What do you believe about your ability to grow and develop?
What do you believe about your performance ceiling – your capacity? Is it fixed or bent by your will and willingness to work?
Interestingly, Alfred Binet, the dead Frenchie that created the I.Q. test believed something that might surprise at least a few folks. Here’s a snippet of his that Dweck sites on page 5 of her book titled, Mindset. “A few modern philosophers…assert that an individuals intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity which cannot be increased. We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism. With practice, training, and above all, method, we manage to increase our attention, our memory, our judgment and literally to become more intelligent than we were before.”
Do not settle. Do not believe anyone that tells you what your ceiling is. Do not stop dreaming because others around you do not see the point, lack the passion, and want nothing more than to rob you of your purpose. Do, however, listen to negative feedback. Run it through your strong CORE. Turn some of it into instruction and put it to work. Consider most of it noise and let it go.
Get to work. Embrace the struggle. Remember, flow is found In the tension of challenge and capacity. Too little challenge, the elite go out and create it. Too little capacity, the elite go out and build it. Normal folks get bored and bummed. Don’t be normal, friend. Like my friend, chitown Mike, you’re much better than you think. Put yourself in acute pain and keep reaching just beyond your capacity. Get comfortable failing in your stretch. Good. Once you’re able to grab hold of what was once beyond your grasp, pick another target. Good.
And, kinda like the 3P crazies this early am, you will soon be holding something that used to break you. Nobody, most likely will notice besides you. Over time and through adversity, you will get stronger. And, the tiny crack in your performance ceiling will soon give way to blue skies.
Blue skies…
BUILT TO LEAD 