I recently read hidden potential by Adam Grant there is one thing that predicts your future growth more than anything else it's not your genetics or your intelligence it's your character skills character skills allow you to override your instincts and hold true to your values unlike personality traits your character skills are not fixed researchers prove this by arranging 1500 West African entrepreneurs into three groups a control group that received no training a second group that receive cognitive skills training like accounting and marketing skills and a third group that learn ways to boost initiative and self-discipline the
third group grew their business and profits by an average of 30% over the next two years which was three times more than the group that strengthened their cognitive skills other research shows that adults earn an average of $320,000 more over their lifetime if they had an experienced kindergarten teacher who taught them to be more proactive Cooperative focused and persistent if we can strengthen than similar character skills regardless of how old we are we will go greater distances and unlock our hidden potential when striving to strengthen one's character it's helpful to have an ideal who encompasses
the traits and behaviors of high potential people I call this ideal the proactive imperfectionist player let's isolate the first part proactive imperfectionist and understand why being a proactive imperfectionist is essential to unlocking potential most perfectionists fail to maximize their potential because they learn to hate mistakes and avoid criticism when they make a mistake it lowers her self-esteem and makes them think I'm not doing that again which shrinks their comfort zone this way of thinking repeats which limits their learning until they only end up doing what they know they're good at Adam Grant is a recovering
perfectionist who was held back by perfectionism as a diver in college grant had a habit of delaying his Dives until his footwork was just perfect at one practice he says I went back and forth on the board for 45 minutes without making a single attempt as I stood there Frozen I wasn't just wasting time I was freezing my progress I was failing to learn hard Dives and only making small refinements to easy ones I needed to get over my perfectionism a proactive imperfectionist is someone who attacks perfectionism head on by setting a mistake quota for
instance a proactive imperfectionist diver pushes herself to do Dives so hard that she makes at least five major mistakes of practice a proactive imperfectionist learning a new language tries hard to speak fluently but doesn't have a successful day unless they make 200 mistakes talking to locals in a foreign country a proactive imperfectionist student does his best to Ace practice exams but doesn't stop studying for an exam until he gets a 100 practice exam questions wrong when you set a mistake quota you are seeking discomfort which is crucial because how much you grow depends on how
much discomfort you're willing to experience one mistake quote that you could set this year is to experience at least two personal project failures this could be a side hustle a personal growth project or a project related to one of your hobbies if you don't encounter at least two failures in the coming year you either didn't finish enough projects or those projects weren't challenging enough if Adam Grant scored Perfect 10 during his practice div he wasn't pushing his limits a more productive use of his time would have been to start with a dive that earned him
a 4 out of 10 from his coach then work on it until he could get an 8 out of 10 on that dive in competition scoring an 8 out of 10 on a difficult dive would have been more valuable than a perfect t on an easy dive start taking a similar approach in your life work on most things until they're just good enough so you have more time to challenge yourself and explore your potential today's sponsor Athena gives you more time to explore your potential Athena will pair you with an elite virtual assistant consistent to
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for people they respect and ask the following question what one thing can I do to get better now that we covered the first part of the proactive imperfectionist player let's cover the last part the player Reaching Your Potential requires incredible discipline discipline to do focused deliberate practice several hours a week discipline to resist short-term pleasure and distraction to get long-term gains but research shows that people with extreme discipline rarely use it in other words disciplined people stay disciplined because they don't rely on their willpower in the famous marshmallow test the disciplined children who resisted the
marshmallows the longest didn't rely on Willpower because they covered their eyes covered their marshmallow sat on their hands or mushed the marshmallow into a ball and bounce it like a toy these creative and playful strategies allowed them to be disciplined you see a similar principle in the lives of people who excel at their sport craft or profession Masters in all Fields design and redesign their practice to be fun and effective by using an approach psychologist call deliberate play a testament to the power of deliberate play is a basketball player once ranked a three out of
five by High School recruiters and told he would never be a star in the NBA because he lacked explosiveness that player is now regarded as the best shooter in NBA history Stephan Curry early in his career Curry worked with a trainer named Brandon Payne whose motto was there is no boring in our workouts pain made every practice drill a game and always gave Curry a time to beat pain created games like Extreme 21 in which Curry had 1 minute to score 21 points with three-pointers jump shots and layups but after each shot he had to
Sprint to the middle of the court and back the intensity of the game simulated a real game and whatever score he got in one practice became the score he stried to beat in the following practice incorporate deliberate play into your deliberate practice to prevent your practice from turning into an emotionally draining obsessive slog that leads to bore out which means you quit because you lose interest when a girl in the book was losing interest in playing the violin her mother brought her to a Master musician named Evelyn Glenny Who challenged her to play pieces backward
come up with 10 ways to not play the violin and incorporate sounds from her favorite TV show and her favorite animal while she played the girl left the practice session excited to keep playing the violin be a proactive imperfectionist player by turning practice drills into games like Curry's coach injecting novelty practicing in different locations or switching up your equipment alternating between skills like playing different instruments playing against the clock and measuring your performance so you have a metric to beat in your next practice the less practice feels like work but still pushes you out of
your comfort zone the further you will go Adam Grant says without enjoyment potential stays hidden in the end you will unlock your hidden potential and help your children unlock their full potential by focusing on three questions did I do my best today to seek discomfort and hit my mistake quota did I do my best today to seek advice and correct my mistakes and did I do my best today to turn practice into play if you and your children can consist stly answer yes to those three questions you will develop the character skills of a proactive
imperfectionist player and be well on your way to achieving great things that was the core message that I gathered from hidden potential by Adam Grant Adam Grant does a fantastic job of compressing the latest research on potential and learning into an easyto read book I highly recommend this book if you would like a one-page PDF summary of insights that I gather from this book just click the link below and I'll be happy to email it to you if you already subscri subscribe to the free productivity game email newsletter this PDF is sitting in your inbox
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