The Good News: Success is guaranteed

1. The Good News: Success is guaranteed The Bad News: Modern culture programs you to fail

2. Entertainment Overload • Ages 2-5 – 32 hours of TV/week • Ages 8-18 are – 5 hours of TV per day • There are 19 million video game addicts in America • 5 million gamers are playing over 40 hours per week • the average: 10,000 hours of gaming by age 21 • Ages 8-18 - 2.5 hours of music • Average teen – over 3300 texts per month • College Age Boy: 8 hours/week on televised sports

3. Entertainment Effects • South Korean study documents that heavy use of smartphones and technology “has led to a surge in incidence of digital dementia characterized by deterioration of cognitive abilities and symptoms found in people who have suffered head injury.” • ByunGi-won told the Joongang Daily Newspaper: "Overuse of smartphones and game devices hampers the balanced development of the brain." • Recent studies have shown that Facebook is addictive because it triggers pleasure responses.

4. Entertainment Effects • A UCLA study found that about 14 percent of young people aged between 18 and 39 complained of memory problems. • The U.S. study blamed modern lifestyles for the problem -  saying that spending time on a computer and texting prevents people focusing and memorizing information. • Question: when you can’t remember something what do you do?

5. Music Effects According to “Dr. Pierce J. Howard, director of the Center for Applied Cognitive Studies in Charlotte, NC and author of The Owner’s Manual for the Brain, very loud music creates an altered state of consciousness akin to an alcoholic or drug-induced stupor that can become addictive.” Peggy Noonan, “Take Two Tunes and Call Me in the Morning,” USA Weekend, Dec. 19, 1999, Emphasis Supplied

6. Music Bypasses Frontal Lobe “Rock-style music bypasses the frontal lobe and our ability to reason and make judgments about it. This music, like television, can produce a hypnotic effect.” Juanita McElwain, PhD. Retired Chair of Music Therapy Department, Phillips University. Enid, OK. Personal Communication.

7. We expect life to be easy. We look for the shortcut, the easy way out. • Example: high school was trivially easy. • Thus, we avoid struggles and look on struggles with surprise. Life is tough but it is supposed to be. • We always ask: “What is in it for me.” Life programs us to fail!

8. Some of you were abused as a child (physical, emotional, sexual, verbal, or spiritual). This significantly lowers coping skills, leaving many unseen scars (Counseling Services: 227-2980) • We internalize critical remarks, particularly when we are called stupid. These unfair characterizations stick! Life programmed you to fail.

9. Less than 1 in 2 complete a degree at NMU • In the U.S., the average time to complete a degree is now more than 5 years. • Every time you change majors, figure on ½ to 1 full additional year. • Few have written goals/plans and seldom think about what they will do with a degree. You may need to change, in order to get your degree.

10. The world is changing!Do you have the guts to change with it?

11. “If you do not change your direction, you will end up exactly where you are headed.” - Ancient Chinese Proverb

12. Success, then, is a attitude, an attitude that can be learned!

13. Mindsets MENU

14. Mindsets MENU

15. Mindsets • Fixed Mindset: Intelligence is a fixed trait • Growth Mindset: Intelligence is a malleable quality; a potential that can be developed

16. Fixed Mindsets “Fixed” mind sets • Believe that traits such as intelligence, ability, personality, and competence are inborn and basically unchangeable. MENU

17. Fixed Mindsets “Fixed” mind sets view themselves as: • Smart or dumb • Strong or weak • Competent or incompetent • Winners or losers • Good or bad MENU

18. Fixed Mindsets Challenges: Obstacles: Effort: Criticism: Others success: Failure: • Avoid them • Give up easily • Fruitless • Ignore • Threatening • Forever or blame game “Fixed” results:

19. Fixed Mindsets “Fixed” mindset traits: • Negative and critical of others • Self-pity • Anxious • Depressed • Unforgiving

20. Growth Mindsets “Growth” Mind Sets: • Believe that although people may differ in basic aptitudes, interests, and temperament, everyone can change, grow, and improve.

21. Growth Mindsets “Growth” Mind Sets: • Have a passion for stretching and growing, even when they are making mistakes and facing challenges.

