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How to Enhance Performance & Learning by Applying a Growth Mindset | Andrew Huberman | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: How to Enhance Performance & Learning by Applying a Growth Mindset
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Core Theme
This content explores the concept of a "growth mindset," emphasizing that abilities are not fixed but can be developed through effort and learning. It highlights how embracing challenges and reframing stress as enhancing can synergistically improve performance, contrasting this with a "fixed mindset" that can undermine potential.
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welcome to the huberman Lab podcast
where we discuss science and
I'm Andrew huberman and I'm a professor
of neurobiology and Ophthalmology at
Stanford school of medicine today we're
discussing growth mindset growth mindset
is one of the most interesting and
Powerful Concepts in all of psychology
growth mindset is essentially a way of
embracing Challenge and thinking about
your bodily and brain's response to
challenge in a way that allows you to
optimize your performance growth mindset
consists of many things which we will
discuss today and of course we will
discuss how to implement growth mindset
but some of the key features of growth
mindset are developing an ability to
distance your identity from The
Challenge you happen to be embracing now
that might come as a bit of a surprise
to many of you for instance we grow up
hearing we hope from time to time that
we are smart that we are talented that
we are a good athlete that we are a good
artist you know we like to think that we
are good at something or perhaps many
things but it turns out that the kind of
Praise or feedback that we receive that
attaches our identity to Performance can
actually undermine our performance and
believe it or not this is especially
problematic for people that perform well
in their Endeavors that's right if you
are somebody who performs well in school
or Athletics or music and you are told
that you are very smart that you're an
excellent student that you're an
excellent athlete or that you're an
excellent musician you have much to lose
if you at any moment do not perform well
and that's because your identity has
been integrated with your performance
somewhat counter-intuitively growth
mindset is the process of distancing
your identity from performance and
rather attaching your identity and your
efforts and your sense of motivation to
effort itself and to the process of
enjoying learning and getting better at
learning anything so today we are going
to discuss what growth mindset is and
what it isn't because it's often
discussed in terms that frankly are not
accurate to the science we will also
talk about another mindset which is the
stress is enhancing mindset that it
turns out can act synergistically with
growth mindset such that when you
combine growth mindset with the stresses
enhancing mindset you and anyone it's
been shown can vastly improve your
performance in essentially anything so
today's discussion will of course
explore the classic work of Carol dweck
who was really the founder of the growth
mindset field as well as some of the
newer research from people like David
Yeager Ali Crum and others who have
explored how growth mindset and stress
as enhancing mindsets can be applied
both in and out of the classroom in
children and adults and really in people
of all backgrounds by the end of today's
episode you will have a rich
understanding of the science as well as
many tools that you can apply in
everyday life in essentially any
Endeavor before we begin I'd like to
emphasize that this podcast is separate
from my teaching and research roles at
Stanford it is however part of my desire
and effort to bring zero cost to
Consumer information about science and
science related tools to the general
public in keeping with that theme I'd
like to thank the sponsors of today's
podcast our first sponsor is eight sleep
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again that's eightsleep.com huberman
today's episode is also brought To Us by
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let's talk about growth mindset growth
mindset as the name suggests is the idea
that we can get better at things that is
that our abilities are not fixed but
rather that our abilities are malleable
and at the core of growth mindset is the
idea that our brains can change and
indeed they can we refer to that ability
as neuroplasticity or the the nervous
system's ability to change in response
to experience now I've done several
episodes about neuroplasticity so that's
a topic unto itself but suffice to say
that neuroplasticity Brain Change can
occur throughout the entire lifespan it
is far more robust early in life from
birth until about age 25
neuroplasticity is sort of the default
process our brain is being shaped by our
everyday experiences but certainly from
age 25 and onward and certainly well
into people's 90s even it's been shown
the brain can change if we want it to it
can change for the worse of course
through injury or disease things of that
sort but it also can change for the
better through deliberate focused bouts
of learning we can learn new languages
we can learn art we can learn music we
can get smarter we can get better at
essentially anything if we devote our
attentional resources to learning those
things so really any discussion about
growth mindset has as a subtext a
discussion about neural elasticity
although today we aren't going to focus
so much on neuroplasticity meaning we
aren't going to focus so much on the
neural circuit and neurochemical changes
that underlie neuroplasticity because
I've covered those on previous episodes
we'll talk about them a little bit today
but we are mainly going to talk about
the data the studies from the field of
psychology applying growth mindset in
and out of the classroom in children and
adults and we are going to talk about
tools everyday tools that you can use to
enhance growth mindset for yourself and
perhaps for those around you if you care
to teach growth mindset which is you'll
learn later turns out to be an excellent
way to reinforce your own growth mindset
and we're going to talk about how to
apply those tools in a bunch of
different domains musical athletic
intellectual and on and on no discussion
of growth mindset would be complete
without mentioning that growth mindset
is the brainchild of my colleague Carol
dweck in the department of psychology at
Stanford University
today you'll learn how she discovered
growth mindset and you will learn how
others have taken that Discovery and
expanded upon it and especially its
application in and out of the classroom
to start off our discussion about growth
mindset however we need to Define what a
mindset is I think most of us think we
know what a mindset is we think oh it's
kind of a a mental stance where you know
we are positive or we are negative or we
believe something or we don't believe
something but a mindset actually has a
very specific definition and here I'm
referring to the definition provided by
Dr Ali Crum Ali Crum is also a professor
of psychology at Stanford she runs her
own laboratory working on stress-related
mindsets and other mindsets she's
actually been a guest on this podcast
previously highly recommend you listen
to that episode if you haven't already
Dr Crum defines a mindset as quote a
mental frame or lens that selectively
organizes and encodes information
and I think the key thing to highlight
there is organizes information because
as you all well know we are constantly
being bombarded with information from
the outside world sensory information
about what's going on with our visual
system what we're hearing what we're
seeing what we're feeling we are also
bombarded with internal sensations of
how full or empty our gut feels are we
hungry are we tired are we anxious are
we calm Etc so tons and tons of
information funneling into our brain and
mindsets really help us organize that
information such that we pay attention
to certain things and not others and we
respond to certain things and not others
okay so here I'm not trying to put
additional language on something simple
in order to make it complex I'm trying
to put a little bit of language that is
that a mindset does many things but it
mainly organizes information I'll add to
that for specific actions or inactions
in a way that allows us to simplify our
world in a way that allows us to make
certain choices and do away with
thinking about and acting on other types
of information the other thing about
mindsets is that they include entire
narratives and most of the time we
aren't even aware of how those
narratives are operating
meaning we don't walk around looking at
opportunities in the world like the
opportunity to get better at Fitness or
a sport or music or arithmetic or
languages or anything for that matter
thinking okay what is my mental frame or
lens that selectively organizes and
encodes information we don't do that
instead what we have are stories and
those stories are usually attached to
our sense of identity like I'll just use
myself for instance I do not think of
myself as a good musician in fact I
can't read music I'm terrible at playing
instruments I like listening to music
but I consider myself a terrible
musician right I've really assigned a
value or I've assigned my value to music
and my relationship to music right we
tend to do that we can also do it in the
opposite direction right I'm running a
laboratory for a long time been in
science for you know close to three
decades so if you ask me you know do I
feel proficient at science I'd say yeah
I'm proficient at science I know how to
do experiment setup experiments write
research papers write grants Etc I'm
pretty good at it right we tend to
decide if we are good or bad at things
and we tend to integrate those with our
identity somewhat or a lot to depending
on whether or not you know we're a
professional or amateur how much we
engage in an activity the point being
that mindsets include all of these
narratives and often those narratives
are visible to us if we think about them
but most of the time we are moving
through the world meaning school work
relationships and all our endeavors
without a lot of careful thought about
the narratives we carry and the beauty
of growth mindset is that it forces us
to step back and ask ourselves some
simple questions these are questions
that you could ask yourself right now
and in fact I highly recommend you do
you could ask yourself for instance what
have I been told I'm really good at you
should also ask yourself what have I
been told I'm really poor at that I'm
just not good at what have I told myself
I'm really good at and what have I told
myself I'm really bad at and then a
second set of questions is what am I
good at and why did it come naturally to
me did I apply myself for many years
meaning did I apply a lot of effort to
learning that thing or perhaps both
right and then it's also important to
ask yourself why am I not good at other
things is it simply because you've never
applied yourself with those things or is
it because you tried and had an early
failure or perhaps you tried and tried
and tried for many years and you
continue to fail at that thing or you
just didn't reach a level of proficiency
that made you want to pursue it further
in asking yourselves those questions you
are asking yourself not just what you're
good at and bad at and why you should
also be thinking about where the
messages of being good at something or
being bad at something arrived from did
they arrive from outside you meaning
from your parents from your coaches from
your teachers or was it the case that
despite a lot of positive feedback you
just sort of decided you weren't good at
something or conversely was it the case
that despite a lot of negative feedback
that you would never be good at
something or that you weren't good at
something that you continue to persist
because there are certainly people like
that the more negative feedback they get
the more they dig their heels in to
prove themselves as capable of becoming
good at something so I do recommend as
we March forward in this conversation
you think about those questions what am
I good at what am I bad at why am I good
at those things why am I bad at those
things and ask yourself to what extent
your labels that is your identity is
attached to the things that you are good
at or bad at and the reason I'd like you
to ask yourself those questions is that
next we're going to talk about some
research from Dr Carol dweck's
laboratory that was really the seed of
the entire field of growth mindset it
relates to a specific set of experiments
that really show that the specific
feedback we get meaning whether or not
we get feedback that is attached to our
identity like a label like smart or
great athlete or talented sends us down
a very different path of performance in
the short and long run
as compared to whether or not we receive
feedback that's based on effort meaning
you tried really hard or you really seem
to apply yourself under conditions where
you're getting the right answer over
time because you simply refuse to quit
those are two very Divergent sets of
feedback and as you'll learn in a moment
the sorts of feedback that we get
especially early in life or early in an
Endeavor so this doesn't just apply to
young kids this applies to adults too
who are taking on a new skill or trying
to expand on an existing skill those two
Divergent forms of feedback get
integrated into our core beliefs about
what we think is possible for us in a
given Endeavor and the great news is we
can also modify those core beliefs
simply by changing the feedback that we
give ourselves the research paper I'd
like to discuss briefly that beautifully
embodies the runway that led to the
discovery of growth mindset is paper
from Dr Carol dweck as well as her
colleague Claudia Mueller and the title
of the paper essentially says it all the
title is praise for intelligence can
undermine children's motivation and performance
performance
right that should be surprising that
praise for intelligence can undermine
motivation and performance I would have
thought and I think many people probably
