Bric Slade TC Chapter 5

Bric Slade TC: Chapter 5 Summary

Summary:
Sheer talent doesn't guarantee we will be successful, although it gives us the skill to be successful. We have been talking a lot about where this skill comes from, and that it comes from inside ourselves rather from what is happening in our environment. Skill is Oligo cells wrapping Myelin around your neural circuits. That does not mean that environment cannot play a factor in your success. The other half of "success" is motivation. You can not be successful if you don't have motivation. In 1997 Gary McPherson built an experiment to find out how motivation effected his young piano students. By simply asking at the beginning of their first lesson even before they played a note, "how much will you be playing your new instrument". McPhersons experiment payed off as he notice through the years that the students who gave more motivated answers at the beginning of their tutelage improved 400 times faster than the students with less motivated answers. People all around the world grow up in trying environments, and although these environments don't give them the skill they need to succeed, they sure trigger the primal cues of "I need to get myself out of here, out of this place, out of this situation" which in turn gives them the fuel to deep practice. We could take a kid, dreaming about becoming a professional tennis player, and give them all of the best of everything, and all of it would do little but keep them from entering that motivated state of struggle. If they have everything already, why should they work hard?

Key Terms: motivational fuel, ignition

Key Concepts: Motivation is the fuel every individual needs to keep them continuing deep practice. In some ways Motivation is the other half to success. 50% practice and 50% motivation are all you need to be successful, you don't need skill. Because in the end building skill is success.

Connections: My environment has little to offer me as far as in terms of motivation, but in ways I can effect my environment in small instances to keep myself motivated. I need to stay positive but I need to remember what it takes to achieve what I want in life.