22. Growth Mindsets Challenges: Obstacles: Effort: Criticism: Others success: Failure: “Growth” results: • Embrace them • Persist • Path to mastery • Learn from it • Inspiring • My fault. Let me learn

23. Growth Mindsets “Growth” mindset traits: • Positive and encouraging of others • Self-forgetful • Trusting • Resilient • Forgiving

26. Mindsets • Which mindset is correct? • Which mindset is most popular? • Do we hold the same mindsets across domains? • Are the mindsets related to our ability? • Are the mindsets themselves fixed or can they be changed?

27. What Do Mindsets Do? Goals Growth: Learning is Most Important: “It’s much more important for me to learn things in my classes than it is to get the best grades.” Fixed: Looking Smart is Most Important: “The main thing I want when I do my school work is to show how good I am at it.”

28. What Mindsets Do Effort Beliefs Growth: Effort is positive: “The harder you work at something, the better you’ll be at it.” Fixed: Effort is negative: “To tell the truth, when I work hard at my school work it makes me feel like I’m not very smart.”

29. What Mindsets Do Strategies Growth: Resilient: “I would work harder in this class from now on.” “I would spend more time studying for the tests.” Fixed: Helpless: “I would spend less time on this subject from now on.” “I would try not to take this subject ever again.” “I would try to cheat on the next test.”

30. Do Geniuses Work? Or Does it Just Come Naturally?

31. Math Achievement in Junior High School growth fixed

33. Fixed Mindset Instructions “The test you are about to take, the verbal portion of the MCAT, is a measure of your verbal intelligence and verbal reasoning ability…”

34. Growth Mindset Instructions The test you are about to take… is not a measure of verbal ability; rather it is a measure of your current level of reading comprehension, retention, and speed. All of these can improve considerably with practice.

35. Mindset Instructions on MCAT Problems 25.9% increase

36. How Are Mindsets Communicated? Intelligence Praise: “Wow, that’s a really good score. You must be smart at this.” Effort Praise: “Wow, that’s a really good score. You must have tried really hard.” [Control Group: “Wow, that’s a really good score.”]

37. Number of problems solved on Trial 1 (before failure) and Trial 3 (after failure). Number of Problems Solved

38. Lying Students who misrepresented their scores Type of Praise Given

39. Changing Mindsets

40. Changing Mindsets “The lesson here is that we have the power to change our brains. The human brain’s amazing plasticity enables it to continually rewire and learn, not just through academic study but through experience, thought, action, and emotion. As with our muscles, we can strengthen our neural pathways with exercise. Or we can let it wither… Use it or lose it.” 1 1A User’s Guide to the Brain John R. Ratey, M.D., page 364

42. “One necessary precursor to change, though, is often a change in attitude.” 1A User’s Guide to the Brain John R. Ratey, M.D., page 356

43. An Example of Attitude In 1939, George Dantzig arrived late to his statistics class. Seeing two problems written on the board, he assumed they were a homework assignment and copied them down, solved them and handed them in a few days later. Unbeknownst to him, they were examples of (formerly) unproved statistical theorems. Why was he successful? Because he did not know they were supposed to be hard.

44. How to Change your Mindset • Knowledge is power: Use what you have learned to catch yourself in the fixed mindset. Then make a conscious decision to change. Make this a moment-by-moment habit. • Keep a journal: a the end of the day, evaluate how you did. Take corrective action as needed.

45. How to Change your Mindset • Accountability partner: have a close friend keep you honest and point out any negative actions or statements. • Read voraciously: You are what you read. Leaders and successful people are avid readers. Read good self-help books (my web site has some possible choices but there are many, many others).

46. How to Change your Mindset • Avoid Negative Input: This includes negative friends, violent movies and video games, pornography and much more. • Never be a Source of Negative: Never say anything negative (this is hard at first). • Control your thoughts: Replace negative thoughts with truth: “I can do it.”

47. I CAN’T

48. How to Change your Mindset • Surround Yourself with Positive Input: Listen to motivational tapes or programs, read inspiring success stories; hang with positive people; etc.

49. How to Change your Mindset Is any change hard? Yes. Is this change it worth it? YES!