So in the last post, we talked about Dustin. And how he fell through the cracks of life because how his confidence was mistakenly built on sand. Confidence built on an unstable foundation is doomed to crumble eventually.
What happens when you build on a strong foundation?
Well, then things end up a lot differently.
What you get, well, you get guys like Michael Jordan.
Yep, Michael Jordan!
Michael Jordan, in his junior year, did not make the varsity team.
But went on to become the best basketball player that ever lived.
In just about everything in life, we make the assumption success is about talent.
I’m good at football
or
I’m not good at football
or
I’m good at Basketball
or
I’m not good at Basketball.
or
I’m good at reading
or
I’m not good at reading.
We assume that talent comes naturally. And to some degree it does. Just not all of it.
We assume that you either have it or you don’t.
Watch sports sometime and pay attention to how the commentators speak. They will all talk about talent.
“He’s made of the right stuff”
Quotes like that lead us to believe it’s all about talent.
It’s not. Michael Jordan proved that.
Should we really believe that those guys on the professional basketball or football team got there by talent?
Michael Jordan didn’t. He created his skills.
And the problem is, if we believe it’s about talent, we’re doomed.
That’s the difference between Dustin and Michael.
When Dustin came up against an obstacle he assumed that was the end. Not made of the right stuff. Might as well quit.
When Michael came up against an obstacle he was inspired. Inspired so much he became the world’s greatest.
It’s the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. A fixed mindset assumes you either have it or you don’t. A growth mindset assumes you just haven’t built up that skill yet.
Maybe your child has struggled with academics for a long time. And maybe you are saying “But we have worked at it.”
And I have no doubt that’s true. But you may have been working at it the wrong way. Lots of people do.
Reading, writing, spelling, and math are made up of tiny micro-skills. Micro-skills that are not generally taught in school. And, even though these are so critical to learning, schools are dropping activities that develop them because they are not "academic". Sure they are not academic, that's true, but without them academics are not going to happen. Unfortunately the politicians that are dictating the standardized testing that is causing these issues don't get it. How could they, they have no experience in teaching.
These micro-skills are very easy to build if you know how. And once you do, academics become easy.
Just like Michael Jordan built up his basketball micro-skills until he became the best player of all time. You can build up your child's micro-skills.
Grit and a growth mindset were the big differences between Michael Jordan and Dustin. What Michael Jordan did with that grit and growth mindset was build up all the micro-skills of Basketball. Making him one of the world’s best basketball players ever.
It’s the same for your child. Develop grit and a growth mindset and at the same time build up the micro-skills of reading. Then they can become whatever they want. They can go on to live a wonderful life unhampered by the difficult burden of poor reading skills.
Today that is possible. And it’s something you can easily do at home. With the Learning Success System.