TEDxVictoria - Dr. Sean Richardson - Mental Toughness: Think Differently about your World
Summary
TLDRThe speaker discusses the medical system's tendency to over-treat, fueling a demand for instant gratification in healthcare. They explore the psychological discomfort of inaction, rooted in our fight-or-flight response, and contrast it with the benefits of patience and delayed gratification. Drawing on research, they advocate for a growth mindset over a fixed one, emphasizing the importance of effort and persistence over innate ability. The talk concludes with a call to embrace failure and develop mental toughness to achieve success.
Takeaways
- 📰 The speaker was inspired by an article in the 'globan mail' about the medical system's tendency to over-treat, fueling a demand for instant gratification in healthcare.
- 🏥 The concept of 'doing nothing' in medicine is revisited, suggesting that sometimes, less intervention can be more beneficial, echoing the ancient wisdom of 'do nothing' as a form of remedy.
- 🧠 Our brains are hardwired to seek instant gratification and action in response to perceived threats, a trait rooted in the limbic system and the fight-or-flight response.
- 🧠 The neocortex, a more evolved part of the brain, offers the ability to override instinctual reactions, allowing for more thoughtful decision-making.
- 🏋️♀️ The speaker, a PhD in performance psychology, emphasizes the importance of working with emotions and not against them, suggesting that acknowledging feelings can lead to better decision-making.
- 🏅 The idea of 'mental toughness' is introduced, linking the ability to delay gratification and accept failure as key components of high performance and success.
- 🎯 The speaker discusses the importance of focusing on actions rather than outcomes, suggesting that this mindset can lead to improved performance and success.
- 🧩 Research on 'delay of gratification' is highlighted, showing that the ability to delay immediate rewards is a strong predictor of future success.
- 🌱 The 'growth mindset' is presented as a key to success, contrasting with a 'fixed mindset', and suggesting that effort and persistence are more important than innate ability.
- 🌟 The potential of mental toughness and the right mindsets to transform individual lives, families, economies, and possibly even world peace is explored as a powerful conclusion.
Q & A
What was the main topic of the article the speaker read in the Starbucks?
-The main topic of the article was the medical system's tendency to provide overtreatment, unnecessary tests, and prescriptions for minor ailments to satisfy the demand for instant gratification when people are sick.
What does the term 'overtreatment' refer to in the context of the script?
-Overtreatment refers to the practice of providing excessive medical treatment, tests, or prescriptions that may not be necessary, often driven by the desire to make patients feel that something is being done to address their health concerns.
How does the speaker relate the concept of 'doing nothing' to the medical field?
-The speaker relates 'doing nothing' to the medical field by discussing the practice of withholding unnecessary treatments and interventions, which can sometimes be more beneficial than potentially harmful actions when doctors are uncertain or when the interventions could do more harm than good.
What historical figure is mentioned in the script in relation to the practice of 'doing nothing'?
-Hippocrates is mentioned as the historical figure who preempted the idea of 'doing nothing' as a good remedy, suggesting that sometimes inaction can be beneficial.
How does the speaker connect the human brain's response to threats with the demand for instant gratification?
-The speaker connects the human brain's response to threats with the demand for instant gratification by explaining that the fight or flight response, which releases adrenaline in response to perceived threats, can lead to a strong anxiety and a compulsion to relieve that anxiety, which is often sought through instant gratification.
What is the significance of the 'neocortex' in the context of the script?
-The neocortex is significant because it represents an evolutionary upgrade in the human brain that allows for adaptation and change, enabling individuals to override the more primitive limbic system when it is not serving its purpose, such as in the case of unnecessary fight or flight responses.
What advice does the speaker give for dealing with strong emotions?
-The speaker advises to work with feelings, not against them, by validating emotions as they serve a purpose for survival. It's important to listen to strong emotions with discernment and decide whether the response is about survival or willpower, then take action accordingly.
How does the speaker link the concept of delay of gratification to success in life?
-The speaker links delay of gratification to success by stating that the ability to delay gratification is a better predictor of success in life than intelligence or other factors. It involves not getting hung up on immediate results and prioritizing long-term goals over short-term desires.
What is the 'growth mindset' as described in the script?
-The 'growth mindset' is a belief that success comes from effort and that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. It contrasts with a fixed mindset, which assumes that success is based on inherent, unchangeable abilities.
How does the speaker suggest using mental toughness in the context of high performance?
-The speaker suggests using mental toughness to accept failure and to persist in the face of challenges. It involves making difficult decisions, acting on them, and evolving rapidly to achieve high performance.
What are the three key mindsets the speaker shares as strategies for dealing with life's challenges?
