Neuroplasticity & Growth Mindset: Brain Powers for the Coding Journey
Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is essentially our brain's built-in potential for change and adaptation. It underpins our ability to learn, grow, and recover throughout life. Neuroplasticity offers a range of benefits throughout life. Here are some key ways it helps us:
- Learning and memory
- Recovery from injury
- Mental health
- Overall brain fitness and congnition
It was amazing to me to learn how neuroplasticity can help the brain recover after a stroke or brain injury by rerouting functions, meaning that undamaged areas of the brain can take over tasks handled by the injured parts, to help promote recovery.
Neuroplasticity will help equip my brain with the flexibility and adaptability needed to grasp new concepts, overcome challenges, and become a confident programmer. It can do this by:
- Building new neural pathways
- Enhancing my problem-solving
- Boosting my memory
I intend to increase the availability of my neuroplasticity (both throughout Dev Academy and into the future) by challenging myself, embracing life-long learning, exercising regularly, and making sure I get enough sleep.
This blog-post was particularly helpful to me given its sharing specifically about neuroplasticity and its relevance to programming.
Growth Mindset
A growth mindset is the belief that your intelligence and abilities are not fixed, but can develop and improve through effort and learning. It's the opposite of a fixed mindset, which views intelligence as something you're born with and can't change.
Growth mindset is a powerful tool that empowers us to embrace the challenge of learning something new, focus on the effort you put in, and celebrate the journey of it all. Here's how I will use a growth mindset as a “middle-aged man” diving into computer programming:
- Embracing the challenges
- Focusing on effort (not dwelling on level of talent)
- Embodying Life-long Learning
- Being resilient
This article resonated with me as it has relevance to my programming journey and also for the learning of the guitar that I have been doing for a couple of years now.
My learning plan with Mindset
The commitments in my learning plan to both focused work and compassionate collaboration aligns with the concepts of neuroplasticity and a growth mindset.
Consistent effort during work hours (and beyond as needed) will strengthen my neural pathways that are crucial to become a proficient developer. Further still, my commitment to daily journaling will asssit my neuroplasticity.
A growth mindset will empower me to view the challenges as opportunities and by embracing them with compassion, I will be able to move forward in a state of self-acceptance.
My commitment to adapt to different communication styles, and foster a compassionate and supportive learning environment where everyone feels comfortable to learn from each other's strengths can be encouraged through neuroplasticity and a growth mindset as well.