believe that if you tell a child or an
adult that they're really good at
something and you're genuine about that
feedback meaning they're performing well
and you say great you're doing really
well you're so smart you're so talented
that their performance would continue to
improve that it would bolster their
motivation to engage in that activity
which hopefully they enjoy but
regardless provided that it's a safe
activity it's educational or what have
you that it would serve to encourage
them right the kid thinks not only am I
engaging in this activity but I'm
getting positive feedback presumably
from people that I care about or whose
opinion I care about wouldn't that serve
to elevate performance
it does not in fact the exact opposite
happens so I'll just give you a few of
the key takeaways from this study
the way it was done is very interesting
they essentially gave feedback about
performance that was linked up with a
child's intelligence telling kid they're
smart they're talented that they can
learn things really easily or that
they're very good at learning this sort
of thing and they call that intelligence feedback
feedback
or they gave them what was called effort
feedback the simple way to think about
effort feedback is that it's more
attached to verbs as opposed to labels
so effort feedback consists of things like
like
you tried really hard on that problem it
was great the way that you applied
effort it was great the way that you
persisted it was great the way that even
when you got the wrong answer you spent
10 minutes thinking about it and then
you tried again and again or in some
cases even if they didn't get the right
answer telling them well even though you
didn't get the right answer it's really
terrific that you continue to try Okay
so intelligence feedback was the sort of
feedback that was tied to labels of
identity things like smart talented Etc
whereas effort feedback was tied to
verbs choices behavioral and cognitive
choices that children made in an effort
to learn or get better at something so
in this study which included over 100
children they either got the
intelligence type feedback or the effort
type feedback or there was a control
group that didn't get either the
intelligence or the effort type feedback
and then they looked at a number of
different outcomes so I'll just
highlight a few examples of what they
found first of all the kids that got the
intelligence-based feedback when they
were then later offered problem sets
that were either challenging or were of
the sort that they knew they could
perform well on they tended to select
problems that they knew they could
perform well on these are what were
referred to as performance goals in
other words they picked problems that
allowed them to continue to get the
praise that they had received previously
about being smart or talented whereas
the kids that got feedback about their
strong effort when later presented with
problems that were either easy or hard
more often than not they picked the
harder problems that stood to teach them
more so that's striking it says that if
you tell a kid that they're smart or
talented and that's the reason why they
perform well
when they encounter challenges they are
likely to go with the least amount of
challenge so that they can continue to
receive that praise or feedback whereas
if you receive praise and feedback for
your strong effort then later you tend
to pick environments problem sets Etc
that allow you to exert the very effort
that got you the praise in the first
place so in both cases these children
are essentially attached to the praise
right in some sense I mean we like to
think that they enjoy these activities
and they're benefiting from them as well
but in both cases the praise really
serves to reinforce a certain pattern of
behavior but in the case of giving
intelligence feedback the kids are
really just trying to reinforce being
told that they're smarter talented as
opposed to reinforcing the engagement in
the activity that got them the praise in
the first place
and the converse is also true when kids
are told hey you really tried hard and
that's great or I like how you persisted
or you're so persistent I can really see
how persistent you are in trying to get
the right answer even if you don't get
the right answer well then when you
present those kids with additional
challenges they work very hard to stay
in Challenge and guess what no surprise
the kids that are rewarded for effort
and that continue to pick harder
problems outperform the kids that are
given the intelligence praise and
feedback by a large margin so what does
this tell us this tells us that the
narratives that we hear from others of
course reinforce certain patterns of
behavior what else does this tell us
this tells us that if you're a parent or
teacher you have to be very careful
about giving feedback to a child that is
attached to their identity around an endeavor
endeavor
especially if they're performing well at
that endeavor right now of course if a
child is not performing well at
something you also don't want to tell
them that they're stupid right you don't
want to tell them that they're deficient
right but that's a rare occurrence in
the classroom one would hope that's a
rare occurrence on the field one would
hope but what's very common very very
common is that when we see children or
adults performing well we tend to give
them identity labels as a way to try and
reinforce whatever Behavior we observe
and we like now the other thing they
looked at in the study besides whether
or not these kids would pick hard or
easier challenges down the line where
the actual raw performance on cognitive
problems and these data I must say are
just so interesting
they took the kids and they gave them
all the same problem sets and all the
kids across the board whether or not
they were getting intelligence praise or
effort praise or they were in the
control group we're performing more or
less the same way they were getting some
of these questions right some of these
questions wrong
then they gave them praise after
they completed those problems they
either got intelligence praise you're so
smart you're so talented or they got
effort praise you tried so hard you
really persisted that's fantastic then
later they gave them another set of
problems and they looked at performance
now remember the first time around all
the kids got some of the questions right
and some of the questions wrong so
there's room for improvement for everybody
everybody
what they found was absolutely striking
the kids that were in the control group
so they didn't get any specific form of
Praise they perform more or less the
same way as they did before so if they
were getting 75 percent of the answers
right the first time they got 75 percent
of the answers right the second time 25
wrong in both cases
the kids that were in the intelligence
praise group that you're so smart you're
so talented praise group their
performance went down significantly
whereas the kids that were in the effort
praise group their performance increased
significantly okay so this is a
bi-directional effect where giving
intelligence praise reduces performance
and giving effort praise improves
performance which is absolutely striking
and tells you everything you need to
know which is if you're a parent you're
a teacher and of course as we all give
ourselves feedback
rewarding yourself for effort is the
best way to improve performance
rewarding yourself based on identity
labels so smart so talented you're a
great athlete Etc all that stare in the
mirror and do self-affirmation stuff can
actually undermine performance and in
fact it does undermine performance it
may not do it right away but eventually
it does and in a moment I'll explain why
the other thing this study looked at
that I just have to mention is this
notion of persistence so remember
earlier I said that the kids that got
intelligence praise tended to pick
easier problems down the line whereas
the kids that got effort praise tended
to pick harder problems it turns out
that the kids that got intelligence
praise also tended to take on fewer
problems overall they tended to limit
the total number of challenges that they
engaged in whereas the kids that got the
effort praise that you worked so hard
you're so determined that was so
impressive how you just kept going even
when you got some answers wrong those
kids not only opted for harder
challenges they not only performed
better but they also took on many more
challenges so these data really made
clear that the effort praise is the way
to go now I know many people have heard
this whole thing about don't reward the
person reward the effort reward the
verbs as I'm referring to it but it's
actually pretty rare that we hear effort
rewarded in everyday settings and it is
very common for us to overhear
intelligence praise or Talent praise you
know a kid comes home with a trophy and
we tell them you're a great athlete
right a kid comes home with a great
report card you know you're so smart
congratulations a kid comes home with
some sort of win in their world and we
tend to give them a label because we
like to think that that label will get
internalized and they'll start to view
themselves as a winner we tell them you
can do anything you're a winner you're a
winner and of course you don't want to
tell children or yourself or any other
adult you're a loser right we do not
want to do that you don't want to
undermine performance that way but it's
very clear based on This research and a
lot of other papers similar to it that
we all have a giant blind spot sitting
in our psychological field when we are
getting and receiving praise that really
it is the sort of praise that's attached
to the very efforts that led to the
results that will lead to even improved
results over time okay so this paper is
really truly important it's a landmark
paper in the field of psychology
motivation learning and performance and
that's why I'm discussing it in such
detail here but it actually includes one
additional piece of information that I
also think everyone should know about
and that is the tendency for children
who get intelligence praise
to misrepresent their performance on
subsequent efforts
what do I mean by that basically what
I'm saying is in this paper they had the
children perform on a given task and
then they either got intelligence praise
you're so smart you're so talented or
effort praise you worked so hard you're
so diligent you kept going even when you
were faced with results you didn't like
and then they had them do a series of
other tasks and then report their
results to other kids and what they
found is that children who get
intelligence praise when they need to
report their scores either by walking up
to the board and putting a little Mark
where their particular score is or
telling another student what their score
was or even writing it down on a piece
of paper covertly so that's not visibly
being compared to all the other scores
the kids that got intelligence praise
tend to lie about their score
and as you could imagine they tend to
lie in the direction of making
themselves appear as having performed
better than they actually did so this is
a pretty Sinister aspect of intelligence
praise that we don't often hear about
even if you've heard telling a person
that they are smart or talented can
ultimately undermine performance rarely
if ever do we hear that telling someone
that they're smart or talented
can increase the probability that that
person is going to misrepresent their
performance in the future and that's
true regardless of whether or not they
perform pretty well or not in the past I
mean you could imagine that the kids
that were told that they were
intelligent that they're talented that
those kids you know if they were doing
well and then suddenly did poorly that
they Slide the score up a little bit we
don't want anyone to do that but you can
imagine how a young kid might do that to
kind of preserve their ego but no in
some cases these kids are already
performing pretty well they're not
getting 100 but they're performing in
the top bracket and yet if they received
intelligence praise they're still more
likely to lie about their performance
increasing it further still whereas the
kids that receive the effort praise do
no such thing they Faithfully represent
their performance and as I mentioned
before for many reasons that we'll talk
about in a few minutes meaning the
mechanisms and what's really going on in
the heads of these kids that get effort
praise they're performing better than
everybody else so just to illustrate how
important the findings in the study
really are the paper was Paul published
in 1998 but just two years prior in 1996
there was a survey of parents asking to
what extent do you believe that
intelligence is fixed and 85 percent
answered that they thought that
intelligence was fixed that means they
believe that the brain was sort of a
vessel of fixed size that of course when
we're born into the world it's kind of
empty we don't have any knowledge but
that the job of schooling was to teach
kids things and reveal an intelligence
capacity that was innate and that
couldn't be increased upon whereas
nowadays we really understand mainly
through our deeper understanding of
neuroplasticity and how the brain learns
that indeed the brain can learn and that
intelligence is not fixed however in
1998 when these studies were done most
people were of the core belief that
intelligence is fixed that it cannot be
improved upon and these results really
drive home the fact that the type of
feedback we get about our performance
even when our performance is good can
undermine our future performance or if
we receive feedback of the effort praise
type the you tried so hard you're so
persistent type that our abilities can
indeed improve and when you look at any
intelligence test if you look at
standard IQ test or you you know go way
out onto the other end of the Continuum
in terms of intelligence testing you
look at emotional intelligence it is
very clear that anyone and everyone can
improve their scores on those exams and
in fact can improve the various aspects
of intelligence because in fact there
are many different forms of intelligence
through dedicated effort so this paper
was really ahead of its time and it's
