It's a Mind Set

This evening I listened to a web seminar presented by Tonya Davidson from Whole Lotta Whimsy.  The presentation was on The Five Keys to Success.

The first key to success is "Mind Set"  Tonya went through a variety of things we can do to help make ourselves think successfully and actual techniques to do everyday to make that happen. 

Her discussion on mind set brought to mind an experience I had when going to grad school.  (Actually, at the beginning of every school year I would tell my students about this experience to get them to understand that what they learn is up to them.) 

Most classes at the college level were taught during the day.  A 4:00 class was considered an evening class.  I taught until 3:30 and the college was an hour away, so my choice of classes was limited.  The weaving class was always twice a week from 6:00-9:00, so they fit in.  (But boy was that a tiring ride after teaching all day.  How did I do it?  Oh, I was younger.)  

I really had an interest in art history and there were a few of those classes offered at 6:00.  The first art history class was being taught by a woman who had been teaching fifty years.  I had signed up for the class but dropped it when several of my colleagues told me that I wouldn't learn anything from her.  All we would do is go to her farm and draw her horses.  

Another class that I really wanted to take was "20th Century Criticism" and guess who was teaching it?  That's right..... she was.  Instead of dropping the class I went into that class with the mind set  "She is going to teach me something whether she wants to or not." And guess what, it was the best class I ever took.  I not only learned about 20th C. criticism but also some philosophies of life.  I attribute the success of that class mostly to my attitude.  As I sat in that class, taking it all in I saw other classmates who skipped class at the break, read books, and slept.  No wonder they didn't learn anything.  

After the class was over I wrote her a note about how much I had learned.  (Never did that before.)  I did it after the grades came out so she wouldn't think I was brown nosing.  

Also in that class (and here I date myself again) we had to write a twenty five page paper and make a presentation.  I had just gotten my first computer and the spacing for double spacing looked so much farther apart than my typewriter did; so I didn't use the double spacing.  Instead I did what "looked right" to me.  When I ended up with l00 footnotes, someone told me that shouldn't be.  There shouldn't be more than two per page.   Well, it was okay because my paper was actually a fifty page paper (so much for the spacing not looking right.)  No wonder it took me forever.

Anyway, the point is that the mind is a powerful tool.  Our attitude and mind set can make all the difference in the world.  (Better practice this on the golf course too!)