grit: Why Passion and Resilience are the secrets to success.” .
Author of this journal Iona Yeung is a relationship coach for women, so her move into journals for children is an interesting one, so I was very intrigued to see how her approach would transfer. It’s an easy to follow book, with inspirational quotes, places to track progress against goals and a mixture of prompts to be creative and reflective; not just in writing but in drawing too!
The majority of the prompts within this book are written as questions, set in the past for the very important reflections, as well as planning for the future. You get a double hit with this journal, like many others; not just the reflection via the questions, but the act of writing it down. This can help greatly when you are tracking your progression, and checking in on yourself , but also can help make these thoughts permanent. As you may have seen during the review of “How to Remember Everything”, this can help to move information from short term to long term memory!
Now, over to sharing this with the teen in your life…
Grace has sat with the book for a few days, scribbling away! We haven’t yet sat down and worked this through together, there is still lots of time to do that, but it seems that she has got a bit from it already. When I asked how she was finding it, she said “It really made me think about the answers I was giving and what I thought about life; it’s made me rethink a few things. I definitely want to carry on using it.”
So, if you haven’t already started to journal, maybe this year will be the start. It can lighten the pressure you put in yourself to be good at everything, be right the first time and can lead to some interesting discussions with those around you. But remember this, you can only get a benefit from journaling if you make the time, and if you actually want to do it!
What about you? Do you journal? Are you a paper and pen version or do you like to use an app? Come over to Creating Careers to Enjoy to let us know.
*This link is an Amazon Affiliate link. If you click on it and buy something, I may get a few extra pennies but it won’t cost you anything extra.
Clara Wilcox is a straight-talking, practical and experienced coach helping clients navigate the tricky waters of returning to work, career changes and professional development. The Balance Collective is a social enterprise focused on improving the lives of parents, by working together to build inner confidence and promote a healthy work/life balance. Isn’t it time you had a career to enjoy, not endure? Talk to me NOW about how I can help.
Clara Wilcox is a straight talking, practical and experienced coach helping clients navigate the tricky waters of returning to work, career changes and professional development. The Balance Collective is a social enterprise focused on improving the lives of parents, by working together to build inner confidence and promote a healthy work/life balance.