really what seeded the entire field of
growth mindset and the understanding of
what that is so now I'd like to shift
our attention to not just how getting
one form of Praise or another form of
Praise can diminish or enhance
performance but really to ask why that
would be how that is because in that
understanding there's a very simple set
of tools of narratives that you can tell
yourself or that you can tell a child as
they are attempting to learn that can
greatly enhance your or their ability to
learn before we go any further however I
know many of you are listening to this
with an eye toward the tools meaning you
want to know what the tools are that you
can Implement well earlier I had you ask
some questions what are you good at what
have you been told you're good at and
how did you arrive at being good at
those things I also encourage you to
think about what you've been told you're
bad at
or less good at and what you tell
yourself you're bad at and less good at
and how you arrived at that conclusion
right now I'd like you to ask yourself
what is your typical narrative when you
are engaging in things that you believe
you are good at and what is your typical
narrative meaning your internal dialogue
in your head when you're engaging in
things that you are not good at or if
you're not engaging in those things when
you think about engaging in those things
and the tool that's very effective to
apply even just in your own mind is to
start shifting your narrative from those
performance narratives of being really
good at something or bad at something
which are In fairness are the labels I'm
using here but that's for sake of
discussion and Clarity and to start to
shift those narratives towards effort
related narratives so I'll use myself as
an example I'm pretty good at learning
and remembering things cognitive information
information
I'm pretty terrible at playing music in
fact I'm downright terrible if I were to
step back from those two statements
I could take an intelligence type praise
narrative and tell myself okay I'm
um I have a great memory right that's
that's a intelligence praise type
narrative or I could tell myself the
truth which is I tend to spend a lot of
time with information in different forms
I listen to it I read it I write it down
I highlight it I put it up on a
whiteboard I tell myself that
information again in my head I think
about it in different contexts I tell
other people about it that's how I
developed a good memory for certain
types of information and that's still
how I continue to build my memory and my
information Bank in my head to this day
it's not because I have a quote unquote
great memory it's because I engage in
certain verb processes to build up that
memory okay I can also take a look at
the let's call it the negative statement
I am abysmal at music which frankly is a
fair statement and I could say okay I'm
just a terrible musician I have no
musical sense I have no musical ability
those are labels of the intelligence
type labels
or I could look at the verbs
this is also true
I have never really spent a lot of time
trying to learn an instrument I failed
early on at least in my mind I failed to
get the results I wanted and so I
stopped playing
I made the dog next door Howell which by
the way I did so I stopped playing
I ceased the effort process and so in
looking at it through that lens yes I'm
a terrible musician but I'm a terrible
musician as a consequence of having
never really engaged in the types of
behaviors and effort over time that
would have allowed me to be anything but
a terrible musician now I'm not asking
you to do this exercise simply as a way
to Puff yourself up about the things
you're good at and reward yourself for
all the effort that went into it nor am
I asking you to look at the things that
you're not good at and trying to take
away some of the shame and blame
although that would be a good thing as well
well
that led to the fact that you're not
good at these things the reason I'm
requesting that you ask those questions
of yourself is that they can start to
give you a sense of the actual tools and
how those tools are implemented in order
to get better at the things that you
want to get better at and and this is a
very important and to not set yourself
up for getting worse at the things that
you already think you're good at because
as we'll soon talk about when we attach
performance labels to things that we are
really good at we internalize that sense
of self oh I'm good at this particular
thing in my case if I gave a performance
label or an intelligence label it would
be of the sort okay I have a great
memory but what happens when someone
gives themselves or hears a performance
or intelligence label around something
that they're good at and then has an
error or has a period where they're not
that good at something well if you
internalized a sense of identity around
performing well at that thing and then
at some point you don't perform well you
will also attach your identity to that
diminished performance whereas if you
attach effort verbs to why you got good
at something as well as why you are not
good at something well then there's only
room for improvement why do I say that
well when we're talking about effort
we're talking about verbs that is
inherent to you if you did it in one
context you can do it in another whereas
ability and performance it's not the
case that if you have a good memory You
Are by default a good musician that
might be the case but in my case
certainly it's not the point being that
when you think about the effort
processes that you've engaged before and
over and over again that allows you to
continue to get better in a given domain
even when or perhaps we should say
especially when you stop getting the
results you want or you start getting
poor results and that effort process of
practicing a lot many repetitions
analyzing why you didn't get something
right that can be engaged in a lot of
different Endeavors across domains as we
say so when we talk about verbs like
effort or persistence or practicing a
lot or analyzing errors and why you did
something incorrectly and then getting
back to the drawing board as it's called
when you start to think about your
successes and your failures through
those lenses through the lens of verbs
then you're really talking about
something that's Central to who you are
it's how you're wired it's Machinery
that exists in your brain and nervous
system and body that you can engage that
time and anytime as many of you know
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been talking about cognitive or
psychological processes and the basic
take home is that labels of intelligence
labels of identity undermine performance
and a striking aspect of that by the way
which I failed to mention earlier but I
should have is that if we receive those
labels of being a high performer smart
talented Etc either before or after
a given task or game or exam
it still has a detrimental effect in
both cases meaning you tell someone
heading into something you're a great
athlete you are so smart you're going to
do so well on this exam you undermine
their performance or if they take the
exam and afterwards before you see their
scores or even after they score let's
say they get an A plus they get
everything perfect and you say you are
so smart you are so talented you are
undermining the performance on the next
exam that's how striking these results
are and again they've been shown again
and again in different populations of
students and adults conversely it's
striking how powerful the effort labels
can be at improving performance
conversely and fortunately the same is
true for effort-based praise so if
before a kid or adult heads into a
competition or exam or preparation for a
competition and exam you say you know
what I know you to be a really dedicated
worker you really persist you know how
to do hard things you really dig your
heels when it gets hard and you overcome
challenges if you do that before that
child or adult heads into challenge they
will perform better and if after an exam
or performance or practice whatever the
effort happens to be you tell them you
really worked hard I love the way that
even when you know you got kicked in the
shin and you're limping along there and
you're hurt you continue to play or even
when you know everyone else went to
sleep and you continue to study although
by the way I do encourage people to get
enough sleep there are times in which
let's face it the person who stays up
latest studying provides they get enough sleep
sleep
they're getting the extra hours in right
I might have been that kid in college or
tried to be that kid in college
if you reward effort after the effort
you also set the mind the brain of that
child or adult up to provide more effort
to future endeavors so it's very clear
it doesn't matter if the timing of the
praise comes before or after a given
bout of effort or performance you give
identity praise before performance
diminishes you give identity praise after
after
subsequent performance diminishes you
give effort praise before performance
goes up you give effort praise after
performance goes up so I know I sound a
little bit like a broken record but we
hear so often about growth mindset about
giving the right form of Praise but it's
not often that we are told when to give
that praise and the short answer of
course is doesn't matter in fact we
should always be striving to give others
and ourselves praise that is correctly
attached to genuine effort and that word
correctly is important here I'm not
saying you know take a kid who performed
poorly on an exam because they kind of
loafed or the kid that was just
shuffling their feet out on the soccer
field and say hey great you know you you
worked so hard when they didn't you know
we know when we're being lied to or when
we're lying to ourselves
but that should give you a sense of
control not a sense of lack of control
because ultimately effort is something
that we can control in fact whenever I
hear the term control what you can
control I get a little bit nauseated and
a little bit irritated too because it's
never clear what people are referring to
when they say control what you can
control focus on what you can control
what's the thing that we all really can
control it's our level of persistence
and our level of effort and of course we
all have different circumstances such
that persistence and effort can be
harder in certain circumstances and for
certain people certainly but at the end
of the day at the end of the year and at
the end of our life really the only
thing that you really truly can control
is where you place your attention and
where you place your effort those are
the two things that are really inherent
to you and your nervous system no one
can do the effort for us no one can
direct our attention for us
things and people can try and divert or
distract our attention and our effort
but ultimately effort and attention that
is intrinsic motivation come as the name
suggests directly from us okay so it's
clear that we have a striking set of
results in the literature and again
major hat tip to Carol dweck and her
colleagues for making this discovery
right it is what eventually led to the
discovery of growth mindset and it's
what we're really building up to here
okay so this early work from dweck and
colleagues and by early I mean late 90s right
right
is really spectacular it really
transformed the way that we think about
education and learning in general and in
fact neuroplasticity but what it didn't
answer is why you know why is it that
effort praise leads to better
performance and intelligence praise
identity praise leads to diminished
performance and it turns out that the
answer resides in how people respond to
errors how they respond to feedback that
they did not want and there's a really
nice study that looked at this
mechanistically in the brain to ask
what's going on under the hood meaning
within the brain when people who have
one mindset or another
adopt a growth mindset that is the idea
that if they engage in effort that they
can get better at things or if they have
what's called a fixed mindset this idea
that if they're not performing well it
must be because they just simply can't
perform well they don't have the
capacity or the ability to perform well
so the study I'm referring to is a study
first author mangles last author no
surprise Carol dweck and it's entitled
why do beliefs about intelligence
influence learning success a social
cognitive Neuroscience model
I'm not going to go into all the details
of the study but the study used what's
called erps event related potentials
event related potentials
are measured by putting a cap on the
skull that has a bunch of electrodes but
they don't penetrate the skull they're
picking up electrical potentials that
correlate with shifts in brain activity
now an advantage of erps is that it's
pretty non-invasive you can even do it
on babies you don't have to cut into the
skull you don't have to remove any skin
as you would if you were going to you
know put electrodes down into the brain
which essentially is neurosurgery and
it's not as disruptive as being put into
a functional magnetic Imaging machine
where you're put into a tube and you
have to lie motionless for an hour or
more actually it was in an MRI machine
not for any clinical reason but just as
a diagnostic scan recently and nowadays
they allow you to watch Netflix in there
or do something but you have to stay
very very still so it's hard for a lot
of people to do that but it can be done
if you need it to be done you do it but
erps are great because people can come
into the laboratory put on this skull
cap it's got this funny thing or it
looks funny with all these little wires
coming out of it and you can get a
fairly good measure of
Global levels of activity across the
brain you can't really pinpoint fine
structures and you can't look at brain
activity deep in the brain that's
probably the major drawback of looking
at these erps but you can see global
shifts in activity across the brain and
the other Advantage is you can do that
while people are engaging a lot of
different types of tasks you can move
around a lot whereas when you're in an
MRI machine you're in that little tube
you can't really do much so this study
had people equipped with these skull
