Thursday, February 4, 2016

Not Yet


Not yet.

The power of the term "Not Yet" comes from the author of Mindset, Carol Dweck.  It was actually a Ted talk that she gave that introduced me to this idea. Instead of assigning the grade of F to something you are struggling with, why not give it a "Not Yet?"

Basically, this turns your entire mindset away from unachievable to I just haven't given myself enough time, yet. And in most cases this is exactly right. Anytime we are tackling something new there will always be a learning curve. 

Even learning how to coordinate the clicker-treat sequence when taking my puppy to 
obedience training required time and practice for me. I remember feeling like such a failure 
because I wasn't very good at it at first. Now it makes me wonder how Cooper must have felt since every move was new to him! However, I didn't give up on him. He just hadn't had enough time to get it all down yet. 


So instead of giving up when you are trying to digitally organize the thousand of pictures you've taken in the last few years, just say I'm not there yet, but I will be. This is something we should be teaching our children when they encounter failure in school,  and many will with our pushed-down curriculum. So the next time you want to give up remember the power of "Not Yet."

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