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TEDx Talks
Published: 2012-11-19
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN34FNbOKXc
what do you think is the key to achieving our goals our success some people suggest things like hard work focus persistence but research shows the Herald byproducts of something else something much more powerful that we can all develop it is this very special something that really is critical to success and if what I'm here to discuss with you today someone who has achieved great success if
Josh which can a chess international master and the subject of the movie searching for Bobby Fischer nobody has won all the national test championships that Josh has but even more impressive when he turned twenty one he took on the talents of mastering something completely new and very different from chess martial arts he realized that he had learned how to grow and succeed and he could apply
that understanding to other domains and so he devoted himself relentlessly to tie teach want after lots of hard work many failures and some broken joints he became a great martial artist and he won two world championships now he's off to jujitsu so what is just say is the greatest thing that ever happened to him believe it or not he says loosing my first national test championship
because it helped me avoid many of the psychological traps to keep track of that Josh avoided was believing that he was special that he was smarter than other people in that he you have to work hard he could have thought of himself as a prodigy but he doesn't think that he has extraordinary intelligence qui cesse the moment we believe that success is determined by name green
level of ability we will be brittle in the face of adversity saw suffering quotes Stanford professor Carol Dweck who discovered that some people see intelligence or abilities as fixed what is called a fixed mindset what other people see them as just us as qualities that can be developed a growth mindset more important doctor Direk discovered that these two different mindsets lead to very different behaviors and
results in a study she did with doctor Lisa Blackwell several hundred seventh graders were surveyed to determine which my said each student hide and then there were track for two years results showed that the students with a growth mindset those who thought they could change their own intelligence increased their grades over time while those with a fix my said that not you can see the trend
the gap in performance just white in some white is over time the difference between these two groups I different perspective on intelligence other studies have shown similar facts for our mindset about other abilities like problem solving playing sports managing people or anything else you'd like that's the limit in the key to success it's not simply effort or focus our recipients but it is the growth my
said that creates them that my city self is critical research shows that when we directly try to build great or persistence it is not nearly as effective as addressing the mindset that underlies them how many of us to think of ourselves as not mad people or creative or sociable or athletic or conversely that where naturals if we're to fulfil our potential we have to start thinking
differently we have to realize that our we're not chained to our current capabilities neuroscience shows that the brain is very malleable and we can change our own ability to think and to perform in fact many of the most accomplished people of our era were thought up by experts to have no future people like Charles Darwin Lucille Ball Marcel Proust and many others but today along with
all great achievers from mows art to Einstein built their abilities but the key insight that elected to walk away with today that when we realize that when we realize that we can change our own abilities when we have a growth my said we bring our game to new levels so how does the growth mice and do that it turns out that there are physiological manifestations to
my set brain scans show that for people with a fix my said the brain becomes most active when receiving information about how the person performing such as a greater score but for people with a growth mice in the brain because most active when receiving information about what they could do better next time in other words people with a fix my said worry the most about how
they're judged well those with the growth my said focused the most on learning there are consequences of my said people to fix my since the effort as a bad thing something that only people with low capabilities need while those with the growth my since the effort as what makes a smart as the way to grow and when they hit a set back or failure people with
a fix my said tend to conclude that during capable so to protect their ego they lose interest or withdraw we observe that as lack of motivation but behind that is the fix my set whereas people with a growth my should understand that setbacks are part of growth so when they hit one they find a way around it like just waits can did when he lost interest
or a martial arts research clearly shows these effects of my set in one study that Dr directed with doctor Claudia Mueller they had children do a set of puzzles and then the priest the kids to some of the kids they said well that's a really good score you must be smart of this that's fix my surprise because support trace intelligence or abilities as a fixed quality
two other kids they said while that's a really good score you must've tried really hard that's growth my surprise because it focuses on the process then they ask the kids okay what could oppose a would you like to do next an easy one or a hard one the majority of the kids who receive the fix my surprise chose to do the easy puzzle while the great
majority of those who receive the growth my surprise chose to challenge themselves then all the reek then the researchers gave a hard puzzle to all of the kids because they're interesting seeing what confronting difficulty with due to their performance look at what happened when the kids later went back to the set of easier problems that they started with the kids who receive the fix my surprise
did significantly worse than they had originally well those who receive the growth might the priest did better and to top it off at the very end kits were asked to report their scores and the kids who receive the growth the fix my surprise light up other scores over three times more often than those who receive the growth my surprise they did not have another way to
cope with their failure the difference between these two groups one short little sentence how often we praise kids for being smart or for being great at something we've been told that this will raise their self esteem but instead it puts them in a fix my said they become afraid of challenges and they lose confidence when things had hard as just weeks can says it is incredibly
important for parents to make their feedback process related I suppose to pricing or criticizing talent if we win because were winner then when we lose he must make a solicitor the studies show not only the mechanisms by which might affect performance but they also show something else that's very important they show that we can change my sets and that's important because most of us perfect my
cis about something another study that showed that we can change my set is one in which black and Blackwell did a workshop with seventh graders to instill a growth my sit in them as a result of the workshop this students gain more interesting learning and they work harder and it's a result of that their grades improved other studies have shown that when we teach our growth
mindset not only the city improve achievement for students as a whole but it also narrows the achievement gap because the effects are most pronounced for the students who face negative stereotypes such as minority students and girls in math after the folk mostly about children but mice it affects all of us in our workplaces managers with fix my sets don't welcome feedback as much and they don't
mentor employees as much and employees with growth my said about specific skills like negotiations become far better at those skills than people with fixed views my sis can either help both so of big social issues a recent study showed that when we expose Israelis and Palestinians to the idea that groups can change the increase their attitudes toward one another they improve them and they enhance their
willingness a compromise and to work for peace we also see the effects of my fifth on relationships sports health how is it possible that as a society we're not asking schools to develop a growth my seven children our myopic efforts to teach some facts concepts and even critical thinking skills is likely to fail if we don't also deliberately teach him the essential beliefs that will allow
them to succeed not only in school but also beyond there's a lot that we can do to change my sets but here are three things that any of us can do we still across my signin ourselves and those around us first recognize that the growth my said he's not only beneficial but it's also supported by science neuroscience shows that the brain changes it becomes more capable
when we work hard to improve ourselves second learn and teach others about how to develop our abilities learn about deliberate practice and what makes for effective effort when we understand how to develop our abilities we strengthen our conviction that we're in charge of them and third listen for your fix my set voice and when you hear it talk back with a growth my sad voice if
