With Winning In Mind: Focus on Performance (Introduction)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Lanny Bassham's With Winning in Mind (2012) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

In this book With Winning in Mind (2012), Lanny Bassham writes, "What separates winners from others is mainly the way they THINK." From interviewing hundreds of Olympic winning athletes, they all answered that 90% of their games is MENTAL. How much time do average athletes spend on training mental part of the game? Usually answer is the same: very little or less than 10%. Again: What separates winners from others is mainly the way they THINK.

When athletes have the mindset that they EXPECT to perform well, winning is automatically an option. For others, hope or wish is their mindset. If you want to be a winner, the desired outcome needs to be CONCRETE in your mind. What's important here is the PROCESS. This is primary. Think about executing mental and physical processes, not about winning. Thinking about winning can pull thoughts away from the process. So, you need to think about PROCESS.

In business, for example, think about how you can improve your mental and business processes, rather than making a certain amount of money. "One thing is certain, however," writes Lanny, "your worth as a person is not equal to your score." Self-worth is not equal to net-worth. Lanny explains, "So, should we be concerned at all about winning? Certainly. And the best focus, in my view, is on a winning performance, not on finishing on top. I suggest that your goal set on how to win performance on the day of competition instead of goal setting to win the competition. What is the difference you ask? If your goal set to have a winning performance you will always be process-oriented and not outcome-oriented. You will be much less likely to over-try in the competition because you are always focused on the next step and not counting your score."

This is really critical for goal setting.

Focus on performance.

Have a Winning Mindset!

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck: You're Wrong About Everything... But So Am I (Chapter 6 Summary)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life (2016) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

“Being wrong opens us up to the possibility of change.
Being wrong brings the opportunity for growth”

(Mark Manson)

Learning is not the process of going from wrong to right: it is the process of evolving from very wrong to less wrong. This is because learning is an endless process. Rather than obsessing over finding the one right answer, Manson recommends that we visualize ourselves chipping away at the ways that we are wrong so that with each passing day, we are less wrong.

Certainty is a fallacy that prevents us from seeking new way to grow. If we are certain that no one will ever find us attractive, we prevent ourselves from seeking a romantic partner who accepts us as we are. If we are certain that a new experience will be painful, we miss out on the chance to see if it could actually become a positive, learning experience. Our minds and emotions are often faulty. Our brains and memories are imperfect and subject to a thousand forms of self-sabotage. Without constantly questioning ourselves and our beliefs, we risk becoming destructive in our zeal to prove ourselves right. Uncertainty prompts us to explore and progress towards being less wrong.

Manson’s advice is harsh: We have to kill ourselves. Not physically, but psychologically. Who we are changes every day as we process new data from our experiences. If a person is afraid to let go of their old self, they never develop a new, better self. In every situation, we must ask ourselves if we might be wrong, what it would mean if we were wrong, and what kind of problems – good or bad – might result from our wrongness.

F*ck! Acknowledge that you are often wrong,

And that learning is just the process of becoming “less wrong.”

I Wonder #3 How Was Glass Discovered?

It was discovered that glass forms when melted solid materials are cooled quickly, so that they do not produce crystals. The main ingredients for making glass are sand, soda ash, or potash and lime, melted together at a very high temperature. Since these materials are found in abundance in many parts of the world, the secret of glassmaking could have been discovered in many countries.

The Romans were great glassmakers and used glass as a coating for walls. By the time of the Christian era glass was already being used for windowpanes.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

How to Nurture Your Child to Be Creative #5 Praise the Process, Not the Results

If your child runs to you proudly presenting a new painting or model they’ve made, it’s any parent’s natural instinct to offer praise. However, over-enthusiastic praise can be unhelpful. Studies carried out by psychologist Professor Wulf-Uwe Meyer from the University of Bielefeld, Germany, reveal that from a very young age children are very cynical about whether praise is genuine or not. His studies found that by the time they reach primary school, children can become cynical to the point where they no longer really believe any praise and therefore truly genuine appreciation begins to lose its value.

So, it is vital to focus on praising the creative process rather than the creative product. Well respected studies by psychologist Dr. Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, suggest that we should take care to praise the effort and the process of doing the work, rather than commenting on the results. This will help your child understand that their creative work will become better with practise. “For example, tell them you really love the colours they chose in this painting, or that you know how hard they worked on their guitar practice to make that song sound so beautiful,” says Dweck. Dweck also revealed that if you focus on praising the process in a sensitive yet honest way, your child is far more likely to feel confident in the creative work they do, to recover (more quickly) from setbacks and better enjoy what they are doing. “Ultimately the way you praise doesn’t just affect how confident your child is,” says Dweck, “but also how intelligent or skilled they will become.”

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Change Your Life: Think and Act Purposefully

“Rumination inevitably backfires. It merely compounds our misery.

It’s a heroic attempt to solve a problem that it is just not capable of solving”

(Mark Williams)

We often ruminate about a problem we face, obsessively playing and replaying the scenario in our mind. We tend to believe that rumination will help us overcome discomfort or unhappiness, but in fact replaying the scenario over and over in our mind usually makes things worse. In the words of psychologist Mark Williams and his colleagues, “Rumination is part of the problem, not part of the solution.” On the other hand, purposeful thinking – whether through writing in a journal or verbalizing our thoughts – is a much better way of dealing with psychological and emotional challenges. Purposeful action – actually doing something that could make us feel better – is a lot more helpful than allowing chaotic and usually very negative thinking to wreak havoc on our emotions.