caps looks like a kind of like a hoodie
with a bunch of wires coming out of it
and they had them
play a game basically what they did is
they were asked questions these are
trivia type questions like what's the
capital of Australia Australians you're
not allowed to answer that question but
everyone else should try and then here
I'm paraphrasing people indicate their
confidence in how accurate they were
with the response okay so they ask them
a question like what's the capital of
Australia the person would answer and
then they say how confident are you on a
scale of say one to ten
that you got the answer correct and then
they were given two pieces of feedback
and the first piece of feedback provided
information only about their response
accuracy were they right or were they
not right
and then the second feedback was they
got the correct answer so this is a
pretty clever experimental design
because it allowed the researchers to
look at people's thinking as they're
trying to get the right answer then
compare that to how confident they were
that they had the right answer right you
could imagine that if someone was really
confident like if you ask me what's your
name and I say Andrew what's my
confidence that my name is Andrew 75
just kidding 100 okay 100 whereas if you
asked me
um I was confronted this the other day
uh in your physics class when they
talked about the right hand rule which
is if you're listening don't don't worry
about it it's just when you put out your
index finger your middle finger and your
thumb with your right hand in the right
hand rule is the magnetic field the the
middle finger the index finger the thumb
and I'm pretty sure that it's pretty
sure that it's the the magnetic field is
the the middle finger that's the vector
of the middle finger but how confident
am I in this result I don't know maybe
50 because it's been a while since I've
looked at this stuff and I should know
this but I haven't looked at so 50 when
you give people these kinds of questions
while recording brain activity you're
getting a lot of information you're
looking at accuracy you're also looking
at confidence you're looking at lack of
confidence and you can correlate that
with different patterns of brain
activity now they had essentially two
groups of people in the study one group
had an intelligence mindset they
believed intelligence was more or less
fixed the other had what we call a
growth mindset they believed that
through effort that intelligence was
malleable that people could learn new
information including themselves they
could learn new information
and you wouldn't necessarily think that
these two groups would show different
patterns of brain activity in response
to getting things right or wrong while
their brain was being imaged but in fact
that's exactly what happened there's a
certain waveform of activity the name
isn't really important you call it the
P3 wave in these Erp experiments P3 wave
is a certain pattern of activity that
emerged during the presentation to the
subject that they gotten something wrong
so the P3 wave it's just a little
blippin neural activity in the brain
correlated with when people were told
nope you got that one wrong okay and
what was really interesting is that the
height of the P3 this let's just call it
an error signal because it correlated
with the error signal this nope you got
it wrong signal in the brain that signal
was larger in people with a fixed
mindset as opposed to in people with the
growth mindset
now what was especially interesting is
that the location of that activity was
above a brain area called the interior
cingulate cortex the ACC the anterior
cingulate cortex is a structure involved
in many different functions in the brain
but one of its primary functions is that
in the front of the ACC what we call the
rostral or anterior ACC
ivity there tends to correlate with
emotional responses it tends to
correlate with our internal sense
so-called enteroception whereas in the
dorsal ACC meaning the top of the ACC
activity there tends to correlate with
cognitive information and cognitive
appraisal meaning this structure has a
lot of different functions but it's got
a little area within it that tends to be
more related to our emotional or somatic
responses to things and it's got another
area inside of it the tends to be more
related to our thinking our cognition
and what was really interesting is that
in the group that had the fixed mindset
when they were told that they got
something wrong there tended to be a
greater signal in that rostral or
anterior ACC meaning they had a bigger
emotional response to it or at least the
neural activity suggested that whereas
people with a growth mindset when
presented with ah you got something
wrong the error signal the error signal
within their brain tended to reside or
even to shift toward areas that are
associated with cognitive appraisal and
so the conclusion of this study as well
as other studies using functional
magnetic resonance imaging that have
looked at similar tasks is that when
people have a growth mindset and they
are presented with the information that
they got something wrong rather than
just feel it as a somatic response or an
emotional response they tend to appraise
it they tend to direct their attentional
resources toward trying to understand
what the error was and why they got that
error and this I believe is absolutely
fundamental to understanding the
distinction between a fixed mindset and
a growth mindset because perhaps you've
seen these lists these you know
side-by-side lists that you know a fixed
mindset versus a growth mindset you know
a fixed mindset is one in which you're
trying to look smart that you're not so
focused on effort that your response to
setbacks is to give up you know and your
academic and other forms of performance
tends to be low whereas in a growth
mindset your goal tends to be to learn
you tend to Value effort more you tend
to respond to setbacks by working harder
and your performance is higher and I'm
not trying to make light of these lists
these lists are important because they
help us organize our information and
differentiate between a fixed versus
growth mindset but they don't tell us
why focusing on effort and engaging more
effort would actually translate into
higher performance for instance you
could imagine a scenario where the exact
opposite is true right we can make up a
just so story where if your identity is
so rigidly fixed to high performance
you're likely to outwork everybody right
that seems like a logical conclusion as
well but that's not the way it plays out
it's when your identity is attached to
yourself sense of ability to engage in
ongoing effort especially when you
receive signals that you're getting
things wrong or not performing well that
is tied to elevated performance in the
study using erps tells us that's likely
to be the case because of how people who
have a growth mindset Focus their
attention when they're told nope you got
that wrong or when people think they got
something right right they give an
answer and they say what's your
confidence level and they say 90 maybe
99 maybe even 100 percent it's wrong
people who have a fixed mindset
focus on the emotional response to that
more of their brain resources are
devoted to I got it wrong I thought I
got it right then the people who have a
growth mindset who are thinking wait
okay then what was that answer and how
could I possibly get that answer wrong
I'm going to figure that out okay now as
you're hearing this you're probably
thinking oh no I'm somebody who
reflexively gets disappointed when I get
something wrong well fortunately this is
not just about that 100 milliseconds to
five seconds after you're told something
is wrong you can shift from a fixed
mindset to a growth mindset response in
fact that's an important tool that we
all need to learn how to implement we
all suffer from fixed mindset all suffer
from fixed mindset in certain Endeavors
and when we get things wrong especially
when there's some embarrassment or shame
which often accompanies when we think we
were very right we're convinced we're
right that fixed mindset can really
hijack our emotional response but
but
there are a lot of data that point to
the fact that at those moments if we
think okay I'm going to step back from
that and I'm going to just think about
the error I'm going to think about what
led to the error and I'm going to start
devoting my intentional resources to
that process
that process itself can be built up over
time such that we start to outweigh the
fixed mindset with growth mindset simply
by devoting our attentional resources to
the error acknowledging it happened
maybe feeling something about it maybe
not it's really hard to control our
feelings what we can control as I
mentioned before is our effort and our
attention so focusing our attention on
why we got something wrong and really
digging into that that's growth mindset
in action so you'll notice as we have
this discussion about the more
mechanistic underpinnings of growth
mindset is that we're not talking about
psychological terms as much we're not
talking about ego protection we're not
talking about identity now all of those
things are extremely important but the
problem with things like ego protection
and identity is that when we are faced
with results that we don't want and we
are faced with those results in a real
world context like we're not getting the
results we want in school in work in
athletics in relationships Etc
we hear these messages and we try to for
instance you know set our ego aside or
you know not attach our identity so much
to what is happening but it's really
really hard and it's really really hard because
because
statements like set your ego aside or
don't attach yourself to it so much are
wonderful aspirations but there's no
actual process that one can go through
by oneself that allows you to
immediately disentangle yourself from
your ego right I mean there's this whole
process of ego dissolution that we
talked about in the episode with Robin
cardard Harris but none of that was
directed at specific challenges that one
is undertaking in real time right so
when you're faced with results that you
don't like you can't simply step back
nor should you expect yourself to be
able to step back and say oh I'm not
going to get upset about this error
right it makes perfect sense why you
would get upset about not getting the
results that you want however once you
start to understand some of the
mechanistic underpinnings of what will
allow you to rescue your performance
that is to start focusing on those
errors from a more cognitive and a
slightly less emotional stance or even a
combination of emotional and cognitive
right because it's very hard to suppress
our emotional response to something but
oftentimes we can enhance our
attentional or cognitive response to
Something in parallel with that and in
doing so we can kind of Rob some of the
emotional response
and when we do that sort of thing it's
hard and anytime we do hard things we
generally want to know that the doing of
those hard things is working that it's
in service to something and the study I
just reviewed as well as what I'm going
to talk about next really points to the
fact that building up a practice a
capacity of focusing on one's effort on
focusing on the errors one made from a
cognitive standpoint and really trying
to understand what led to those errors
is the basis it's the Cornerstone of
building up growth mindset it does
however require that we don't just tell
ourselves to focus on effort and the
errors and analyzing those errors it
also requires an additional piece which
is what we're going to talk about now
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so by now I like to think that we all
understand what growth mindset is and
what differentiates it from a fixed
mindset however just understanding what
growth mindset is and how having a
desire to implement it and a bit of
understanding of how to implement it
turns out to be necessary but not
sufficient there's an additional piece
that we need to accomplish the good news
is that additional piece is very
straightforward to understand if we zoom
out and we start to really understand
that growth mindset is really a way of
connecting motivation to cognition it's
taking this thing that we call
motivation which is of course what we
all want we all want to be motivated we
all want to be effort driven Etc
and we take motivation and we tie it to
a set of specific thoughts or thought
processes that we can control
that is Far and Away different than
looking at motivation simply as an
emotional or an internal state of quote
unquote feeling motivated and in fact
that's what most people including myself
default to we want to feel motivated so
fortunately we try and get good sleep
which is essential that really helps for
daytime mood focus and alertness and
thereby motivation we hydrate we
exercise we might even drink caffeine as
a way to increase our level of alertness
and motivation and all of that is
finding good in fact all of that is
encouraged although I would say that the
caffeine part is optional but all those
other things are encouraged toward
mental health physical health and
performance and motivation but what
growth mindset is really about is it's
taking this thing that we call
motivation and it's saying okay what are
the specific types of thoughts and
actually the specific thoughts the
specific cognitive processes that will
allow us to feel more motivated
especially under conditions where we
feel something is hard where we are not
getting the results we want and in order
to master that process we need to
embrace another mindset that's right in
order to access growth mindset it's very
clear that we need to be able to think
about errors and we need to overcome
errors and we need to devote our
attention to errors and we need to
devote our attention to reframing what's
going on in our head when we're feeling
not motivated Etc and all of that is
really hard to do from a purely
psychological standpoint but there's
this additional mindset which has to do
with our mindset around stress and
frustration itself that can allow us to
access growth mindset far more easily
and this mindset around stress actually
has a name it's called the stress is
