Author＼tutorJr

"If people think that people who achieve something without working hard are geniuses, then I am not a genius; if people who work hard and accomplish something are called geniuses, I think I am a genius." After Ichiro Suzuki, a world-class professional baseball player across the U.S. and Japanese baseball circles, announced his retirement last month, this famous saying was once again quoted and praised by various media.

After becoming famous for more than a quarter of a century, the story of Ichiro Suzuki insisting on practicing pitching, hitting and fielding 250 to 300 pitches every day even if he does not play is even more amazing. "The genius who practiced hard" is like a distant legend, which makes people wonder: If we want to challenge the pinnacle of success and pursue excellence at a higher level, is talent decisive for everything, or is hard work the most important?

In fact, everyone has basic talents. The biggest misunderstanding in the world is that talents are regarded as abilities, but they do not know that talents represent potential. Ichiro Suzuki has used his own experience to prove to the world that developing a disciplined habit of "deliberate practice" is the only key to reaching the top. Athletic talent is just a cornerstone of his start.

Turning potential into ability depends entirely on "deliberate practice"

Anders Ericsson, professor of psychology at Florida State University After studying top experts across music, dance, Go, sports and other fields for more than thirty years, he proposed a set of "deliberate practice" theories, which not only challenged the widely circulated view in the education circle that "geniuses are born", but also pointed out that human beings True talent is actually the amazing adaptability of the brain and body. As long as through correct and targeted practice, everyone may be able to do things that were impossible before and reach peak performance.

In other words, the extent to which people practice deliberately determines whether their performance will rise to the top level or stay at the average level. According to Anders Erickson's theory, talent can be developed. If ordinary people want to improve their level, they must consciously carry out deliberate practice outside their comfort zone in order to develop their innate potential into inherent abilities; if it is excessive Attributing success or failure to talent may become an excuse for self-rationalization and unwillingness to work hard.

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Badminton queen Tai Tzu Ying once said in an interview that she In the sixth grade of primary school, she had no opponents, so her father asked her to compete with older players. The frustration of losing again motivated her to surpass her own limits; even though Tai Tzu Ying's height as an adult was ten centimeters different from the world's top players. (Talent Disadvantage), the solid basic skills training since childhood still allows her to have a stronger backhand and more sensitive feints than others, so that she can continue to be the queen of the world.

The biggest enemy that prevents you from achieving excellence is talent

Many people have envied their classmates who usually played computer games and crammed in but got first place in the exam. Being able to use 60% of effort to complete a 100% thing is a sign of genius, or they claim to "just study the day before and get high scores". There are also students who rely on their own intelligence and use their IQs to memorize and understand well. You have the advantage of getting good grades, but you no longer pursue upward pursuits. You work a little less than others every day. Your career achievements after leaving society are not directly proportional to your academic achievements. These are actually the most wasteful methods of talent.

Compared with Tai Tzu-ying, who was known as a "genius girl" since she was a child, because she insisted on constantly challenging herself, she became the first Taiwanese player to finish last in an international competition, "good enough" and The gap in achievement caused by the two mentalities of "good should be better" shows that if you only do things you are familiar with, are unwilling to step out of your comfort zone, and do not establish learning discipline, your abilities will not grow effectively.

Perseverance + a good environment is better than taking shortcuts

There are no shortcuts to learning. If parents want to create an environment "conducive to deliberate practice" for their children, they need to pay attention to two points:

The first thing is to prevent learning from becoming "mechanical"

Take learning English as an example. In order to complete their homework, students memorize words, grammar, and phrases. Most of them are Pick up the textbook and recite it or copy it over and over again. Over time, you will be able to complete the assignment with proficiency without thinking deeply. Intuitively, you will only do what you can do. Even if you stop learning in your comfort zone, it will not be easy to develop enthusiasm. and proactive attitude.

Arranged "deliberate practice" requires students to constantly try to break through the current level. For example, for an English article that originally took half an hour and a lot of dictionary reading, children can be asked to shorten the time and reduce the number of references. Reading; or for movies that you originally had to watch subtitles to understand, you can try turning off the subtitles to practice listening. With deliberate practice and independent pursuit of progress, you will eventually achieve considerable learning results.

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The second thing is to help children develop "constant perseverance"

We can find it in Ichiro Suzuki and Tai Tzu Ying , the key to leading them to continue to overcome difficulties with extraordinary tenacity and hard work, and then move towards excellence, is because they all have strong determination.

Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, calls this combination of passion and perseverance "persistence" and points out that there is no connection between talent and perseverance through research. , as long as children spend time every week to devote themselves to difficult things that interest them but are challenging, whether it is ballet, piano, gymnastics, painting or English conversation, and practice regularly and deliberately every day, they can cultivate perseverance, supplemented by A good learning environment opens the door to success for children.

Mechanism and perseverance are both "continuous" states, but the former just maintains the same action in a rigid manner; the latter is continuous growth and progress. The key difference lies in whether it is used properly. "Talent", whether you have to work hard on the basis of all the talents you have, this is what Suzuki Ichiro calls "genius".

Reprinted with permission from tutorJr. Original source: "Get high marks by studying the day before"? ! Geniuses never use this method