Epics of India MLLL 4993

Purple flowers on  Flickr Praise, Not Presence: Hot to Cultivate a Healthy Relationship with Achievement by Maria Popova is an article describing the dangers of too much praise. She cites Stephen Grosz, professor at the University College London, who takes inspiration from Carol Dweck. We watched her videos earlier in the course. Popova summarizes their research by explaining that praising a child can actually lower one’s self confidence and suffocate their will to try. If a child has gotten praise such as “you’re so clever”, they may not feel the need to think any further, because they have already done well. If they are told that their artwork is “the best”, why feel the need to create a new piece of art if their work is already so good? Or, they may feel like they could never hope to create something as good as their “best” work, and so they don’t try. Minimizing the amount of praise that we give children will make the times that they do receive praise more meaningfu...

Einstein on Flickr The first article I read was Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head by Sabina Nawaz. I was intrigued by the title, because I tend to focus on the negative aspects in my life rather than the positive. She cites work stating that people who focus on their strengths instead of their weaknesses are more productive and engaged with their work. She also suggests asking what your peers or superiors like about your work in addition to what they don’t. I think that this is a good idea, as anyone who truly wants to help you be more successful is bound to be honest with you. Nawaz also states, “Believe the positive, and act as if it were true”. This means that if someone gives you positive feedback, don’t assume that they are just being nice or that they might have a sneaky reason for telling you good things in order to lead you astray. She suggests obtaining feedback from people who you know for sure want to help you succeed. For me, that might be my profe...