GROWTH: a 6 letter word and also the mindset worth adopting

If you are still unfamiliar with Carol Dweck's work on mindset, you may need to come out of the cave you've been hiding in. I'll give you my own take on the growth mindset and what it means to me.

1. Grasp the essentials of a "growth" mindset. Your brain is plastic and has the ability to evolve. By practicing and putting effort into your tasks, you can continue to learn and grow. Don't forget that your brain cannot multitask - so, one thing at a time!
2. Reward yourself with more challenge. When you label yourself, or someone else labels you, as smart you tend to have the "fixed" mindset which leads to becoming complacent and taking the easy way out. As you succeed at the simpler tasks, reward yourself with aiming higher or doing something outside your comfort zone. For me, it's writing this blog. Regularly. :)
3. Own your failures. Alina Tugend in her book Better by Mistake explains that acknowledging and identifying mistakes can lead us to lead happier and healthier lives. The fear of failure itself is what leads us to be less innovative and creative. Make mistakes, because that's one of the best ways to learn.
4. Who said you're not good enough? If you tell yourself you're not good enough, you will believe it. Give yourself a fighting chance, take a risk and believe that you can do it.
5. Talent decoded. There have been many authors that have debunked the myth that talent is innate. Chief among them is Daniel Coyle who, in The Talent Code, writes about the three essentials of "deliberate practice":
1. Deep Practice: Includes absorbing the material, breaking into chunks, slowing it down, rinsing and repeating.
2. Ignition: Having (or creating) a passion that fuels (ignites) your fire and inspires you.
3. Master Coaching: Someone to give an outside eye to what you are doing and encouraging you to keep challenging yourself.
6. Health. Of course, in all of this, you have to realize that the investment in anything that you are doing affects your mind, body and spirit. Give yourself time to take a break, nourish yourself with healthy food and books, step away from media and immerse yourself in nature.

What are some of your growth mindset ideas and habits?

Alfie Kohn says "Bad job" to saying "Good job" - 5 strategies to CLEAR the way.

Alfie Kohn, in his article titled Five Reasons to Stop Saying "Good Job!", talks about the pitfalls of saying the words "Good job" to children citing examples that may create as he calls them "praise junkies" among other things. He gives concrete ways to use alternatives to saying the two most overused words that most english speaking children hear.

My take on all this is the fact that there is a need, in school and at home, of engaging our kids more. The more we dismiss them, the more they become complacent and only do the things they are asked because they are after a grade, positive (in an oxymoron-ish kind of way) reinforcement, a pat on the back, or to hear the words "Good job!".

Here are 5 CLEAR strategies whereby we can engage young people:

1. Conversate. Ask them some questions about the project, activity or task that they performed.

2. Learn. What did you learn? An easy question that can lead to more of number 1.

3. Effortitfy. (I'm a certifiable #wordMangler) Focus on the effort that they put into it. Try saying "You put in some great effort into that ….." - Carol Dweck has a ton to say on how mindset affects success. To put it simply, focus on the process not the product!

4. Awareness. Be aware of the impact your words can have on a young person. Pause and reflect before speaking.

5. Reflection. Just reflect on the the facts. Some achievements are just that, plain facts. You don't need to extol the virtues of a child being able to ride their bike. Just saying "You did it" or "You are riding your bike" is reflection enough of their achievement. Then tell them the story of how you first learned how to ride your bike.

Please share some of the strategies you would use. How would you go about not saying "Good job" anymore?

Five SAT type questions about the SAT (this post is somewhat SATirical)

1) What does the SAT actually measure?

a. Your ability to take the SAT b. Your ability to juggle 6 balls while balancing on one foot atop a large bouncy ball 
c. How much money your parents make 
d. The distance between Portland, OR and Portland, ME
e. Almost all of the above

The SAT is widely used for college admissions and the College Board website states that SAT is "designed to assess your academic readiness for college". It has been argued that the SAT might actually measure the amount of money the test takers parents make. A report from the New York Times broke down the family income and test result statistics into the following graph:

Draw your own conclusions, or paint them if you would like. I just see lines that point to the SAT standing for Symbolic Affluence Test.

2) Which of the statements below is TRUE?

a. The SAT is totally unbiased in regards to race, culture and ethnicity

b. The SAT accurately measures student performance in their first year of college

c. The SAT is a highly valued indicator of intelligence

d. The SAT teaches you that life is unfair

Many studies show that the SAT is biased when it comes to culture and ethnicity. Roy Freedle published a paper in Harvard Educational Review titled “Correcting the SAT’s Ethnic and Social-Class Bias: A Method for Reestimating SAT Scores.”, and received strong criticism from proponents of the SAT. The Harvard Educational Review created a blog to engage both parties in fruitful dialogue. While that attempt was fruitless (no comments on the blog to date), the Huffington Post revived the discussion when Maria Veronica Santelices and Mark Wilson wrote an article citing Freedle and confirming that there was a correlation between item difficulty and performance on that item across racial and ethnic groups. Dr. Ibram X. Kendi took the discussion further when he examined the unsecured pre-tests portion of the SAT calling it a "discriminatory process" and citing a study done by Rosner of The Princeton Review Foundation where he puts forward the thesis that the "use of point bi-serial correlation, the eliminating of the Black questions, the retaining of White questions is the heartbeat of racism in the SAT."

3) Is there a gender bias in the SAT?

a. Yes

b. No

c. I don't have enough data

d. I have too much data

E = mc2

As evidenced from the image above, even Kaplan, the "industry leader in test prep for more than 70 years", admits that there is a gender gap (aka gender bias) in the SAT. The 2013 SAT results show that there is a 32 point gender gap that has existed for well over 40 years. This gap exists despite the fact that the females have better academic performances, are overrepresented in AP and Honors level math and science and are more likely to take fours years of math and science. This bias has been talked about in articles again and again and again, yet still nothing has been done about it. The SAT is hereby known as Superior Achievement (in case of) Testosterone.

