NGMI

What does this acronym mean to you? Maybe you’ve encountered it online throughout the years in different circles and in different contexts.

Conventionally it stands for “not gonna make it”.

Maybe these four letters have already left a lasting psychological and emotional imprint on you that summons all sorts of images related to failure, adversity, and poor compatibility of your skills to conquer tough challenges.

Mindset is often important and our unconscious reflexive thought patterns contribute to this.

I’d like to propose a shift in mindset.

Instead of passively allowing your mind to interpret this acronym to not gonna make it which might affect your mood and mindset depending on the context and soak in whatever meaning your mind attaches to the conventional meaning of this acronym, I say you should train your mind to reinterpret it as Nurturing Growth Mindset Intuitively.

Now what does this mean?

A growth mindset is the belief that your abilities and intelligence can be developed and improved through dedication, hard work, learning from mistakes, and persistence. It stands in contrast to a fixed mindset, which is the belief that your abilities and intelligence are largely innate and unchangeable.

Some of the key aspects of a growth mindset are:

• Intelligence and Abilities are Malleable: The core belief is that you can get smarter and better at things through effort and learning.
• Embrace Challenges: People with a growth mindset see challenges as opportunities for growth and learning, rather than threats to their self-esteem.
• Persist Through Obstacles: They don’t give up easily when faced with setbacks. Instead, they view obstacles as opportunities to learn and find new strategies.
• See Effort as the Path to Mastery: They understand that hard work and dedication are essential for achieving their goals and developing their skills.
• Learn from Criticism: They welcome feedback, even negative criticism, as a valuable source of information for improvement.
• Find Inspiration in the Success of Others: Instead of feeling threatened by others’ achievements, they see them as a source of motivation and learning.

In essence, a growth mindset is about believing in your potential for development and embracing the journey of learning and improvement, even when it’s difficult. It fosters resilience, a love of learning, and a drive for continuous self-improvement.

It means embracing failure and adversity and turning them into fuel for motivation and inner strength. It means anticipating challenges before situations and learning from them after. In life events where there are multiple outcomes, then viewing failure as fuel this way will make it so that your mind will interpret any situations with adversity as win-win opportunities.

Did you succeed in what you wanted to do? Great, that’s a win under your belt. Did you fail in what you wanted to do? Great, you get the opportunity to use the information you gained from that situation to learn and grow so your future self does better the next time they encounter a similar situation. This also allows you to build calluses in your mindset. Battle scars for your ego and your identity.

That’s the GM middle part of the acronym, and “nurturing” does not require much explanation, but what about “intuitively”?

Herein lies the trick. If you override any negative baggage associated with the acronym “ngmi” with “nurturing growth mindset”, then you can eventually fool your brain into reflexively nurturing a growth mindset within you without conscious effort or reasoning by attaching the “intuitively” part at the end. A sort of noetic trojan horse to boost the effects of the initial mindset shift from failure to thrive into opportunity for growth.

Nurturing a growth mindset is important for both the solarpunk and hopepunk movements since both of them deal with substantial systemic issues related to society, culture and how humans have lived through modern times. These challenges can be daunting to tackle, but you can start lighting a fire to brandish in the future by being tough, not backing down when things get rough, and doing your part to make sure that the next generation will have enough. Light the way as a beacon of hope to inspire others and act as a ray of sunshine to nurture the world.

Now this wouldn’t be a geek culture website if I didn’t insert some comic book references, so here’s a quote from one of marvel’s heroes afflicted with heavy psychological baggage: Moon Knight. 

(Moon Knight #2, 2021)