enhancing mindset and there's a very
straightforward way to increase your
stress is enhancing mindset so first I
want to step back and acknowledge the
person who really made some of the key
fundamental discoveries in this area
that we call stresses enhancing mindsets
and that's Dr Alia sometimes referred to
as Dr Ali Crum she's a tenured professor
of psychology at Stanford she also is a
former division one athlete and a
licensed clinical psychologist she's an
absolute Phenom and I promise you that
she is so successful in all those
categories by way of immense amounts of
effort in addition to that she also
happens to be an incredibly kind person
and generous person she was a guest on
this podcast previously you can find
that episode in the show note captions
or by going to hubermanlab.com and
simply searching for mindset crumb c-r-u-m
c-r-u-m
her personal story and her work and the
tool she offers are absolutely
spectacular however you don't need to go
to that episode just yet I'm going to
talk about some of those tools now and
I'm going to talk about how using those
tools can allow you to access growth
mindset and then I'm going to talk about
how the combination of applying a stress
is enhancing mindset with a growth
mindset acts synergistically to even
further improve performance in the short
and long run the stresses enhancing
mindset is the outgrowth of many
different studies and not just from Dr
Ali Crum but from others as well but for
the time being I want to focus on one
paper in which Dr Crum was the first
author so this work was done before she
arrived at Stanford the paper is
entitled rethinking stress the role of
mindsets in determining the stress
response and the key takeaway from this
paper is that how we think about stress
impacts how we react to stress so much
so in fact that what this paper
illustrates is that if people are given
even just a short tutorial about some of
the negative consequences of stress on
learning and performance and their
physiology and their health they
experience a lot of negative consequences of stress when they are put
consequences of stress when they are put into a stressful circumstance
into a stressful circumstance conversely if people are taught about
conversely if people are taught about the performance enhancing aspects of
the performance enhancing aspects of stress then those people will experience
stress then those people will experience performance enhancement when they are
performance enhancement when they are confronted with stress in a learning or
confronted with stress in a learning or other performance type environment so
other performance type environment so what we are talking about here is not
what we are talking about here is not the placebo effect I want to be very
the placebo effect I want to be very clear about that
clear about that we are also not talking about lying to
we are also not talking about lying to people in order to shift their response
people in order to shift their response to stress what we're talking about here
to stress what we're talking about here is two different conditions one
is two different conditions one condition where people are exposed to
condition where people are exposed to information that is true about how
information that is true about how stress can diminish performance and
stress can diminish performance and another condition in which people are
another condition in which people are exposed to information that is also true
exposed to information that is also true about how stress can enhance performance
about how stress can enhance performance now you might be saying how can it be
now you might be saying how can it be true that stress is both performance
true that stress is both performance diminishing and stress is performance
diminishing and stress is performance enhancing and ah therein lies the key
enhancing and ah therein lies the key takeaway from this paper it depends on
takeaway from this paper it depends on what you believe about stress in fact a
what you believe about stress in fact a different way to umbrella this whole
different way to umbrella this whole discussion is to say that how you think
discussion is to say that how you think about stress impacts the stress response
about stress impacts the stress response in profound ways so this paper
in profound ways so this paper rethinking stress the role of mindsets
rethinking stress the role of mindsets and determining stress
and determining stress did a very simple set of manipulations
did a very simple set of manipulations they had people in one group listen to a
they had people in one group listen to a lecture that effectively was titled
lecture that effectively was titled quote the effects of stress are negative
quote the effects of stress are negative and should be avoided and that lecture
and should be avoided and that lecture included information about how stress
included information about how stress diminishes performance and how it can
diminishes performance and how it can diminish health and vitality learning
diminish health and vitality learning and performance productivity it
and performance productivity it increases uncertainty Etc okay and all
increases uncertainty Etc okay and all of that information is true
of that information is true a separate group listened to a lecture
a separate group listened to a lecture entitled quote experiencing stress
entitled quote experiencing stress improves health and vitality and again
improves health and vitality and again that information is true now I realize
that information is true now I realize that some of you are probably still
that some of you are probably still asking how can it be that stress
asking how can it be that stress diminishes health and performance and
diminishes health and performance and stress also enhances health and
stress also enhances health and performance and the answer lies in two
performance and the answer lies in two things one the level of stress and
things one the level of stress and therefore the level of hormones that are
therefore the level of hormones that are released in response to that stress the
released in response to that stress the duration over which the stress response
duration over which the stress response occurs but the key variable here is that
occurs but the key variable here is that our cognitive understanding about what
our cognitive understanding about what stress does impacts whether or not our
stress does impacts whether or not our physiology goes down the direction of
physiology goes down the direction of debilitating or enhancing effects of
debilitating or enhancing effects of stress Okay so we've got a condition
stress Okay so we've got a condition here where people are being informed
here where people are being informed very differently about what stress does
very differently about what stress does in one case it's the stresses bad
in one case it's the stresses bad message in the other case it's the
message in the other case it's the stress is good message and there are
stress is good message and there are many different experiments within this
many different experiments within this paper but one of the more interesting
paper but one of the more interesting ones I believe
ones I believe is where they looked at work performance
is where they looked at work performance both in terms of performance of what
both in terms of performance of what they call soft tasks so these are
they call soft tasks so these are somewhat easier tasks as well as hard
somewhat easier tasks as well as hard tasks and when you look at the group
tasks and when you look at the group that was given information about how
that was given information about how stress diminishes performance in the
stress diminishes performance in the soft tasks okay so the somewhat easy
soft tasks okay so the somewhat easy task You Don't See Much change in their
task You Don't See Much change in their performance
performance as you compare the before the learning
as you compare the before the learning about stress is diminishing to after the
about stress is diminishing to after the learning whereas the people who learn
learning whereas the people who learn that stress is enhancing actually
that stress is enhancing actually experience some improvement in work
experience some improvement in work performance even though the challenge
performance even though the challenge that they're facing isn't that great so
that they're facing isn't that great so again what this means is that learning
again what this means is that learning that stress can enhance performance by
that stress can enhance performance by providing people true information about
providing people true information about how stress can enhance performance can
how stress can enhance performance can increase performance even in the context
increase performance even in the context of stuff that's not that hard not that
of stuff that's not that hard not that stressful even more interesting is that
stressful even more interesting is that when you look at performance on tasks
when you look at performance on tasks that are considered hard and you compare
that are considered hard and you compare the stresses diminishing group meaning
the stresses diminishing group meaning the group that was taught that stress is
the group that was taught that stress is diminishing
diminishing and compare that to the stresses
and compare that to the stresses enhancing group you see a really
enhancing group you see a really Divergent response the people that learn
Divergent response the people that learn that stress diminishes performance did
that stress diminishes performance did not improve at all whereas the people
not improve at all whereas the people that learn that stress can enhance
that learn that stress can enhance performance enhance their performance
performance enhance their performance significantly now keep in mind all they
significantly now keep in mind all they are doing is learning that stress can
are doing is learning that stress can enhance their performance and then
enhance their performance and then they're given the task and they're
they're given the task and they're performing better so that's pretty
performing better so that's pretty spectacular right there's no training
spectacular right there's no training session that they went and did they
session that they went and did they didn't practice these items that they
didn't practice these items that they were being tested on in between they
were being tested on in between they weren't given a bunch of you know drills
weren't given a bunch of you know drills to do and they didn't take a lot of time
to do and they didn't take a lot of time to do it they just heard a tutorial
to do it they just heard a tutorial about how stress can enhance performance
about how stress can enhance performance and that I believe is remarkable because
and that I believe is remarkable because what it says is that our cognitive
what it says is that our cognitive appraisal about stress which we all are
appraisal about stress which we all are going to experience in life right
going to experience in life right elevated heart rate narrowing a visual
elevated heart rate narrowing a visual Focus you know shifting of blood away
Focus you know shifting of blood away from the periphery all of these things
from the periphery all of these things are characteristic features of the
are characteristic features of the stress response that we learn especially
stress response that we learn especially in this day and age because it's talked
in this day and age because it's talked about a lot in popular culture that oh
about a lot in popular culture that oh you know all of the these mechanisms
you know all of the these mechanisms were put into us in order for us to get
were put into us in order for us to get away from the saber-toothed tiger or the
away from the saber-toothed tiger or the or the line that's trying to eat us
or the line that's trying to eat us let's be fair the stress response is
let's be fair the stress response is there for a lot of reasons not just
there for a lot of reasons not just because of saber-toothed tigers and
because of saber-toothed tigers and lions I mean that's kind of a story that
lions I mean that's kind of a story that we make up the stress response is
we make up the stress response is inherent not just to us but to other
inherent not just to us but to other species as a way to mobilize us either
species as a way to mobilize us either away from things or toward things right
away from things or toward things right we need to have somewhat of a stress
we need to have somewhat of a stress response in order to engage in adaptive
response in order to engage in adaptive challenge yes it's true that hundreds
challenge yes it's true that hundreds and thousands of years ago those
and thousands of years ago those adaptive challenges probably involved
adaptive challenges probably involved hunting but they probably involved
hunting but they probably involved Social Challenges as well do you think
Social Challenges as well do you think it was you know easy for cavemen and
it was you know easy for cavemen and women to engage socially and you know
women to engage socially and you know kind of settle out their romantic
kind of settle out their romantic interactions Etc do you think it was
interactions Etc do you think it was easy for them to raise children no of
easy for them to raise children no of course not the stress response is there
course not the stress response is there for a variety of reasons not just to get
for a variety of reasons not just to get away from predators the really exciting
away from predators the really exciting thing that's been discovered in the
thing that's been discovered in the course of Ali krum's work and other work
course of Ali krum's work and other work in the last couple of decades is that
in the last couple of decades is that the stress response is neither good nor
the stress response is neither good nor bad the stress response depends on
bad the stress response depends on whether or not you believe the
whether or not you believe the sensations that you're experiencing
sensations that you're experiencing elevated heart rate narrowing a visual
elevated heart rate narrowing a visual Focus Etc are serving to enhance your
