This post was supposed to be finished shortly after I posted Part 1...but obviously that didn't happen, and I apologize for making you all check back repeatedly to see if I had written more.
(don't try to hide it, my page views have been going up! I see you lurking.)
So without further ado, I give you, Part 2:
********************
In Part 1, I *strongly* suggested that you all watch Diana Nyad talk about her world-record-breaking swim that she attempted (and failed) last summer at age 60.
I envy that woman's motivation. I doubt I'd even consider a swim like that plausible for myself at that age.
If I were her, I'd be thinking, "Oh, that's too bad, I failed my "life's dream", but that's that. I'm 60 years old, and I gave it my best. The sea gods just hate me is all. Perhaps I'll try skydiving. It seems less intimidating..."
But because I envy her motivation, I want to uncover what it is about her mindset that allowed her to be so driven, and so convinced, and so committed to this goal of swimming from Cuba to Florida that she can swim through TWO box jellyfish stings, fail her goal, and get back into training again.
A "failure" translates completely differently to her:
Luckily for me, I think I might have an explanation for what it was about her that enabled her to create such an outrageous goal and get to the point where she's at now.
********************THE FOLLOWING SECTION IS A PLUG FOR THIS BOOK
In my Tech Writing class, Prof. Fox introduced me to the book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals.
So...if you aren't interested in how goals work/how people work, this probably isn't the book for you.
BUT, if you:
.................END BOOK REVIEW
******************
Since starting this book, I've discovered that I'm all over the board in terms of how I think about goals and how I react when I encounter a "setback". I noticed (as I'm sure many of you do when you read psychology textbooks) that, "hey, I use that model of success without knowing it!" or "Wow, my friend is really depressed, I'll be it's because she thinks of herself in 'be-good' terms instead of 'get-better' terms.
Yeah. I'm a trained psychologist now. Watch out.
*******************
So Dr. Halvorson spends half the book describing all these different types of goals (like promotion "hey, be proud of what I did" and prevention "I did this to avoid losing something" goals), how we think about those goals (Why am I doing this vs. what am I doing?), and how different kinds of people ("be-good" people who are successful to validate their intelligence, and "get-better" people who are successful because they want to improve).
In Chapter six, she combines them all together to show readers the best way to combine these traits to succeed with a certain goal.
********************
Because I'm reading this book as I watched Diana Nyad's TED talk, I started to notice connections:
Prevention Mindset:
Diana is 60. She wanted to do this swim because she wanted to bring herself back to the present. Because she's only got 20 more years to do it. This puts her in a "prevention" mindset.
Prevention oriented people think about their goals in terms of losses. In this case, if Diana can't manage this swim, she could die at 82 years old, like her mom, and feel a sense of regret that she couldn't fulfill this dream of hers that she's had since she was in her twenties.
Changed to specific tasks and didn't procrastinate to stay motivated:
Once she had properly motivated herself, she used her prevention mindset, yet again, to prevent her from procrastinating. She began to think about her goal in smaller pieces--in terms of "what" she had to accomplish. (Swim for 15 hours, not 14:58 hrs)
Forms it as a "get better" goal to continuously improve:
And she took everything with a "get better" mindset. She wanted to improve her times, increase her lung capacity, endurance, and make herself healthier.
The prevention mind-set also gave her the ability to overcome obstacles much more easily. She was determined to succeed in spite of her age, and all the people who told her that her dream was crazy.
*********************
Dr. Halvorson has a section in her book where she combines all the info into helpful "guides" for every kind of goal that exists. That way, we can become aware of the way we're thinking of those goals, and if we need to, change the way we think about said goal so that we have a higher chance at succeeding at it.
Diana seems to have found the perfect combination for a "very challenging" goal all on her own.
(don't try to hide it, my page views have been going up! I see you lurking.)
So without further ado, I give you, Part 2:
********************
In Part 1, I *strongly* suggested that you all watch Diana Nyad talk about her world-record-breaking swim that she attempted (and failed) last summer at age 60.