-The three key mindsets shared by the speaker are: 1) Work with your feelings, not against them, 2) Keep your eye on the big picture, and 3) Fail going 100%, which means being okay with failure as long as you do everything you can to succeed.
Outlines
🌱 The Paradox of Inaction in Healthcare
The speaker begins by sharing a personal anecdote of reading an article at Starbucks about overtreatment in the medical field. The article suggests that the healthcare system often provides unnecessary treatments to satisfy patients' demands for instant relief, even when no effective intervention exists. The speaker discusses the psychological discomfort of inaction, especially when health is at stake, and how our brains are hardwired to respond to threats quickly. The talk touches on the historical advice of doing nothing when it's beneficial, contrasting it with our modern, action-oriented mindset.
🏋️♂️ Mental Toughness and Accepting Failure
The speaker transitions to discussing mental toughness, particularly in the context of high-performance individuals like athletes and businesspeople. They argue that accepting failure is a critical strategy for success, as it allows individuals to learn and grow without being hindered by the fear of not achieving immediate results. The speaker references Michael Jordan's perspective on failure as a stepping stone to success. The talk also introduces the concept of delayed gratification, suggesting that the ability to delay immediate rewards is a strong predictor of success, even more so than intelligence or other factors.
🧠 Growth Mindset Over Fixed Mindset
The speaker delves into the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. A growth mindset is characterized by the belief that effort leads to success and that failure is an opportunity for growth. In contrast, a fixed mindset views success as a result of unchangeable traits and sees failure as a sign to quit. The speaker cites research by Carol Dweck, which shows that children with a growth mindset are more likely to persist in the face of challenges. The talk emphasizes the importance of mental toughness in adopting a growth mindset and the potential for this mindset to lead to personal and societal improvements.
🌟 Embracing Mental Toughness for a Resilient Life
In the concluding paragraph, the speaker summarizes the key mindsets discussed: working with emotions, focusing on the bigger picture, and fully accepting failure. They emphasize the importance of mental toughness, suggesting that it can empower individuals to navigate life's challenges effectively. The speaker ends with a call to action, encouraging the audience to develop mental toughness to harness their potential and face life's obstacles with resilience.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Overtreatment
💡Instant Gratification
💡Hippocrates
💡Fight or Flight
💡Neocortext
💡Mental Toughness
💡Growth Mindset
💡Delay of Gratification
💡Fixed Mindset
💡Emotional Validation
💡Acceptance of Failure
Highlights
The medical system fuels our demand for instant gratification with overtreatment.
The feeling of needing to do something when sick can be overwhelming.
The dilemma of whether to proceed with medical interventions that may cause more harm than good.
The practice of doing nothing and being patient is advocated by some physicians to combat the demand for instant gratification.
Hippocrates' 2500-year-old advice to do nothing is relevant to modern medicine.
The human brain is hardwired to respond quickly to threats, which can lead to unnecessary actions.
Uncertainty and inaction are counter to our neural instincts.
The fight or flight response is useful in life-or-death situations but less so in everyday life.
Anxiety can be a hindrance to performance, especially in public speaking.
The neocortex can override the limbic system, providing an upgrade to our brain's response to threats.
Advice on using the neocortex to work with feelings and validate emotions.
Accepting failure is a key strategy for success, as demonstrated by Michael Jordan's career.
The importance of focusing on actions rather than results for effective performance.
Research shows that the ability to delay gratification is a strong predictor of success in life.
A growth mindset, believing that effort creates success, is more beneficial than a fixed mindset.
Mental toughness is necessary to change mindsets and master emotions for high performance.
The potential societal benefits of learning to delay gratification and accept failure.
Encouraging a growth mindset and mental toughness can lead to personal and societal improvements.
