- Mastery can be considered either a process of doing something that gives you a sense of achievement and control; or a process in order to grow our skills.
- The 10,000-hour rule isn’t a rule at all, it comes from a mistaken understanding of Anders Ericsson’s research.
- Anders Ericsson suggests: “in pretty much any area of human endeavour, people have a tremendous capacity to improve their performance, as long as they train in the right way”.
- Training in right way: deliberate practice, consciously targeting areas of development (often just outside of our comfort zone) with measured progress, goals and awareness to make adjustment to the process.
- Mindsets are core beliefs – and can fundamentally affect how we think and behave. Our beliefs may lead us to helplessness (this is just how I am), or a belief that we can develop in any chosen area.
- Growth Mindset (or learning mindset) relates to how we think about intelligence (or smartness, or our raw ability to acquire knowledge and skills). A fixed mindset is characterised by the belief ‘this is how smart I am, and no matter what I do it won’t change’. A growth mindset is characterised by ‘I can always improve if I put in the right kind of effort’.
- Stress Mindset is our core belief about the impact of stress. One view is that stress is a bad thing and I want to get rid of it, whereas another is that stress is a response designed to give me the resources I need to deal with a challenge.
Developing Mastery
Deliberate Practice components (from Anders Ericsson):
Related video from Ted:ed on practice and how the brain Myelinates our brain networks:
Mindset
Growth (learning) Mindset
“I didn’t get the drawing gene!” And example that there is not drawing gene: Draw Right – Before and After 5 day drawing course pictures
Failure is part of the process of learning (in fact, it’s important):
Growth (learning) Mindset summary:
Stress Mindset
Stress Mindset perspectives:
Kelly McGonigal’s introduction on TED to Stress Mindset:
We also referenced BBC’s The Wonderful World of Blood with Michael Mosley (from 25th May 2015) as a reminder that short-term stress can have a beneficial effect (in this case increasing the Killer Cells to boost the imune system.