I envy that woman's motivation. I doubt I'd even consider a swim like that plausible for myself at that age.
If I were her, I'd be thinking, "Oh, that's too bad, I failed my "life's dream", but that's that. I'm 60 years old, and I gave it my best. The sea gods just hate me is all. Perhaps I'll try skydiving. It seems less intimidating..."
But because I envy her motivation, I want to uncover what it is about her mindset that allowed her to be so driven, and so convinced, and so committed to this goal of swimming from Cuba to Florida that she can swim through TWO box jellyfish stings, fail her goal, and get back into training again.
A "failure" translates completely differently to her:
Ashley's "Epic Fail" = Diana's "Temporary setback"
Luckily for me, I think I might have an explanation for what it was about her that enabled her to create such an outrageous goal and get to the point where she's at now.
********************THE FOLLOWING SECTION IS A PLUG FOR THIS BOOK
In my Tech Writing class, Prof. Fox introduced me to the book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals.
- I won't be the first to comment that the title isn't the best.
- And though the book is my favorite color (purple!), it doesn't necessarily have the most attractive cover, either.
- It's also written by a psychologist, Dr. Halvorson, and it's heavy on the case-studies.
- I'm also only half-way through it.
So...if you aren't interested in how goals work/how people work, this probably isn't the book for you.
BUT, if you:
- want to succeed more often,
- learn how to trick yourself into succeeding more often, or
- want to trick those around you into succeeding more often,
.................END BOOK REVIEW
******************
Since starting this book, I've discovered that I'm all over the board in terms of how I think about goals and how I react when I encounter a "setback". I noticed (as I'm sure many of you do when you read psychology textbooks) that, "hey, I use that model of success without knowing it!" or "Wow, my friend is really depressed, I'll be it's because she thinks of herself in 'be-good' terms instead of 'get-better' terms.
Yeah. I'm a trained psychologist now. Watch out.
*******************
So Dr. Halvorson spends half the book describing all these different types of goals (like promotion "hey, be proud of what I did" and prevention "I did this to avoid losing something" goals), how we think about those goals (Why am I doing this vs. what am I doing?), and how different kinds of people ("be-good" people who are successful to validate their intelligence, and "get-better" people who are successful because they want to improve).
In Chapter six, she combines them all together to show readers the best way to combine these traits to succeed with a certain goal.
********************
Because I'm reading this book as I watched Diana Nyad's TED talk, I started to notice connections:
Prevention Mindset:
Diana is 60. She wanted to do this swim because she wanted to bring herself back to the present. Because she's only got 20 more years to do it. This puts her in a "prevention" mindset.
Prevention oriented people think about their goals in terms of losses. In this case, if Diana can't manage this swim, she could die at 82 years old, like her mom, and feel a sense of regret that she couldn't fulfill this dream of hers that she's had since she was in her twenties.
Changed to specific tasks and didn't procrastinate to stay motivated:
Once she had properly motivated herself, she used her prevention mindset, yet again, to prevent her from procrastinating. She began to think about her goal in smaller pieces--in terms of "what" she had to accomplish. (Swim for 15 hours, not 14:58 hrs)
Forms it as a "get better" goal to continuously improve:
And she took everything with a "get better" mindset. She wanted to improve her times, increase her lung capacity, endurance, and make herself healthier.
The prevention mind-set also gave her the ability to overcome obstacles much more easily. She was determined to succeed in spite of her age, and all the people who told her that her dream was crazy.
*********************
Dr. Halvorson has a section in her book where she combines all the info into helpful "guides" for every kind of goal that exists. That way, we can become aware of the way we're thinking of those goals, and if we need to, change the way we think about said goal so that we have a higher chance at succeeding at it.
"When it's hard (or unfamiliar), be specific about what you want to achieve. Think in nitty-gritty, what terms about exactly what needs to be done. Choose prevention goals as well as getting-better goals, focusing on improvements rather than on giving a perfect performance." ---Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson
Diana seems to have found the perfect combination for a "very challenging" goal all on her own.
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