Mark Twain said, “Do something every day that you don’t want to do.”
We live in an instant gratification society, and I have fallen into the same trap as so many others. I don’t want to do hard things. I don’t want to set long term goals, because those require short term objectives, and take time. At Aerial Dance, we see others who seem to climb or invert so effortlessly, and want that too. But for most of us, it doesn’t work that way, does it? So our instructors encourage us to set goals and objectives and own our learning plans, and encourage our efforts, not just our results.
I recently watched a TED Talk that was given by Stanford Professor Carol Dweck, an expert on growth mindset, a decade ago. Her research found that simply believing you can improve has an affect on your ability to do so. How we frame things has everything to do with our ability to succeed.
Dweck praised a high school in Chicago that changed their grading system so that instead of giving F grades, students would get a grade of not yet.
Why does that matter? A student with a fixed mindset brain sees failure as catastrophic. When we reward only results, students shut down when they fail. But when educators create growth mindset environments, focusing on the power of yet, students want to continue trying. Brain imaging actually shows the differences in the students who shut down when they feel failure and the ones whose neurons keep firing. How amazing is that!
Dweck also said that by reframing mistakes into opportunities, people build confidence. (Does the term “opportunity side” sound familiar to anyone?) Her final key point was that it’s more important to praise the process more than positive results that come easily.
ADWI Founder Paula is an avid reader and researcher, and as a result Aerial Dance practices have a strong science base. Without even asking, I’m pretty sure she’s familiar with Dweck’s work as the evidence is clear. We are so often reminded that if we believe we can get there and are willing to put in the work and applaud the journey, we’ve already won half the battle.
