Pre-Think your Words

Seth Godin photo

I'm a regular reader of Seth Godin's work and a recent blog post had me re-thinking some approaches.  As a hockey coach of many years I overheard many side conversations between parents and their kids - some I agreed with and others I didn't but that really wasn't the point - they parent their kids their way and I believe that should be the way.  That said, I also believe parents ought to be arming themselves with as much education as they can.

I'm a father and my wife and I are expecting a new baby this Fall - like any parent I want to give every positive opportunity for my newborn.  Seth's post below opened a new avenue for thought for me - exposing some (what I thought were) positive remarks in different situations - as those that could be improved simply by re-jigging by word choices.

Have a read and let me know what you think...

Grit and hard work

The story we tell ourselves and the stories we tell our children matter far more than we imagine.

There's a huge difference between, "You got an A because you're smart," and "You got an A because you studied hard."

Or

"I succeeded in getting what I wanted because I'm pretty," and "I succeeded in getting what I wanted because I worked hard to be in sync with the people I'm working with (charisma)."

(And don't forget the way we process luck, good and bad, as well as bias and persistence.)

Smart and pretty and lucky are relatively fixed states, mostly out of our control, and they let us off the hook, no longer responsible for our successes and certainly out of control of our failures. (And, as an aside, pretty sends us down the rabbit hole of surface enhancements and even surgery).

On the other hand, hard work and persistence are ideas we can expand and invest in productively.

Original Source, Seth's Blog - 

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/08/grit-and-hard-work.html