Success industry صناعة النجاح

Picture someone you know who is incredibly talented: an athlete, a musician, a scientist. You probably wish you had been born with some type of gift, right? You were. "We are often taught that talent begins with genetic gifts--that the talented are able to effortlessly perform feats the rest of us can only dream about. This is false. Talent begins with brief, powerful encounters that spark motivation by linking your identity to a high-performing person or group. This is called ignition, and it consists of a tiny, world-shifting thought lighting up your unconscious mind: "I could be them." That's the introduction to  Daniel Coyle's   The Little Book of Talent , a cool book filled with 52 easy, proven methods to improve almost any skill. It's a great guide; in just a few minutes you'll think,  Oh, wow , several times. Here's an example. You want to get better at something. At anything. Just going through the practice motions provides l

We’ve written about  creativity  a few times on the Buffer blog, but it’s hard to keep track of everything we learn about it. One day I’m  adjusting the temperature in my workspace , and the next I’m trying to  put off creative work until I’m tired . If you’re in the same boat, and you find it’s difficult to remember what will improve your creativity and when you should do your most creative work, hopefully this list will help you get it all straight. 1. YOUR BRAIN DOES BETTER CREATIVE WORK WHEN YOU’RE TIRED Unlike solving an analytic problem, creative insights come from  letting our minds wander  along tangents and into seemingly unrelated areas. Though many of us identify as  morning larks or night owls , peaking in our problem-solving skills and focus at particular times of the day, creative thinking  actually works better at non-optimal times . So, if you’re a morning lark, your brain will be better at finding creative insights at night, when you’re tired. The reason

What makes someone good at their job? Talent or skill? According to research by Stanford professor Carol Dweck and her colleagues many people believe that people’s performance reflects either their innate talent for that activity  or  the amount of work they have done to acquire a skill. In reality, of course, any performance reflects a combination of talent and skill. You can improve on just about any task with a lot of practice, though if your goal is to be the absolute best in the world at something it is also helpful to have some talent for it. In order to put in the hard work to acquire a skill, you need to believe that the activity really is a skill you can learn. When you believe the activity is a talent then you don’t bother to work hard at it, because you attribute any limitations in your performance to your lack of talent. RETHINKING CREATIVITY AS A SKILL This way of thinking about talents and skills is particularly important when it comes to thinking