How I’m Implementing Amal Totkay
By: Sana Iftikhar
Tags: Growth Mindset, Self Talk, Comfort Zone, Amal Academy, Fake It Till You Make It

When I read the colourful document of Growth Mindset Tips, I thought that the content and the tips couldn’t have been more perfect for Amal Fellows, young people who are looking for opportunities to grow as people.

Developing a growth mindset is important because it makes us open to change and new environments and enables us to embrace challenges in a fight or flight situation.

Self-Talk:

Everybody talks to themselves: self-questioning, self-criticism, processing their feelings all are done inside our head. But what most of us often forget that our inner voice can also help empower us. Personal mantras can help us focus and motivate ourselves when a situation gets tough.

I have bad habits such as getting demotivated easily and of critiquing myself too harshly. To combat that, I have a few personal mantras that I’d like to share:

I can do this.

Saying this out loud to myself (then taking a deep breath) before a tough presentation, a confrontation I know won’t go well or just generally before a test has helped me face my fears with confidence and helped me believe in myself and my capabilities.

I’m a strong independent woman who don’t need no man.

People unfamiliar with this meme can misinterpret this as a very ‘feminist’ statement. But saying this to myself in situations when I’m very nervous always makes me laugh and helps me calm down my nerves to tackle the task on hand confidently.

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone:

This was my favourite tip. I am the annoying friend that messages everyone flyers for workshops, exchange program applications and details for relevant extra courses because I like trying new things and want to encourage my friends to do the same.

I believe in trying out new things as an experiment because I think new situations bring new challenges making us more resilient. Every experience has something to teach according to Mr Sohail Rizvi, good or bad, and I couldn’t agree with him more.

Create New Habits:

This is something I struggle with: Breaking bad habits and creating new better ones. I wanted to work on my teamwork capabilities at Amal and I have tried to make small achievable goals for myself to achieve that.

(Update on my #juststart goals: I tried my best to take the initiative in my learning group and I make sure to encourage everyone in the group to share their ideas in the group without hesitation)

Ask People For Help:

I realise how important feedback and teamwork are, but I absolutely hate asking people for help and try my best to every task independently. Nevertheless, I am working on being comfortable with asking people for help and feedback.

Fake it till you Make it:

This is a tried and true tip, and it has definitely helped me become more comfortable and confident in my skin.

Funnily similar to method acting; when I want to accomplish a task that I’m not confident about, I make up a character in my head who IS comfortable doing that task. This way, I can zoom out and think of the reasons why this person would be comfortable doing the task and ways of how they could accomplish it.

Pretending to be the character I made up in my head actually helps me appear confident in real life. As time goes on, you will realize that you have begun to embody the imaginary character you once pretended to be as a permanent characteristic.

To any fellows struggling to start or hesitating to take the first steps; my advice is to #juststart and Fake it till you make it. :)

Please feel free to comment and offer suggestions on how I can improve writing blogs. :)