When looking back on the semester I have greatly progressed in my journey to have more of an innovative mindset. After practicing the main habits for about four months now, I have been able to experience the world in a different way. With a child’s eye, I have gained back a sense of wonder. By embracing ambiguity and failing forward, I have become more comfortable with acceptance and change. Finally, with creative confidence, I learned that the most unrealistic ideas can turn into fantastic realistic ideas once you are confident enough to express it.
I never really noticed how many bad habits I had been practicing before this class. When looking at the main habits, I didn’t really have any of these prior to this class. Before, I was super stubborn and thought there only had to be one way to do things. During my journey this semester, I have been enlightened and had a pretty big change of mindset. The habit that I believe I progressed with the most over the semester is failing. In the past when I failed at something I would be really sour and give up which is a really negative reaction. Through activities like mind maps and the prototype challenge, the idea that feedback and time can help fix something to make it better, finally sunk into my system.
Not going to lie, before taking this class I thought MIDE 300 wasn’t going to be the most beneficial class in my academic journey. However, I was wrong. I have learned more life skills that are far more beneficial than knowing something like what the powerhouse of the cell is. This class challenged me to be more receptive to ideas and that failing is not just okay, it’s probably the best thing that can happen to a project because you can understand what you did wrong and think about how many ways you can do better. Both of these ideas do not have to just apply it to MIDE, but for any class or work project. Overall, these habits not only create an innovative character, but I feel like it overall creates a better person. With a child’s eye, it makes the world seem more interesting. With embracing ambiguity you are now more flexible and ready to change. With failing forward, you have a less negative attitude if something doesn’t go your way and you find ways you can better yourself or something else. Finally, with creative confidence, you develop determination, even if you are unsure, you are able to keep pushing forward in order to meet your end goal.