The Growth Mindset

#learningIsAGift ?
#rituals of #theBeautifulJourney 

I feel so lovely writing about a children’s book, as it is advertised, the book by Matthew Syed – “You Are Awesome”. As you might imagine it does have pictures, lots and nicely styled, it does have humour and stories and is easy to read.

The author wants to show the reader what makes someone excel at something, what sets Kid Average and Kid Awesome apart.

Reading through, we are being persuaded that talent is not sufficient to be Awesome and that it needs to be backed by lots of work, lots of practice. Yet,

“Not all practice is equal. Try something harder, try something new. The hard stuff. The stuff that might make your eyes water, muscles ache and your brain hurt.”

Doing the same old routine, winning against all the kids on the block won’t get you competing at the Olympics, for example. You need to challenge people that are better than you. You need to pick that task that is harder than the one you did before.

A few important things that enable progress:

• Mentors and people to practice with
• Making friends with feedback
• Appetite for hard work
• Growth mindset
  • Learning from mistakes mindset
  • Learning from others
  • Asking questions
  • Persevering

These aspects made me think about similar points made in A talk on relationships I attended two weeks ago, as success stories won’t be a one man show. Also reminded me of this proverb you might have heard before:

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” (African proverb)

How does this growth mindset manifest itself? Here are a few examples from the book:

“I’m no good at that yet, but I can be much better if I try.
I just haven’t done enough practice yet.
I wonder what practice she’s doing? Maybe I could try to follow her example.
I need to find someone to practice with me and show me the skills.
What can I do differently?
This might take me a while and I might need to ask for some help.
It doesn’t matter if I’ve made a mistake … what can I learn from this?”

And you can also have a ‘mantra’:

“I’m going to Practice Hard.
I’m going to Stick to It.
I’m going to Be Positive About It.
And I’m really Proud of It.”

Before jumping into action, the theory of marginal gains comes into play for improved efficiency and results.

“The approach comes from the idea that if you break down a big goal into small parts, and then improve on each of them, you will deliver a huge increase when you put them all together.”

Examples of component parts of a goal that could be improved individually, as presented in the book:

Marginal gains for sports

• exercise routine
• sleep pattern
• diet
• other routines

Marginal gains for exams

• revision plan
• desk
• lighting
• exercise
• pencils & pens

Ideas of questions to ask here are:

• How do I currently do this ‘component’? Anything I could do differently?
• What are my distractions and how can I remove them?
• What action, habit, do I need in order to gain extra seconds or minutes and be more efficient?

The book contains stories about the journey to success of various artists, sportspersons etc e.g. the Bronte sisters, Serena Williams, David Beckham. These stories show just how much work is behind these persons’ success, plus, that work has often started at an early age. This is not to say one can’t start a bit later and still succeed.

It’s already successful to be able to pursue success in a way that makes the journey pleasant, positive, although challenging. ? Without an appropriate mindset, I imagine there’ll be a lot of pain and achievements won’t feel quite like a success anymore.

Enjoy the journey!