The "Boy With A Broken Brain" was a phrase once used to describe one of the foremost
experts on learning and brain development today.
Jim Kwik grew up with a learning disability when young, but has shown through his life
precisely how a growth mindset can benefit you to achieve massive sucess today.
Here, I want present you with precisely how and why a growth mindset can be hugely beneficial
in your life, using the example of Jim Kwik and some of the ideas he talks about to help
in your learning.
Often mindsets are categorised as either being fixed or growth, with fixed generally being
one which holds the belief that qualities and traits are fixed and therefore cannot
change.
In truth I've been guilty of this myself at times as I don't think I'm capable of something
purely based on past experiences or doubts about myself.
A growth mindset on the other hand, is one where you believe that through dedication
and work you can improve your most basic traits and abilties, even holding the belief you
can become more intelligent.
This is the mindset I have today and honestly I can't say how much I feel it's benefitted
me.
Beyond tangible results I can point to as a consequence of having a growth mindset,
it's equally helped my mental health and confidence.
In a growth mindset the key component is that someone's perspective on failure is shifted,
because they no longer see failure as an endpoint, but rather as part of the process to reaching
their eventual goal.
Dr Carol Dweck of Stanford University and one of the foremost experts on having a growth
mindset says that kids taught to learn with a growth mindset have been taught to focus
primarily on the process of reaching their desired outcome rather than the outcome itself,
often with teachers encouraging children more when they've had to go through the process
to achieve a result than achieving that result immediately.
The whole point here is that it's been found that when people are encouraged that they
can do more than they might believe, they have shown they will commit to putting the
extra time and effort needed to eventually reach their goal.
So, what about the science behind this?
Well, the general principles come from the idea of neuroplasticity, or the principle
idea of brain growth.
Think of the brain like a muscle, in order to grow a muscle we need to work it, and the
same is true of the brain.
As we're challenged, what happens is we build neuronal connections in the brain, helping
us to think faster and more efficiently, as well as grow skills and build habits.
Therefore, through this process of working the brain you see neuroplasticity take effect
and you effectively become smarter.
This is the point of a growth mindset, it's focused on that process of growing the brain
by challenging it, the results that come from that process are just the natural output.
In the motivation field you'll often hear buzzwords like "You need to work through the
pain", "persevere", "work hard" and "focus on your dreams and goals".
Sure these give us a nice dopamine kick to make us feel good, but the reason these talks
often resonate with us is because behind the message there's actually something of distinct
value, something we know that holds truth in it.
Now just quickly if you're enjoying the video please do leave a like.
This doesn't just serve to help me know it's benefitting you, but hopefully will help the
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So, going back to Jim Kwik, what process can we learn from him to help us develop and use
our growth mindset?
Well, let's look at the FAST method, not only named this way as it's designed to help you
learn faster, but serves to be an acronym for the methodology, starting with...
Forget
To confirm, forget doesn't specifically mean to try and forget something you've learned
on a particular subject, but rather to forget any preconceptions you might have on that
subject.
This is because often when we feel we have some knowledge on a subject we're learning
we can naturally pay less attention when learning more about it.
The whole idea is to always aim to have an open mind when learning, which helps us to
be more...
Active
...learners.
The next letter in the FAST model is to be Active in our learning, which might be as
simple as taking notes or asking questions, and if possible when learning a skill, actively
practicing that skill.
For example, for someone who writes software code, to write code when learning a new language
is often a necessity.
Just as with spoken language, active practice is necessary to correctly communicate on a
daily basis.
However, to do this you need to set your...
State
Those who follow Tony Robbins will know this, but your state will often determine how well
you do something, and the more you can control your state and identify positive emotions
with the learning process, the more likely you'll be to commit what you learn to your
long term memory.
This might be as simple as changing your posture, controlling your breathing or understand why
you'll benefit from what you learn.
Which leads us to the last letter of the FAST model, to...
Teach
Richard Feynman taught that the final process of learning something new is to transmit it
to others and the FAST method is the same, as if you actively learn something that you
know you need to teach to someone else you're more likely to pay attention.
That's exactly what I'm doing in this video, I'm working through the FAST method so I can
teach you about it in a succinct way.
Not only does that hopefully benefit you, but as a result I better learn the material
myself.
After all, as Jim says...
"When I teach something, I get to learn it twice"