Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential

McMaster University via Coursera

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/mindshift

Introduction

### Course Review: Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential In the rapidly evolving landscape of professional and personal growth, the ability to adapt and learn is invaluable. Coursera's course, **Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential**, addresses this need head-on. Whether you’re a student, a mid-career professional, or a lifelong learner, this course equips you with the tools to redefine your relationship with learning and development. #### Course Overview **Mindshift** is crafted for individuals at any stage of life who wish to enhance their learning strategies, seek mentorship, and avoid stagnation in their careers. With a focus on practical insights drawn from scientific research, this course covers crucial topics such as maximizing online learning, recognizing and utilizing your strengths, and applying selective ignorance to achieve mastery in your chosen areas. Throughout the course, students will engage with practical strategies that empower them to break down obstacles to learning and leverage their hidden potential in everyday life and work scenarios. #### Syllabus Breakdown 1. **Change IS Possible**: - The course kicks off by emphasizing the inevitability of change in our lives. The first week motivates learners to uncover their hidden capabilities and learn how to adapt to new opportunities. It sets a strong foundation for personal growth and understanding that one’s assets can align with various opportunities. 2. **Getting Deeper into Happy Learning**: - Week two dives deep into effective learning strategies. Here, you’ll encounter preemptive techniques to combat procrastination, mental tricks to foster focus and relaxation, and methods to dodge common learning pitfalls. This segment promises to enhance your engagement with learning and enrich your experience. 3. **Learning and Careers**: - The focus shifts in week three to career development. You’ll explore how internal motivations and external influences shape your career trajectory and how to cultivate a “talent stack” to diversify your skills. This week is pivotal for those navigating significant career changes or contemplating their next steps. 4. **Adopting a Learning Lifestyle**: - In the final week, the course emphasizes maintaining a mindset conducive to continuous learning. It provides insider tips on selecting the best online learning resources tailored to individual needs. The takeaway here is the importance of agility in a world characterized by disruption, ensuring that you remain equipped to seize opportunities as they arise. #### Recommendations Without a doubt, **Mindshift** is a course that I highly recommend. It's not just an academic experience; it's a transformative journey. The instructors present information in an engaging way, making complex concepts accessible. Whether you're looking to break out of a career rut, discover your hidden potential, or simply enhance how you learn, this course provides actionable insights that can be immediately applied. It caters particularly well to those who might feel overwhelmed by rapid changes in their professional landscapes and offers them valuable coping strategies. The emphasis on a "learning lifestyle" encourages not just knowledge acquisition, but setting the stage for lifelong learning, which is increasingly essential in today's world. In conclusion, if you're ready to invest in yourself and your future, **Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential** on Coursera is an excellent choice. Engage with this course and unlock your capabilities—your future self will thank you!

Syllabus

Change IS possible

In today's world, change is the only constant. This means that whatever stage you are in life, you need to keep yourself open and able to change. How can you do this? In three ways: Learn more about your hidden capabilities and assets. Learn more about learning effectively. Learn about matching your assets with the opportunities that face you. In this week, we'll dive into these three important areas!

Getting Deeper into Happy Learning

Key to your ability to mindshift is being able to learn effectively. This week, we’ll dive deeper into this vital area. Getting yourself motivated to tackle procrastination can sometimes be a challenge in learning, so we’ll give you some important tips here. But we’ll also give insights into mental tricks to help you focus, relax, and reframe if stress intrudes. We’ll also show you how to avoid common learning pitfalls. Welcome and enjoy!

Learning and Careers

This week, we’ll be talking about how your own career can develop and change through your life. Your own internal feelings about what you want to do can play a critical role in your long-term happiness. But society and culture can also have a dramatic effect on your career choices and decisions—as can your parents, family, and friends. We’ll talk about second-skilling yourself, and developing a talent stack of average talents that can combine into a formidable asset. We’ll also talk about various tactics and techniques to help you survive career changes and upheavals. Welcome and enjoy!

Adopting a Learning Lifestyle

In this final week of the course, we'll be exploring how and why to keep yourself in "mindshift" mode. We'll give you all sorts of insider tips on how to pick out the best online learning with materials that are right for you. And we'll also talk about other ways of learning—ways that can make you "the smartest person in the room." Disruption lies ahead in the world—this week, we'll help you seize the advantage. Off we go for our final week of Mindshift!

Overview

Mindshift is designed to help boost your career and life in today’s fast-paced learning environment. Whatever your age or stage, Mindshift teaches you essentials such as how to get the most out of online learning and MOOCs, how to seek out and work with mentors, the secrets to avoiding career ruts (and catastrophes) and general ruts in life, and insights such as the value of selective ignorance over general competence. We’ll provide practical insights from science about how to learn and change

Skills

Learning To Learn Lifelong Learning Pomodoro Technique Meta Learning

Reviews

Thank you so McMaster University & the professors who carried out the course so very well. I hope the course will help me in my life taking important decisions. I learnt a lot through this course.

I enjoyed this course very much. I am 64-years-old and this course taught me that you can learn anything new no matter what age you are. I am now broadening my passions and learning is a lot more fun.

I enjoyed this MOOC. It is very well-done and clearly covers the topics of mindshifting along with career advancement. Also--good illustrations and visuals/sounds which assist in the learning process.

Mindshift aims to arm you with a mindset that it is never too late to learn new things.\n\nThis course is best taken in conjunction with Learning How to Learn as a lot of the concepts are shared.

I love and understand why we need to keep learning every day. Thankfully, I'm learning from MOOCs. I reflect about my online learning habits, so I try to broaden my horizon with more new activities.