4) Which of the following is a strong indicator that one will do well on the SAT?

  a. Be a man

b. Be a rich man

c. Be a rich white man

d. Have a positive attitude while taking the exam

e. Study smarter

An article titled, "The SAT Is Rigged Against Girls" from 2010 states that the SAT questions are traditionally connected with masculine subjects like sports, physical science and business. Carol Dwyer’s 1976 report documented referenced here, suggests that in the first years of the SAT, females showed superior performance, upsetting the ETS policy makers. Thus, they added more masculine subjects so that males would feel more confident in answering the questions.

SAT Success Secrets interviewed a student named Kayla who raised her SAT score by 320 points. She shared that all she did was think positive and study smarter. When you google "improve your SAT score" you get over 2 million hits. That's 2 million different places you can go to for advice on how to improve your score. According to Kathleen Steinberg, from the College Board, students who take the SAT test twice only "increase their scores by about 30 points." Again, paint your own conclusions, but changing the score on a "standardized" test that is supposed to test innate ability to perform in college should be the the brightest red flag in a sea of red flags. 

Hint: red flags mean something is horribly wrong.

5) How standard is the SAT?

a. Very

Ok, so this last question isn't very SAT-ish. Point being, why be standard? Really, what is the point testing the "same"-ness in people? Don't we want to see how differently we all think? Don't we want to measure how we grow as human beings, how we contribute to society, how we learn to cooperate and solve problems on a large (or small) scale? I certainly do not define success by a grade or a number. Nor by anyone's ability to fill in a circle with that sharply honed number 2 pencil.

How do you define success?

One Thing at a Time - SingleTasking. Do it!

Multi-tasking VS Single-tasking-- who wins this round? If you Google (isn't it funny how we use "Google" as a verb now?) ‘multitasking’ you will get 5,190,000 results while 543,000 for ‘singletasking’. It is quite evident that many of us are still clinging on to the concept known as multitasking to increase productivity, or whatever… While you may call yourself, or others may call you the ultimate multitasked, you tend to feel unproductive. Perhaps your brain needs to take a chill pill.

If you have read the article Is Multitasking Actually a Myth?, you will realize that multitasking is actually impossible. Studies show that the brain can only focus on one thing at a time. Period. Multitasking isn’t something that can be learned or practiced, it’s actually done by making the brain do one activity for a short period of time, switch gears, then making the brain do another. Rinse and repeat. It all happens so quickly that it seems instantaneous, but in fact, it isn’t. The small amount of time it takes for our brain to switch from one activity to another is similar to switching car gears -- well, except that when you switch from task 1 to task n, your focus will end up going back to the first task, making you start over and over again every time you switch. It may sound great if you’re the masochistic type, but unfortunately, multitasking is unhealthy for your brain. Stanford University researchers found out that multitasking will make you use your brain less efficient by 40%. Think about it, the more errors or missed information, the more additional workload!

Instead of switching tasks, try switching to single-tasking. It’s more productive, less stressful on the brain and it will keep you sane, we hope... It’s actually easy, as long as you have the right mindset then you’re good to go. Remember that the key to single-tasking is focus - one task at a time. Schedule your day -- be organized. Diminish distractions from your workplace and be selective when responding to crises. There are apps that will help you stay focused, such as Self Control and Concentrate.

Work saner and simpler by NOT multitasking. Live life to the fullest while being efficient because single-tasking is better than multi-tasking! As Alexander Graham Bell once said, ‘concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought into focus.’ You may have a hard time at first, especially when you’re used to juggling all tasks at once, but rest assured -- it’s worth all the practice (the single-tasking, not the juggling… although that has it's own benefits!). Start now by taking the first step -- which is giving yourself permission to do one thing at a time. And take breaks. You can’t have an meaningful life if you don’t enjoy it, so stay sane and single-task - also, go outside, breathe in some fresh air and stretch (or fly). Enjoy the now!

Inbox Zero - a Myth or Reality?

As I wake up and get ready for work, like many other adults, I check my email and realize that some people (mostly spammers, wrongdoers and insomniacs) have been active while I've been away from my technected (yes, there will be words like this that I will use) world. I furrow my brow, scratch my head and proceed to delete the obviously delete-able messages and onward to the holy grail of "Inbox Zero".

Now, Inbox Zero is a concept that was introduced to me while reading David Allen's legendary book, "Getting Things Done". Basically, it means going through your email at some point during the day, deleting/archiving messages that you have read or that do not matter, responding to emails that will take less than 30 seconds to reply to, and moving the ones that need further action, reading, etc to another folder until you have no more emails left in your inbox.

In life I have found several issues with this:

1. Emails keep coming in - inbox zero lasts a very little time for me.
2. I would have to create quote a few extra folders to keep up with the workflow such as: action, waiting, read, reference, delegate, protocol. Multiply those by 2 for personal and work and it becomes unwieldy...
3. The, I would actually have to make the time to follow up and go to the other folders. Adding that in to an already tight schedule daily schedule seems unnecessary.

For me, the amount of follow-up emails in one day (about 50 or so), seems to be much better managed in my inbox. So, rather than inbox zero, I like to call my system inbox-10(ish). I definitely do have my synced and shared calendars (iCal and Google Calendar), an awesome application for lists (Wunderlist), and my handy note-taking application (Evernote) that complete my eco-system. These are all available on tablet, computer and phone, of course…

PS For those people with more than 1000 emails in your inbox. Delete them all. Starting from scratch is sometimes just more better (yes, the more is used for emphasis).