Focus Etc are serving to enhance your performance or diminish your performance
performance or diminish your performance and this study really points to the fact
and this study really points to the fact that just learning that it can enhance
that just learning that it can enhance performance
performance can enhance performance now I know a
can enhance performance now I know a number of you are probably saying wait
number of you are probably saying wait but stress doesn't feel good right and
but stress doesn't feel good right and oftentimes we experience stress under
oftentimes we experience stress under conditions where we're trying to learn
conditions where we're trying to learn or get good at something or listen
or get good at something or listen better or do something and it actually
better or do something and it actually is diminishing performance I think it's
is diminishing performance I think it's important to acknowledge that
important to acknowledge that this study and studies like it are not
this study and studies like it are not saying that stress becomes pleasant as a
saying that stress becomes pleasant as a sensation in the body nor is it saying
sensation in the body nor is it saying that it always leads to improved
that it always leads to improved performance I don't want you to think
performance I don't want you to think that's the take-home message sometimes
that's the take-home message sometimes it does it can as was demonstrated in
it does it can as was demonstrated in this research paper but oftentimes as we
this research paper but oftentimes as we know stress diminishes our performance
know stress diminishes our performance it takes us away from the landmarks we
it takes us away from the landmarks we want to hit it takes us away from the
want to hit it takes us away from the grades we want to get it takes us away
grades we want to get it takes us away from quote unquote showing up how we
from quote unquote showing up how we want to right no one wants to have the
want to right no one wants to have the blotchy skin and the sweating and the
blotchy skin and the sweating and the quaking of voice when we're trying to do
quaking of voice when we're trying to do public speaking and things of that sort
public speaking and things of that sort no one wants any of that what's
no one wants any of that what's important to understand is that learning
important to understand is that learning that stress is a way of mobilizing
that stress is a way of mobilizing resources in the body does two things
resources in the body does two things first of all it allows us to dampen or
first of all it allows us to dampen or adjust the stress response in real time
adjust the stress response in real time and it allows us to understand that that
and it allows us to understand that that stress response heightens our level of
stress response heightens our level of focus in a way that allows us to pay
focus in a way that allows us to pay attention to the things that are going
attention to the things that are going wrong in a way that allows us us to make
wrong in a way that allows us us to make correction to those errors in the future
correction to those errors in the future so if you think back to that study that
so if you think back to that study that Erp study where they measured brain
Erp study where they measured brain activity and they looked at people who
activity and they looked at people who had a fixed mindset versus people who
had a fixed mindset versus people who had a growth mindset and the people who
had a growth mindset and the people who had a growth mindset were paying more
had a growth mindset were paying more cognitive attention to what was
cognitive attention to what was happening during errors and after errors
happening during errors and after errors well this stress is enhancing mindset is
well this stress is enhancing mindset is very powerful because what it does is it
very powerful because what it does is it shifts one's attention away from the
shifts one's attention away from the kind of somatic experience of oh my
kind of somatic experience of oh my goodness my heart rate is elevated I'm
goodness my heart rate is elevated I'm sweating I'm quaking I'm just I sound
sweating I'm quaking I'm just I sound terrible I feel terrible I look terrible
terrible I feel terrible I look terrible Etc to a mode of allocating more of our
Etc to a mode of allocating more of our thinking toward analyzing why things
thinking toward analyzing why things might be going wrong and something else
might be going wrong and something else powerful happens when we Embrace a
powerful happens when we Embrace a stresses-enhancing mindset as well when
stresses-enhancing mindset as well when we Embrace a stress is enhancing mindset
we Embrace a stress is enhancing mindset it turns out that some of the very
it turns out that some of the very physiological processes that we call
physiological processes that we call quote unquote stress shift in important
quote unquote stress shift in important ways some of those include the duration
ways some of those include the duration over which the stress hormone cortisol
over which the stress hormone cortisol is released and in fact I don't even
is released and in fact I don't even really want to call it a stress hormone
really want to call it a stress hormone because cortisol does so many other
because cortisol does so many other things as well and it's not bad you need
things as well and it's not bad you need cortisol believe me you want cortisol
cortisol believe me you want cortisol especially released early in the day and
especially released early in the day and in response to acute stressors what you
in response to acute stressors what you don't want is for cortisol to stay
don't want is for cortisol to stay elevated for long long periods of time
elevated for long long periods of time and you especially don't want it to
and you especially don't want it to interfere with your sleep okay so much
interfere with your sleep okay so much so that I think at times I wonder
so that I think at times I wonder whether or not our philosophy on stress
whether or not our philosophy on stress should be that stress is fantastic for
should be that stress is fantastic for us
us except when it interferes with our sleep
except when it interferes with our sleep right and when stress becomes terrible
right and when stress becomes terrible for us is when it starts to be
for us is when it starts to be chronically elevated and especially when
chronically elevated and especially when it starts to inhibit our ability to
it starts to inhibit our ability to sleep well enough and long enough okay
sleep well enough and long enough okay so the point here is that when we
so the point here is that when we Embrace a stressous enhancing mindset we
Embrace a stressous enhancing mindset we are able to have shorter duration
are able to have shorter duration release of cortisol we are also able to
release of cortisol we are also able to engage what's called increased stroke
engage what's called increased stroke volume under conditions of stress this
volume under conditions of stress this gets a little bit technical but the
gets a little bit technical but the amount of blood that your heart can pump
amount of blood that your heart can pump with each beat turns out to be a key
with each beat turns out to be a key metric of stress when we are very
metric of stress when we are very stressed even though we need to mobilize
stressed even though we need to mobilize a lot of resources somewhat
a lot of resources somewhat paradoxically our total stroke volume
paradoxically our total stroke volume can actually be reduced and we tend to
can actually be reduced and we tend to shuttle blood and other resources
shuttle blood and other resources towards the core of our body and towards
towards the core of our body and towards major Limbs and away from things like
major Limbs and away from things like our brain and our periphery so one of
our brain and our periphery so one of the key measures of how a stress
the key measures of how a stress response quote-unquote is going is how
response quote-unquote is going is how much peripheral blood flow there is and
much peripheral blood flow there is and when we are more relaxed under
when we are more relaxed under conditions of stress there tends to be
conditions of stress there tends to be more peripheral blood flow when we are
more peripheral blood flow when we are more anxious more panicked under
more anxious more panicked under conditions of stress peripheral blood
conditions of stress peripheral blood flow is lower and in a remarkable set of
flow is lower and in a remarkable set of experiments
experiments Ali Crum and colleagues have shown that
Ali Crum and colleagues have shown that when we are just taught that stress can
when we are just taught that stress can be enhancing and then we are placed into
be enhancing and then we are placed into a stressful environment either because
a stressful environment either because we are imagining stress or we are
we are imagining stress or we are experiencing real stress and then our
experiencing real stress and then our physiology is measured
physiology is measured what is observed is that the total
what is observed is that the total amount of blood that the heart can pump
amount of blood that the heart can pump with each beat is actually increase
with each beat is actually increase peripheral blood flow increases and our
peripheral blood flow increases and our ability to maintain cognition to think
ability to maintain cognition to think clearly under conditions of stress
clearly under conditions of stress increases and again the only
increases and again the only manipulation here is a tutorial about
manipulation here is a tutorial about how stress can be enhancing which is
how stress can be enhancing which is essentially what I'm telling you right
essentially what I'm telling you right now in fact for those of you that
now in fact for those of you that perhaps have heard stress reduces
perhaps have heard stress reduces testosterone levels stress reduces
testosterone levels stress reduces estrogen levels Etc that's true it is
estrogen levels Etc that's true it is also True by the way that when you are
also True by the way that when you are informed about how stress can be
informed about how stress can be enhancing of performance it becomes
enhancing of performance it becomes anabolic that's right it actually can
anabolic that's right it actually can lead to deployment of androgens and
lead to deployment of androgens and estrogens things that many not all
estrogens things that many not all people desire to have increased or
people desire to have increased or certainly desire to not have diminished
certainly desire to not have diminished below their normal Baseline so there's a
below their normal Baseline so there's a lot of false stories out there about
lot of false stories out there about stress not false because what you're
stress not false because what you're hearing is wrong
hearing is wrong because indeed chronic stress
because indeed chronic stress chronically elevated cortisol can reduce
chronically elevated cortisol can reduce testosterone reduce estrogen diminish
you're suffering performance wise is reappraised it's telling you no the
is reappraised it's telling you no the frustration the agitation the thought
frustration the agitation the thought that you're not capable and you're not
that you're not capable and you're not capable of getting better it's actually
capable of getting better it's actually the opposite so what this tutorial
the opposite so what this tutorial really is is it's an information based
really is is it's an information based tutorial it tells you something about
tutorial it tells you something about the brain's capacity to change it gives
the brain's capacity to change it gives you some True by the way mechanistic
you some True by the way mechanistic information about how synapses can
information about how synapses can change and brain circuits can change
change and brain circuits can change because indeed they can
because indeed they can and it's telling you that the negative
and it's telling you that the negative somatic bodily and cognitive
somatic bodily and cognitive thought-based experiences of stress that
thought-based experiences of stress that those represent you getting better
those represent you getting better that's simply what it is and despite it
that's simply what it is and despite it being simple in its specific message
being simple in its specific message that message turns out to be incredibly
that message turns out to be incredibly powerful how can we say that it's truly
powerful how can we say that it's truly powerful well we could turn to
powerful well we could turn to essentially any page in this study that
essentially any page in this study that Jaeger and colleagues did and see that
Jaeger and colleagues did and see that for instance the intervention again this
for instance the intervention again this is the combination of learning about
is the combination of learning about growth mindset and learning that stress
growth mindset and learning that stress can be performance enhancing
can be performance enhancing led to 40 Improvement in self-regard so
led to 40 Improvement in self-regard so self-regard is something that can be
self-regard is something that can be measured we can have very negative or
measured we can have very negative or very positive self-regard 40
very positive self-regard 40 improvements in self-regard there was a
improvements in self-regard there was a 14 Improvement in passing of courses
14 Improvement in passing of courses that were of the particularly
that were of the particularly challenging type and there was also a
challenging type and there was also a significant Improvement in passing of
significant Improvement in passing of courses that were less challenging in
courses that were less challenging in addition to that people who watched and
addition to that people who watched and engaged in this 30 minute tutorial also
engaged in this 30 minute tutorial also took on additional hard challenges in
took on additional hard challenges in the future long after the intervention
