I read an interesting article today on mindset research done on various age groups and walks of life. Go ahead, read it, I'll wait.
The interesting parts for me is that as long as you have a growth-mindset, you will always be able to improve yourself, whether it be skills, emotional, etc.
If you have that fixed mindet, you'll be stuck in a rut until death gets you out of it.
Now, for me, thinking about my mindset, I think I'm a mix between the two, where I continuously try to improve on things that interest me, and have a fixed mindset on things that don't. I will certainly try to change this perception, but I think it will be a hard fight with the ego for anyone to change this in their adult years.
What I can do for my kids, is to nurture this growth-mindset, and try to get rid of the fixed-mindset completely. I think my parents got it right most of the time, I'll have to go for some advice on this.
The way I plan to nurture this for a start, is to praise them for the effort they put in, and not necessarily for the achievement at the end.
In a way I'm already doing this with Josh.
He's been giving up on games if he doesn't get it right after a few tries, and would then come and ask me to get past the part where he's stuck, so he can continue. At first I helped him, but then realised that he gives up way too quickly if there's an easier way out, like asking me. So now I keep on sending him back with the message that I will not help him until he's tried that particular part of the game at least 50 times. The first day he game back to ask after every few tries, but now he's playing on his own, and rarely asks me to help him.
Your comments?
Hi Boet, baie interessante reading. Ek probeer tot n mate dit klaar met Clivie want ek wou nie he hy moet so gou opgee nie….werk nogal partykeer. (nou moet ek dit nog net op myself toepas, hee hee hee)
Ek hou van jou naam: Shaved Soapbox 🙂
hoekom werk die Abigail tag nie?
hey, en hoekom is my prentjie so scary!!!!!
Is jou prentjie nou beter. Die Abigail tag werk, maar daar is net een post op die oomblik.
Also, please leave comments in English, for our international readers.
Thanks
Baldy
In order to grow on a long term basis one must set two different goals to yourself or to your kids. The first is to achieve certain set targets such as getting a problem right, mastering a game or any such learning type things. The next is to go against the norm, ie: you must always go with the flow, how about going against the flow. Do not start bad habits this way (smoking, drugs, etc.) but why is there a rainbow after a storm, why is the sky blue? etc. things such as applied physics to explain why nature is as it is. Try Bonsai as a long term hobby and see nature in action. Nature is a great way to experiment with. I once had a lecturer that simulated the different weather patterns in a home made "cage". That interested him away from the shop, this was a great way to see nature in action complete with lightning strikes and all. That takes it to the extreme I know but that is what it takes sometimes.
As parents we usually mentioned some interesting aspect and then watched with great attention to the different avenues that then took. Another was to get extracurricular training where different challenges were given to the kids to solve.
Passion for a subject must be generated with some or lots of assistance to get the kid started.