Last week we talk about the importance of creating a study plan; today, let’s talk about mindset. When we improve our studying mindset, we can experience improvements in our academic results and confidence as a student.

Let’s look at these 5 strategies can help you improve your studying mindset.

1- Develop a growth mindset

A fixed mindset is a belief that your intelligence and abilities are unchangeable – you’ll be this level of smart or capable forever. A growth mindset helps you improve your abilities and intelligence. You can become smarter with effort, time, and the right strategies.

If you truly believe you are a rubbish student who isn’t that clever, how will you succeed in your studies? You need urgently transformed your studying mindset and your results. 

Throw yourself into your studies, push yourself through challenges, and the results will come. 

2- Change your state

Procrastination, negative thinking, low self-confidence, or feeling unmotivated are all unhelpful states. 

Here’s a simple process to change from an unhelpful state to a helpful state, such as focus, positivity, confidence, or motivation.

Get up off the sofa, chair, or bed and do something to break the pattern. Jump up and down and shake it off à la Taylor Swift, drink a glass of cold water, take a quick walk, shower, sing, and dance for one song.

This will shake off the lethargy, raise your energy and hopefully improve your studying mindset to get to some great work.

3- Be the boss of your mind monkeys

Your brain doesn’t want you to do hard things or feel pain or embarrassment, so our mind monkeys will often say anything to get you to stop doing the hard thing.

– You’re not good enough.

– You can’t do this

– You’re a rubbish student

– You should just give up

Some students’ mind monkeys are louder than others or are more persistent, which can be detrimental to our studying mindset and mental health.

It’s impossible to never have negative thoughts, so instead, try to control your mind, monkey. If it starts to chat crap that makes you feel bad, call it out, thank it for trying to protect you, and then tell it to move along.

Do this, and over time you’ll be able to distance yourself from these negative thoughts and improve your studying mindset.

4- Celebrate what’s going right

When our studying mindset is in a downward spiral, it’s much easier to focus on what’s going wrong and be completely oblivious to what is going right.

This is because the brain is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones.

Humans have survived for so long because we’ve evolved to be excellent at remembering failures and dangers. 

Nowadays, we’re not at risk of being eaten by a lion or eating poisonous berries by accident, but our brains haven’t caught up.

You can improve your studying mindset by actively celebrating your achievements. Every time something good happens in your life (big or tiny) write it on a sticky note and put it on the desk, fridge, or bedroom door.

5- Talk about it

When you feel like you’re in a hole, reach out to those who care about you. This can be hard sometimes, as no one likes to feel like a burden. But if your loved ones were struggling, you would want to know and be able to support them, wouldn’t you? 

So let your circle do the same for you.

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” ― Pelé, Brazilian pro footballer.

WEEKLY VOCABULARY 🗣

📌Unmotivated: not having interest in or enthusiasm for something, especially work or study.

📌Detrimental: tending to cause harm.

📌Unwholesome: not characterized by or conducive to health or moral well-being.

📌Capable: having the ability, fitness, or quality necessary to do or achieve a specified thing.

📌Lethargy: a lack of energy and enthusiasm.

PHRASAL VERBS ✍

📌Figure out: to work out, to understand or solve something

“Okay, let’s go through this together. We’ll figure it out.”

📌Mull over: to take time to think about something to be sure that you make the right decision

“Let me mull over the suggestion.”

IDIOMS 📒

📌Pull an all-nighter: to stay up all night. 

📌I know it like the back of my hand: know something completely.

Related Articles:

📌Imposter Syndrome https://www.englishpriority.com/imposter-syndrome/

📌Learner Autonomy https://www.englishpriority.com/learner-autonomy/

Want to practice even more?…