Do this: Instead of focusing on the helplessness of your situation, which gets you nowhere, you could choose to engage in an activity that will help you feel better as well as perform better. Begin by creating a personal blog or/and writing your thoughts and feelings about the situation. Writing will help you feel better, and the clarity you reach will help you commit to taking concrete steps toward meeting the challenges you face today.

Don’t obsessively replay a scenario,

Think and act purposefully.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

 References:

1. Choose the Life You Want: 101 Ways to Create You Own Road to Happiness by Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD (New York: The Experiment, 2012)

2. The Mindful Way Through Depression: Feeling Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness by J.M.G. Williams (New York: The Guilford Press, 2007).

How to Spark Your Creative Mind

“All human beings have the capacity to generate novel, original, clever, or ingenious products, solutions, and techniques. Creative human beings develop that capacity… Creative people take risks and frequently push the boundaries of their perceived limits” (Art Costa).

“A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimensions”
(Oliver Wendell Holmes).

Creativity can be hard to define. How do you describe the “Eureka!” moment when a person experiences a creative insight? Some researchers define creativity as combining existing elements in an innovative way that creates a new purpose (for example, motor + bicycle = motorcycle). Others see creativity as the art of generating novel ideas from taking a fresh look at how things are interrelated (for example, as Charles Cave writes, “…noting the regular diet of ladybugs inspired organic farmers to bring ladybugs in to consume crop-destroying aphids”).

Thinking about what is creative may call to mind images such as street buskers playing guitar and drummer banging out a complex rhythm at Waterfront Kuching or the designs for the Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) Sarawak building. Creativity, however, encompasses much more than music and art. Creativity gives rise to innovative ideas and products that bring changes both great and small.

Consider the following examples of creative innovations that have had an impact; Art Fry and Spence Silver invented the Post-it^TM in 1980, enabling people to save paper and protect documents by using removable notes; agricultural chemist George Washington Carver developed the revolutionary method of crop rotation – alternating soil-depleting crops with soil-enriching ones – allowing land to be used more efficiently; Jim Henson revolutionized children’s television and the way children learn about the world through his invention of the Muppets and development of Sesame Street (a TV program that I like very much when I was a kid); and more.

Creativity doesn’t just happen on these world-shifting levels. You too are a creative thinker. Every day you do some sort of creative works. Your everyday moments of creativity might include events similar to mine as following: Thinking of a new way to talk to co-worker about a problem, changing how I commute to office so that I can work or listen to audiobook while I’m in transit, and finding a unique way to write a blog topic that sets it apart from other articles posted in the internet (Okay, maybe not everyone doing these. But I hope you get what I mean). 

Learning how to heighten your creativity will boost your ability to think productively and successfully. Begin by thinking of creativity in three separate ways:

1) The characteristics of the creative person

2) The type of environment that fosters creativity

3) The stages of the creative process

As you work toward any creative outcome – a novel solution, idea, approach, tangible product, work of art, system, or program – focus on these three elements to maximize your creative abilities. I will post each how-to boost your creative thinking in following post article. Stay updated.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Barriers to Creativity #9: "To Err is Wrong"

Creativity, like common sense, is supposed to be common. Creativity is natural and spontaneous. Yet it is not exhibited as frequently as it should. Experts believe that there are several reasons for this. These reasons are called ‘Barriers to Creativity’. ‘Barriers’ are the thing that stop us from thinking creatively and the reason that make us not as creative as we should be.

Barrier #9: “To Err is Wrong”

From a practical standpoint, ‘to err is wrong’ makes sense. (Err means ‘be mistaken’ or ‘incorrect’; ‘make a mistake’). Nevertheless too attached to that belief may undermine our ability to generate new ideas. If we are more concerned with producing the right answers rather than original ideas, then we’ll by-pas the imaginative phrase of creative process. We need to test assumptions and challenge the rules. The creative thinker realizes the potential value of errors. They are stepping-stones to new ideas.

The history of discoveries is filled with people who used erroneous assumptions and failed ideas as stepping-stones to new ideas. A large part of creative thinking is not to be afraid to err. We learn from our mistakes.

           

To err is right, sometimes.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

*These 10 barriers to creativity are taken from creativity expert Roger Von Oech’s A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative book. Summaries mine. 

Barriers of Creativity #7: "Avoid Ambiguity"

Artistic ambiguous illusion design

Creativity, like common sense, is supposed to be common. Creativity is natural and spontaneous. Yet it is not exhibited as frequently as it should. Experts believe that there are several reasons for this. These reasons are called ‘Barriers to Creativity’. ‘Barriers’ are the thing that stop us from thinking creatively and the reason that make us not as creative as we should be.

Barrier #7: “Avoid Ambiguity”

Most of us do not like ambiguous (unclear or lack of clarity) situations. They are confusing and can cause communication problems. As a result we learn to avoid ambiguity (Personally, I am like that). This is a good rule to get your message clearly across. There are instances however, when ambiguity can be a powerful stimulus to imagination.

When in the creative process, a little ambiguity can provoke us into asking questions that will lead us to new ideas. We have to learn to look at things ambiguously. We ask questions such as “What does this mean?” and “How else can this be interpreted?” For example, the question, what is half of 8? The answer is of course 4. But if we assume the question is ambiguous, we will look for other answers such as 3 (if you slice vertically) or 0 (if you slice horizontally) depending on how we define “half.”

To be more creative we have to look for ambiguity in the world around us. I see a brick as a hammer and a ballpoint pen as a hole puncher when I need these things and there are none around.

Think ambiguously.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)