Transcripts
[Applause]
good
morning on Tuesday uh last Tuesday I was
sitting at Starbucks and I was drinking
a soy decaf non-fat vegan
latte yeah I know it's a recent diet
change um I was procrastinating from
doing some important work and in a
headline in the globan mail it caught my
attention it said wait do nothing and it
was an article about how the medical
system and it it fuels our incessant
demand for instant gratification when
we're sick with what it terms overt
treatment unnecessary tests and
prescriptions for minor ailments all to
create a sense that at least something
is being
done you know that feeling when you've
had the flu and you're bogged down and
you the the demand to do something can
be almost overwhelming it's like an a
drug addict going through withdrawal and
you know just anything to get some
relief how many people have had a nasty
flu in in the last year yeah maybe
there's been something worse or maybe
someone you care about is facing a
deadly
disease um my father-in-law is is dying
of
cancer and uh you know isn't there
anything that you would do just
something to to to to make a change and
quickly but what if there is an
intervention what is if there isn't a
prescription that can make a difference
what if the doctors don't know the
answer or what if the answer they have
could do more harm than
good do you still go ahead with it
despite the negative
consequences you know according to the
article there's a growing number of
Physicians and academics who are
advocating the practice of nothing being
patient trying to understand more before
taking action in a way it's kind of
refusing to fuel that demand for instant
gratification hypocrates he preempted
this 2500 years ago when he said to do
nothing sometimes is a good
remedy however being a PhD in
performance psychology I can tell you
that doing nothing your brain is not
going to like it uncertainty isn't going
to make it comfortable especially where
survival and health are
concerned you see at a neural level
uncertainty and inaction are counter
instinctual we are hardwired to work out
and and respond to threats to our
survival as quickly as possible that
hard wiring is in the lyic system in our
brain it's it's a home to the
hypothalmic pituitary adrenal access
which releases adrenaline and nor
adrenaline in response to a perceived
threat It prepares you for violent
physical action most of us know this as
fight ORF flight uh the toned down
version of fight ORF flight is uh is a
strong anxiety coupled with a compulsion
to relieve the
anxiety and
um you know that's a demand for instant
gratification remove the fear
now you know fight ORF flight is
actually pretty useful if I'm standing
on a road and a a car is hurling towards
me at 100 miles an
hour fight or flight violent muscular
action good very
good now don't get me wrong you know in
the game of life and death failure is
not an option um do whatever you can to
survive right now cuz in the next moment
once you're still alive you can figure
out how to deal with the effects of your
chosen course of action but the thing is
an average day in North America how many
of us face a real threat to survival for
which you really need fight ORF flight
aside from you know your annual get
together with the
in-laws you know most of the time we
only face threats to our ego you know
did you just say that I'm
stupid know how many people have been up
on a stage like this how helpful is uh
is anxiety to public speaking
[Music]
it begs the question do we have the most
evolved piece of neurot technology to
really deal with the challenges of the
modern world we live in I believe that
now we live in a world where we have
outpaced the evolution of our brain of a
significant part of our brain the the
the the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal
axis is is flawed if not dysfunctional
in facing and making decisions in most
of modernized
Life fortunately nature or God or
whatever you believe in
has provided us with an upgrade it's the
neocortex and it has the the capability
to adapt and change to override the
limic system when that's not serving its
user so how can you use your Neo
cortex my advice is make a choice and
it's to work with your feelings not
against them validate your emotions
they're there for a
reason sometimes you need to survive
instant gratification is good when
you're dying in Starvation
but this is not this is about not being
a slave to feelings like like a a bad
investor to a short-term Market change
listen to the strong emotions with
discernment and decide is this about
survival or about willpower and take
action accordingly all right so what
does all this stuff about delay of
gratification have to do with what I
usually talk about with his mental
toughness and high performance I work
with professional athletes and and
business people I've just explained that
to the brain to the survival brain
failure is not an option yet what I've
observed in my work is that accepting
failure being okay with not getting the
result you want right now is one of the
best best success strategies it's very
challenging and it's going to take some
mental toughness to respond
effectively to paraphrase one of my
favorite athlete statements of all time
Michael Jordan
said in my career I've missed over 9,000
shots I've lost almost 300 games 26
times I've been trusted to take the
game-winning shot and I've missed I
failed over and over and over again in
my life and that's why I succeed I can
accept failure I just can't accept not
trying do you know how tough that is to
do accept failure think about it for a
moment how good are you at accepting
failure you know how's that going in
your business you know losing profits on
your sports team how about those
Canucks
oops don't put that one online you're
family conflict your health and fitness
you know the thing about failur is when
you get ruled by it you you tighten up
you play it safe and you make decisions
that limit you and keep you small and
stop you from growing I worked with a
professional Australian football team
for five years our first year it was a
win at all costs got to achieve the
result win or else kind of attitude and
the problem is in that first season we
were losing most of the time halfway
through the season however we changed
our Focus from results to actions we
said it's not about whether we win or
lose it's just what we do right let's do
it 100% with real effort it worked in
2007 we were almost last on the ladder
in 2009 we went on to become the best
defensive team in the history of the
sport lost only two games all season but
how can you how can you create that
effective response to failure
fortunately science has published some
really great research that helps us to
apply what Michael Jordan figured out
intuitively so first let's look at the
delay of gratification the capacity