the future long after the intervention had ceased now there are a number of
had ceased now there are a number of other features of the David Yeager work
other features of the David Yeager work that I think are especially important to
that I think are especially important to consider but rather than go into the
consider but rather than go into the specifics of those experiments
specifics of those experiments I'm going to frame them in the context
I'm going to frame them in the context of some very specific tools that I've
of some very specific tools that I've spelled out for sake of this episode
spelled out for sake of this episode based on the scientific literature that
based on the scientific literature that you can use in order to build a growth
you can use in order to build a growth mindset and in order to build the stress
mindset and in order to build the stress enhances performance mindset now in some
enhances performance mindset now in some sense all of our discussion during this
sense all of our discussion during this episode up until now has served as a
episode up until now has served as a tutorial about growth mindset and about
tutorial about growth mindset and about stress enhances performance and how
stress enhances performance and how those two things can be combined in
those two things can be combined in order to get a synergistic positive
order to get a synergistic positive effect nonetheless I do think that it's
effect nonetheless I do think that it's useful especially when thinking about
useful especially when thinking about cognitive tools which are often less
cognitive tools which are often less concrete and clear to people how they
concrete and clear to people how they can Implement them compared to say
can Implement them compared to say exercise tools like you know get two 100
exercise tools like you know get two 100 minutes of Zone 2 cardio per week or get
minutes of Zone 2 cardio per week or get six sets of resistance exercise per
six sets of resistance exercise per major muscle group per week Etc all of
major muscle group per week Etc all of that stuff in the physical domain is
that stuff in the physical domain is very concrete whereas stuff that relates
very concrete whereas stuff that relates to tools in the cognitive domain
to tools in the cognitive domain sometimes can feel a little bit abstract
sometimes can feel a little bit abstract so for that we reason I'm just going to
so for that we reason I'm just going to take a couple of minutes and list off
take a couple of minutes and list off some of the key elements to building up
some of the key elements to building up a growth mindset and a stress enhances
a growth mindset and a stress enhances performance mindset that are gleaned
performance mindset that are gleaned from the literature that I've talked
from the literature that I've talked about now and related literature the
about now and related literature the first tool is that whenever possible if
first tool is that whenever possible if both the teacher and the student can
both the teacher and the student can adopt a growth mindset and a stress
adopt a growth mindset and a stress enhances performance mindset that's the
enhances performance mindset that's the best case scenario this has been shown
best case scenario this has been shown in the classroom and it's been shown in
in the classroom and it's been shown in other contexts as well and again it
other contexts as well and again it simply means learning about what growth
simply means learning about what growth mindset is and how it differs from fixed
mindset is and how it differs from fixed mindset it also ideally means learning
mindset it also ideally means learning how stress can enhance performance now
how stress can enhance performance now if that means
if that means spending some time with the discussion
spending some time with the discussion that we had around Dr Alia crum's data
that we had around Dr Alia crum's data that would be great if it also means
that would be great if it also means just thinking about the stress response
just thinking about the stress response and understanding that that stress
and understanding that that stress response indeed is mobilizing resources
response indeed is mobilizing resources it's focusing your vision more narrowly
it's focusing your vision more narrowly right you sort of lose the forest
right you sort of lose the forest through the trees and yet that allows
through the trees and yet that allows you to really analyze carefully whatever
you to really analyze carefully whatever it is that you choose to focus your
it is that you choose to focus your attention on well then that's going to
attention on well then that's going to be performance enhancing again these
be performance enhancing again these tools are purely cognitive but they are
tools are purely cognitive but they are well supported by the data and the data
well supported by the data and the data also tell us that when teachers and
also tell us that when teachers and students both adopt this mindset the
students both adopt this mindset the teachers are viewing the students as
teachers are viewing the students as less fixed in their abilities and the
less fixed in their abilities and the students are viewing themselves as less
students are viewing themselves as less fixed in their abilities the next tool
fixed in their abilities the next tool which is a really fundamental one to
which is a really fundamental one to everything we're talking about was
everything we're talking about was actually mentioned at the beginning of
actually mentioned at the beginning of the episode which is whenever giving
the episode which is whenever giving praise or giving feedback of any kind to
praise or giving feedback of any kind to others or to yourself perhaps even
others or to yourself perhaps even especially to yourself
especially to yourself make the effort to make that feedback
make the effort to make that feedback about verbs not labels okay to really
about verbs not labels okay to really think about
think about praising or in some cases maybe giving
praising or in some cases maybe giving feedback about how effort could have
feedback about how effort could have been better but ideally you're saying
been better but ideally you're saying great effort it was great that when you
great effort it was great that when you missed that shot on goal that you ran
missed that shot on goal that you ran back to your side of the field it was
back to your side of the field it was great that when you didn't perform well
great that when you didn't perform well on that math exam
on that math exam that you went back to those problem sets
that you went back to those problem sets and that you conversed with other
and that you conversed with other students about why they had performed a
students about why they had performed a certain way and you really dug through
certain way and you really dug through it and figured out why you got things
it and figured out why you got things wrong now a key aspect of this tool of
wrong now a key aspect of this tool of focusing on verbs not labels is that it
focusing on verbs not labels is that it is especially important to do this when
is especially important to do this when you've performed well I talked about the
you've performed well I talked about the reasons a little bit earlier but I
reasons a little bit earlier but I cannot emphasize this enough when you've
cannot emphasize this enough when you've performed well if you tell yourself or
performed well if you tell yourself or you tell somebody else that they're just
you tell somebody else that they're just a great athlete they're just a great
a great athlete they're just a great student they're talented they're
student they're talented they're brilliant I promise you you are
brilliant I promise you you are undermining their future performance
undermining their future performance when they inevitably encounter challenge
when they inevitably encounter challenge if however you give yourself or the
if however you give yourself or the other person feedback that's really
other person feedback that's really grounded in effort and persistence in
grounded in effort and persistence in problem solving you are absolutely going
problem solving you are absolutely going the right direction now if you are going
the right direction now if you are going to give feedback about errors either to
to give feedback about errors either to yourself or to somebody else
yourself or to somebody else the question really is do you paint that
the question really is do you paint that with rose-colored glasses do you try and
with rose-colored glasses do you try and make it seem like the errors weren't
make it seem like the errors weren't that bad that's not actually what we're
that bad that's not actually what we're talking about we're not talking about
talking about we're not talking about what do they say putting lipstick on a
what do they say putting lipstick on a pig what we're talking about is
pig what we're talking about is looking at those errors and thinking
looking at those errors and thinking about what led up to those errors and
about what led up to those errors and trying to put more of our cognitive
trying to put more of our cognitive attention on the verbs the things that
attention on the verbs the things that led to those errors and less of our
led to those errors and less of our attention on the emotions related to
attention on the emotions related to those errors we really need to be
those errors we really need to be analytic about those errors and
analytic about those errors and admittedly
admittedly we often need to take a day or two or
we often need to take a day or two or maybe even longer before we can do that
maybe even longer before we can do that process effectively right nothing that
process effectively right nothing that I've said thus far has said that we have
I've said thus far has said that we have to do all of this immediately after an
to do all of this immediately after an error or immediately after a poor
error or immediately after a poor performance sometimes we are so caught
performance sometimes we are so caught up in the emotional experience of having
up in the emotional experience of having performed not as well as we would have
performed not as well as we would have liked that there's simply no way that we
liked that there's simply no way that we can allocate our mental resources toward
can allocate our mental resources toward error analysis ideally we can but
error analysis ideally we can but oftentimes we can so we have to be how
oftentimes we can so we have to be how do they say gentle with ourselves and
do they say gentle with ourselves and allow ourselves to move through that
allow ourselves to move through that process and then get back to error
process and then get back to error analysis that's absolutely key but we
analysis that's absolutely key but we really want to focus on the verbs
really want to focus on the verbs leading to those errors not putting
leading to those errors not putting labels on the stupid ridiculous silly
labels on the stupid ridiculous silly fill in your blank with whatever
fill in your blank with whatever negative label you might happen to come
negative label you might happen to come up with okay so verbs verbs verbs for
up with okay so verbs verbs verbs for analyzing why we did well and verbs
analyzing why we did well and verbs verbs verbs for analyzing why we did
verbs verbs for analyzing why we did poorly now you may have noticed that a
poorly now you may have noticed that a few minutes ago I mentioned that
few minutes ago I mentioned that oftentimes it's beneficial that when we
oftentimes it's beneficial that when we make errors that we seek out others who
make errors that we seek out others who either performed well
either performed well ideally but also those who performed
ideally but also those who performed poorly in order to get some
poorly in order to get some understanding as to why we did not
understanding as to why we did not perform as well as we wanted and that
perform as well as we wanted and that raises another key tool there are a lot
raises another key tool there are a lot of data now to support the fact that one
of data now to support the fact that one of the key ways to analyze our errors is
of the key ways to analyze our errors is to get help and this is one of the
to get help and this is one of the things that really differentiates the
things that really differentiates the high performers from the low performers
high performers from the low performers over time and yes there I just used a
over time and yes there I just used a label well I guess I could have said the
label well I guess I could have said the high effort which leads to Performance
high effort which leads to Performance people versus the low effort which leads
people versus the low effort which leads to low performance people but in any
to low performance people but in any case you get the idea people who perform
case you get the idea people who perform well over time
well over time regardless of labels that we place on
regardless of labels that we place on them tend to be people who seek help in
them tend to be people who seek help in order to understand why they didn't
order to understand why they didn't perform well so this is a core component
perform well so this is a core component of not just trying and building a growth
of not just trying and building a growth mindset but really solidifying a growth
mindset but really solidifying a growth mindset and a stress can enhance
mindset and a stress can enhance performance mindset so seek help from
performance mindset so seek help from others in understanding where you didn't
others in understanding where you didn't perform as well as you like and I would
perform as well as you like and I would say Seek input from others as to what
say Seek input from others as to what were the verbs that you think might have
were the verbs that you think might have led to your heightened performance
led to your heightened performance because we like to think that we have
because we like to think that we have really good Optics on why we did well oh
really good Optics on why we did well oh yeah it was because I spent X number of
