What were you thinking when you sat down to take the practice test?

Our thoughts and beliefs have a tremendous amount of power over us. Limiting mindsets keep us from breaking through to our full potential. This mindset limits us by telling us that something is too hard, too scary, too expensive, too ... you fill in the blank. When we believe those things, we will not be able to push through the challenges to get to where we want to go.

Does that mean that we can't actually do the thing we are trying to accomplish? Not at all. What it means is that we believe we cannot do it.

A growth mindset acknowledges that something may be difficult, but it also recognizes that we are capable of learning, growing, persevering, and reaching our goal.

This is really important!

What we tell ourselves and what others tell us about ourselves becomes our belief system.

We've got to get rid of the Stinkin' Thinkin' and get back to the truth. What is the truth? The truth is that you are more than capable of taking the ACT and doing very well on the test. You can do a lot more than you think.

Fear of the unknown hinders us. It could also be a fear of failure getting in the way.

When we tell ourselves that we cannot do something and we start to believe that we cannot do something, we actually determine the outcome before we even get started. We will self sabotage and find all sorts of excuses for why we cannot do the thing.

We set goals in a previous lesson and talked about determining the steps needed to reach our goals.  Limiting beliefs, AKA Stinkin' Thinkin' will get in the way of you taking those steps.

What are some examples of Stinkin' Thinkin'? Some students believe that their entire future, ability to get into college, and potential to earn scholarships rests solely on their ACT test score.

Let me be clear. The entirety of your future does not depend on this test.  Have you bought into the idea that it does? Your life will NOT rise and fall by this test.  It is one test.  Not the whole picture. And it just simply does not have that much power over you.  You are much more than 1 test score.  Don’t get bogged down here.

Some schools don’t require the ACT for admission (although many scholarships do require either the ACT or the SAT)

You can take the ACT more than once. Many people take it more than once. Everyone can have an “off” day on test day.