November 10, 2014

You Can Learn Anything. Really.

Famous people work hard and fail over and over just the like the rest of us. Have a listen to Will Smith share his thinking on greatness and making your life count.

Throughout history there have been those who have succeeded because they failed.

In sport….

In the arts….

One big idea that weaves its way through all of my teaching (and my learning) is the idea that we can learn anything. We need to work at it though. We need to extend effort. We need to be persistent. We need be prepared to take risks. We need to be ready to fail and fail and fail. We need a plan to get back up and try again. We need to surround ourselves with the people who will support us in our learning. But we must always remember that we need to do the work.

In the above video, Ed Sheeran shows us what growth mindset in action looks like. Not only does he take on something that he has never done and never gives up, even when he really wants to, he also makes his learning visible. You might think that that is no big deal because he is Ed Sheeran. But I don’t think that’s true. Remember that this is a guy who has gone from busking to selling out arenas around the world because he believed in himself and he worked hard at it.  He says in the video “9 Days and Nights of Ed Sheeran” that “if you can’t sing or play guitar, I couldn’t either. It is possible. You don’t have to be born with a special magic gift or anything, you just practice.”

We don’t have to be famous to have a growth mindset though. We do need to think about our beliefs and goals and the work that we need to be doing to realize our best self. Consider each of the following questions. Take time throughout your learning process to check in with yourself. How are you doing?

What’s your next step?