yeah it was because I spent X number of hours practicing but oftentimes those
hours practicing but oftentimes those around us have additional perspectives
around us have additional perspectives that we can't access and learning about
that we can't access and learning about those perspectives of why we've
those perspectives of why we've performed poorly but also why we
performed poorly but also why we performed well
performed well in the context of these verbs not labels
in the context of these verbs not labels is also tremendously beneficial the
is also tremendously beneficial the other thing that's clear from the
other thing that's clear from the literature on growth mindset and stress
literature on growth mindset and stress can enhance performance mindset
can enhance performance mindset is that
is that all of that stuff all those tutorials
all of that stuff all those tutorials are most effective when both teachers
are most effective when both teachers and students Embrace those mindsets now
and students Embrace those mindsets now that's a wonderful situation if teachers
that's a wonderful situation if teachers and students are both available and
and students are both available and willing to learn those mindsets however
willing to learn those mindsets however for many of us we don't have a teacher
for many of us we don't have a teacher we don't have a mentor we're doing all
we don't have a mentor we're doing all of this on our own
of this on our own and so what's fortunate is that there
and so what's fortunate is that there are also data in the literature showing
are also data in the literature showing that under conditions where either the
that under conditions where either the teacher or the mentor is not there or is
teacher or the mentor is not there or is not embracing a growth mindset or stress
not embracing a growth mindset or stress enhances performance mindset we actually
enhances performance mindset we actually can serve as our own teacher
can serve as our own teacher by using a simple tool and the simple
by using a simple tool and the simple tool that was actually the same tool
tool that was actually the same tool that was used in one of the Jaeger
that was used in one of the Jaeger studies is to take maybe a three by five
studies is to take maybe a three by five card or an eight and a half by eleven
card or an eight and a half by eleven sheet of paper and write out a letter
sheet of paper and write out a letter as if you're writing a letter to the
as if you're writing a letter to the next person coming along trying to get
next person coming along trying to get good at the thing that you're trying to
good at the thing that you're trying to get good at and explain to them what
get good at and explain to them what growth mindset is and how it differs
growth mindset is and how it differs from a fixed mindset explain to them
from a fixed mindset explain to them what the stress enhances performance
what the stress enhances performance mindset is how to adopt it and how it
mindset is how to adopt it and how it can amplify performance
can amplify performance that simple exercise of writing a letter
that simple exercise of writing a letter which is essentially to oneself but
which is essentially to oneself but you're sort of pretending that the
you're sort of pretending that the letter is for somebody else although I
letter is for somebody else although I suppose you could and perhaps should
suppose you could and perhaps should give it to somebody else so they can
give it to somebody else so they can benefit that simple exercise has been
benefit that simple exercise has been shown to improve one's own performance
shown to improve one's own performance and to do so in dramatic ways not just
and to do so in dramatic ways not just in the immediate term but also in the
in the immediate term but also in the future now the final tool I'd like to
future now the final tool I'd like to share is one that I've come up with but
share is one that I've come up with but it's one that's really grounded in the
it's one that's really grounded in the Neuroscience of neuroplasticity
Neuroscience of neuroplasticity and believe it or not that's grounded in
and believe it or not that's grounded in our understanding of exercise physiology
our understanding of exercise physiology and that is to reframe this idea that
and that is to reframe this idea that the mind is like a muscle I know we hear
the mind is like a muscle I know we hear that over and over again the mind is
that over and over again the mind is like a muscle you know you exercise a
like a muscle you know you exercise a muscle it gets stronger
muscle it gets stronger you exercise your mind you put it
you exercise your mind you put it through some strain and you can learn
through some strain and you can learn those statements are absolutely true but
those statements are absolutely true but this statement that the mind is like a
this statement that the mind is like a muscle that analogy falls short I
muscle that analogy falls short I believe in an important way that can
believe in an important way that can lead a lot of people astray when they
lead a lot of people astray when they try and embrace growth mindset and the
try and embrace growth mindset and the stress enhances performance mindset and
stress enhances performance mindset and the reason I say that is the following
the reason I say that is the following exercise with weights or resistance
exercise with weights or resistance training of any kind whether or not it's
training of any kind whether or not it's body weight or machines or free weights
body weight or machines or free weights has an incredible property to it in that
has an incredible property to it in that it increases blood flow to the muscles
it increases blood flow to the muscles that we're training right this is
that we're training right this is something that really distinguishes
something that really distinguishes resistance training from other forms of
resistance training from other forms of training like long distance running
training like long distance running when we train our muscles with
when we train our muscles with resistance the blood flow into that
resistance the blood flow into that muscle the so-called pump gives us a
muscle the so-called pump gives us a sort of a hint or a window of the growth
sort of a hint or a window of the growth of that muscle that is likely to occur
of that muscle that is likely to occur if we allow that muscle to recover after
if we allow that muscle to recover after that resistance training in other words
that resistance training in other words resistance training provides us a kind
resistance training provides us a kind of hint of the results we are likely to
of hint of the results we are likely to get so when we hear the analogy that the
get so when we hear the analogy that the mind is like a muscle I think it falls
mind is like a muscle I think it falls short because when we strain to learn
short because when we strain to learn something with our mind we don't
something with our mind we don't actually get to feel what it is to
actually get to feel what it is to perform much better
perform much better as we are trying to learn that thing
as we are trying to learn that thing actually quite the contrary in fact much
actually quite the contrary in fact much of what we've been talking about today
of what we've been talking about today is the fact that the stress and strain
is the fact that the stress and strain and the disappointment that is so
and the disappointment that is so reflexively felt when we look at our
reflexively felt when we look at our diminished performances we're trying to
diminished performances we're trying to learn is actually the trigger for
learn is actually the trigger for invoking the learning itself so what I'm
invoking the learning itself so what I'm saying here is that it is not the case
saying here is that it is not the case that when we go in to learn a language
that when we go in to learn a language or a new skill or
or a new skill or mathematics or something new that for a
mathematics or something new that for a moment we are fluent or partially fluent
moment we are fluent or partially fluent and then we lose that ability when we
and then we lose that ability when we walk out of the classroom or the
walk out of the classroom or the tutorial
tutorial that's what makes it different than the
that's what makes it different than the gym where you go and you lift weights or
gym where you go and you lift weights or you use a resistance training of any
you use a resistance training of any kind and you get this sort of window
kind and you get this sort of window into oh this is what the muscle will
into oh this is what the muscle will feel like and look like when it's larger
feel like and look like when it's larger so the mind is like a muscle analogy
so the mind is like a muscle analogy sort of works in the sense that if you
sort of works in the sense that if you properly stress a muscle using
properly stress a muscle using resistance training and then you give it
resistance training and then you give it an adequate amount of time to recover it
an adequate amount of time to recover it indeed will get bigger and stronger
indeed will get bigger and stronger and it is true that when you go in to
and it is true that when you go in to try and learn something if you provide
try and learn something if you provide the adequate stress which is hitting
the adequate stress which is hitting that point where you're not
that point where you're not understanding the information it's not
understanding the information it's not sinking in and you give yourself some
sinking in and you give yourself some time to recover which requires sleep by
time to recover which requires sleep by the way
the way then you'll learn that new information
then you'll learn that new information over time but where the mind is like a
over time but where the mind is like a muscle analogy really Falls away I
muscle analogy really Falls away I believe is that the mind is not like a
believe is that the mind is not like a muscle because you don't actually get to
muscle because you don't actually get to experience the good growth that you're
experience the good growth that you're seeking as you're trying to learn it
seeking as you're trying to learn it rather everything we've been talking
rather everything we've been talking about today is about learning how to
about today is about learning how to experience the strain of trying to learn
experience the strain of trying to learn the agitation of trying to learn as the
the agitation of trying to learn as the learning process itself and
learning process itself and understanding that while you might feel
understanding that while you might feel back on your heels a little or a lot
back on your heels a little or a lot during that process that you might and
during that process that you might and in fact very likely are going to
in fact very likely are going to experience all the category of things
experience all the category of things that go along with stress elevated heart
that go along with stress elevated heart rate frustration you know maybe even a
rate frustration you know maybe even a little headache or strain difficulty
little headache or strain difficulty maintaining Focus Etc that if you
maintaining Focus Etc that if you understand that all of those things are
understand that all of those things are actually creating the specific
actually creating the specific neurochemical and neural circuit
neurochemical and neural circuit conditions to invoke learning well then
conditions to invoke learning well then that learning will occur so in some ways
that learning will occur so in some ways a better analogy would be if it were the
a better analogy would be if it were the case that when you do resistance
case that when you do resistance training that your muscles actually got
training that your muscles actually got smaller during the training and then
smaller during the training and then rebounded to being even bigger than they
rebounded to being even bigger than they were prior to the training that would be
were prior to the training that would be the appropriate analogy for the mind is
the appropriate analogy for the mind is like a muscle I say all this because yes
like a muscle I say all this because yes adopting a growth mindset is incredibly
adopting a growth mindset is incredibly valuable adopting a stress can enhance
valuable adopting a stress can enhance performance mindset is incredibly
performance mindset is incredibly valuable and even more valuable is
valuable and even more valuable is combining those two mindsets because
combining those two mindsets because they do indeed improve performance
they do indeed improve performance synergistically however none of this
synergistically however none of this process is expected to be reflexive for
process is expected to be reflexive for most people perhaps for anybody and the
most people perhaps for anybody and the process of building up these mindsets
process of building up these mindsets involves another mindset which is the
involves another mindset which is the one that umbrellas them all or gathers
one that umbrellas them all or gathers them all together and makes them really
them all together and makes them really work which is the idea that mindsets are
work which is the idea that mindsets are indeed powerful that they can have a
indeed powerful that they can have a real effect and that while they do take
real effect and that while they do take time to cultivate they can be cultivated
time to cultivate they can be cultivated thank you for joining me today for our
thank you for joining me today for our discussion about growth mindset what it
discussion about growth mindset what it is and how to cultivate a growth mindset
is and how to cultivate a growth mindset as well as the related stress can dance
as well as the related stress can dance performance mindset which can also be
performance mindset which can also be cultivated
cultivated if you're learning from and are enjoying
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mindset and related mindsets for improving performance and last but
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