Month: November 2020

I watched an interesting Ted talk by Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard Psychologist, who talked about how people stop growing, learning, and changing due to the illusion that change happens at a slower, almost non-existent, rate than when they were younger. Its like a self-actualizing prophecy where people start to believe that who they are at their current moment, whatever age they are currently at, is where they will be forever. He argued that people change throughout their lives but due to this “illusion” they lessen their growth development, and ability to change due to a fixed mindset and a belief that change doesn’t occur, or is unable to occur, the older you get.

As an educator I strive to teach, encourage and enable students to become life-long learners. For many people education ends at the end of high school. Many people go onto trade school, college, university, etc but this is a formalized form of education. Is learning occurring for the love of learning? Is it occurring because people want to grow, change, and evolve as individuals? Unfortunately I believe for a lot of people learning stops after high-school or their formalized education. They start their career, have kids, grow old, retire, enjoy retirement, and then die. Do they change much during their life time? Sure they change – they get older, they acquire new musical tastes, they might take up a new sport for a short time, they might travel a little bit, but do they actively seek out knowledge? Do they take time to grow as individuals? Do they constantly seek out information, knowledge, and ideas? Do they create and make things? Do they change the world?

Unfortunately “the end of history illusion” that Daniel Gilbert talked about holds people back. This fixed mindset and their inability to see the future and to work towards change creates a situation where people do not change as much as they could, inhibits creative, innovative thought that might create amazing opportunities for them and the world around them.

Benjamin Hardy’s Future-Self strategy talks about how important identity and how identity drives your personality. Your ability to see, or actualize, yourself in the future is a means to create meaningful change in your future self.

Here’s the checklist for how it works:

See your future self as a different person from who you are today.

• Imagine who your future self is.
• Hold your current identity more “loosely,” knowing that who you are right now is temporary, not permanent.
• Have the courage to admit what you truly want (tell people about your future self).
• Use your new narrative, focused on your goals, to drive your daily decisions and behavior.
• Measure your progress (deliberate practice).
• Invest in your future self (escalation of commitment)
• Never be defined by who you are right now.

Who is your future self?

Where will you be in 10 years?

Who are you “chasing”?

I think that last question is an important one: WHO ARE YOU “CHASING”?

The answer to the question will help you become to the person you want to be in the future and who you believe you should be inside (Deep thoughts by Jack Hande, LOL – SNL reference from 80’s) LOL

I read an article in the Harvard Business Review and it got me thinking about life, our career choices, and our passions. When I watch shows like MasterChef I am always amazed at how many of these amazing home chefs have great jobs/careers. Many of them are professionals – lawyers, doctors, etc. Many of them have very successful businesses and are financially well off. But all these people have one thing in common – they love cooking. They are passionate about cooking – to the point that they have signed up for a show that might jump start their new career as a chef. Without this show many of these people will continue to be great home chefs but their daily job/career will probably remain the one that they chose, or was chosen for them, during their university years. But for many contestants, even if they don’t win, they go through a mind shift and realize that this passion or love is what they want to do in life. Why does it take a show to make them realize this? Why do we get stuck in a life that maybe we don’t want? Why is it that once we acquire a career its so hard to step away from it?

In the article the author, Don Cable, argues that people shouldn’t’ be following their passions or bliss but their blisters. People should invest their energy, passion, and love into the things that “you always come back to – eventually moving past the blister age – into the toughened skin stage”. At the end of the article he mentions the Japanese term, Wabi-sabi, and defines it as the “beauty caused by the personalized texture you have earned and the places you are not quite symmetrical”. Think back to those people who have a desire and need to cook, to create beautiful meals, and to transform food into something like a work of art. But their real jobs are doctors, lawyers, vets, etc. In these areas they are “perfect’ – they understand and can control their world. But in the world of cooking they are “imperfect”.  Another way of looking at Wabi-sabi is “embracing the perfection of being imperfectly you”. I think this is hard for people, very hard. How do you leave a life of control and security to a life of chance and imperfection? So much insecurity in this and people, who are conditioned to avoid this things, work hard to avoid these things. But this is where people find the most satisfaction and self-worth once they get there. The big question is how do we get people to follow their blisters in a world that shuns imperfection?

 

Article link: https://hbr.org/2020/11/what-you-should-follow-instead-of-your-passion?utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign=ascend

It’s funny how much of our lives is consumed by the little distractions in our lives. Just think about how much of your time is consumed by things like television, social media, cellphone usage, Netflix binging, etc. These things, which are mere forms of entertainment, consume massive amounts of our time and energy. This time and energy could be used to do something productive, fulfilling, creative, and ambitious. Can you imagine how much you could get done, how many books you could read, how many hobbies you could take up, how many instruments could you learn to play, etc if you were willing yo shut off these forms of distraction and place your energy and focus on something else. It makes me wonder why, we as a society, allow ourselves to be sucked into these forms of entertainment, or distraction. We only have a finite amount of time on this earth but we allow our time and our potential to be sapped by these distractions. Are we, as a human race, limiting our potential. Most of the brightest minds alive advocate for people to read more. Some of these people read hundreds of books per year. But most of us limit our growth, potential, and creativity by not creating the conditions for these to take place. Why do we choose the path of limited growth when we have the capability and ability to become much more than we are? I wonder how we can change people’s perceptions, beliefs, and mindsets? Could this problem be a consequence of our educational system? Are we destroying people’s willingness or love of learning through our Ed. System? Are we creating life long learners or people lacking the drive to learn and grow on their own? It’s something to ponder but think of the possibilities if everyone reached their true potential in our world.

If you google images of early 20th century education you will be shown a number of pictures of classrooms that are quite similar to the classrooms you attended and the ones your kids are attending. Someone’s education is a recollection of memories consisting of classrooms, different teachers, good times, bad times, lockers, fights, and so forth. People from different generations can easily discuss and talk about their education as their experiences are quite similar. Too many people this makes education a traditional institution that has stood the test of time. But too many people this reveals the major flaw of our educational system, its inability to change.

Can you imagine if cars, phones, air travel, media forms, clothing, and other forms of popular culture remained the same as the early 20th century. This statement seems absurd and ludicrous as things have to evolve and change. Nothing stays the same. Just like human beings – we grow, evolve, get old, and we get wiser. We are in a constant state of flux. But the educational system, throughout much of the world, has not evolve or changed. Its like its stuck in some temporal vortex (Star Wars term, lol) that doesn’t allow change.

One question that arises when one ponders this situation, is ‘What is preventing change within education?’ Why does the institution of education remain stagnant, seemingly stuck in quicksand, unable to adjust to the ever-changing world around it? Education, which is one of  the most important institutions, within society, has been unable, or unwilling, to adapt over time. Is it perfect already? It must be, right? What other institution would disable change if it wasn’t perfect in every way? This question should be the one that we, as educators, should be pondering. Forget about if we should add more creativity in the classroom, or whether kids should learn more outside, or whether we should have standardized tests. These are just minor issues that create bulwarks to change and reform on an institutional scale rather than on a minor, indistinguishable level.

 

This is the 1st post of my ‘Ninja Writing’ 15 Minute Write Sessions. Thoughts will be expanded in later posts.