delay gratification is one of the best
predictors of success in life they do
this great research with kids where they
bring a kid into the lab and they show
him a bowl with his favorite candy in it
and they say you know we're going to
leave and you can eat the candy if you
want to when we leave but if you don't
we're going to come back and give you a
much bigger bowl of candy and then they
walk out of the room and they stand and
look through the two-way mirror they
flick on the camera they flick on the
the stopwatch they wait to see how long
it takes the kid to
crack it turns out that the kids who can
delay the longest they go on to have the
most success in high school that
capacity to delay gratification is a
better predictor of success in life than
intelligence than hour spent studying
the School attendance record why well
it's twofold first of all they don't get
hung up on a result if they fail a test
persist because they see the bigger goal
and then second of all well when it's
school work versus play prioritize
school work instant gratification put it
aside we have to learn to tunee out to
the compulsion instant gratification
it's way way easier delay of
gratification is tough mentally tough so
my suggestion for this one is keep your
eye on the big
picture it's hard to do because when
there's no immediate reward for your
patience your hard work your effort you
have to be satisfied for a long time
just with knowing that your effort on
its own is something to celebrate you
know if you're a leader of people get
them to focus on their actions not on
their results you know I'm not saying
that that results don't matter they do
they do to me I love winning I love
sport but you can be results driven and
action
focused all right so it's great to
understand the concept of delay of
gratification but you might find you
can't just flick a switch because
something's already been programmed into
the system it's the implicit belief that
your capabilities are more or less fixed
from birth you know have you ever
thought I wish I had I was Stronger I
was smarter I was faster I was more
patient I had different
genetics when you're in that mindset you
know that your capability is
predetermined and limited your survival
brain is going to say if I don't think
I'm going to succeed I'm not going to
put any effort
in not very successful the good news is
that Carol d a professor from Stanford a
lot of people have heard of the these
days has demonstrated over the last 500
500 years she's been around for a while
for 25 years that success in persisting
the face in of failure is less about
natural ability and more about a can do
attitude she called it a growth mindset
which is the belief that effort is what
creates success that results are a
measure of current competency which is
really a changeable behavioral thing and
that failure is really an opportunity to
grow and that's in contrast to what she
calls fixed mindset the belief that
success is a a result of stable traits
and results themselves are unchangeable
you know and and and they they show a
measure of you know immutable ability
and that failure is likely an indicator
to give up and her research also started
with kids she uh she she gives kids
puzzles uh four puzzles three of them
unsolvable and then lets them get
frustrated for a
while you kind of get the feeling that
psychology research and cruelty to
children go hand and half anyway so the
kids get frustrated then you give them a
break and then you you come back and you
say you can play again with some puzzles
choose from the previous four the kids
who believe that the previous results
were determined by effort they actually
go on and or and choose one of the
unsolved puzzles to keep going with it
the kids who believe that their previous
results were determined by ability
choose the one that they had already
solved sort of helpless kind of
complacent perhaps you know need to feed
a fragile ego so if you believe that
effort is the key you're going to see
failure as a challenge if you believe
that ability is the key you're going to
give up when you fail my way
interpreting the growth mindset for high
performance is to say fail going 100% be
okay with failure as long as you do
everything you can to
succeed do you get excited by this stuff
I do I do
because it puts me in the driver's seat
I get to choose I can get
better you don't need to
though you could learn to master your
emotion
you could change your mindset if you
want to but it's not easy and this is
where mental toughness comes in and it's
you know you're going to have to evolve
rapidly you're going to have to make the
decisions that are harder to make and
act on
them it's all pause for a
moment what would be possible if humans
could learn to delay gratification
effectively to accept failure with
Equanimity at the same time is seeing
themselves and others as people with
extraordinary
potential a Brilliance within just
waiting to be activated by effort and
persistence could this not build
healthier families if children could
grow up understanding not judging their
emotional
lives if they were encouraged by their
loved ones to to you know accept the
compulsive feelings are totally normal
they don't have to satisfy that need for
instant gratification
if they learned that the personal
characteristics and focused on those
ones that that they were in control of
like the quality of their effort and the
persistence
mindset they might just grow
up with an unshakable
confidence simply in who they
are not what
happens no matter what happens around
them might not this help ward off future
recession you know if the big Bankers
Hunker after that immediate
gratification of massive bonuses from
handing out you know multitudes of of
high-risk mortgages to equally impulsive
investors what if they were able to see
the impact of their
actions you know and see that they could
still have succeeded maybe more slowly
but with a sustainable future with a
growth mindset and a little bit more
self-esteem we may have averted the
subprime mortgage crisis might this not
be the secret to World
Peace if oppressed people could see
beyond their current limic demands for
the removal of pain and
suffering past the insecurities born out
of difficult
lives so they fostered genuine
self-worth you know amidst their
traumatic worlds maybe the psychopathic
dictators would not be so effective at
manipulating them
with the fears and the promise of pain
relief from going to war against equally
fearful
people am I stretching this a
bit I hope
so so I've shared three key mindsets and
I will close with them work with your
feelings not against
them keep your eye on the big
picture and fail going 100%
and most of all get tough because mental
toughness will give you power in the
face of anything that life throws at you
thank you
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