The Huberman Lab Podcast discusses neuroscience: how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health. We also discuss existing and emerging tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works. Dr. Andrew Huberman is a tenured Professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. His laboratory studies neural regeneration, neuroplasticity, and brain states such as stress, focus, fear, and optimal performance. For more than 20 years, Dr. Huberman has consistently published original research findings and review articles in top-level peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Science, Cell, Neuron, and Current Biology. He is a regular member of several National Institutes of Health review panels and a Fellow of the McKnight Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Dr. Huberman regularly consults for technology development companies, professional athletic organizations, and various units of U.S. and Canadian Special Operations.
How to Enhance Performance & Learning by Applying a Growth Mindset
In this episode, I discuss how to build and apply a growth mindset — the practice of self-rewarding and focusing on learning and skill development through effort — to improve learning and performance. I also discuss how our internal narratives drive our ability to make progress. I contrast the growth mindset vs. the fixed mindset and describe how the type of feedback or praise we receive shapes our mindsets, and the huge advantage of rewarding and celebrating “verbs” (actions) rather than adjectives (performance labels). I also discuss data showing how stress can enhance performance and explain why the growth mindset works synergistically with the “stress-is-enhancing mindset,” and how to combine them. Whether you are a student, coach, therapist, parent, teacher or simply someone seeking to improve at something, this episode provides numerous science-supported tools for how to adopt a performance enhancing mindset.
For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com.
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Timestamps
(00:00:00) Growth Mindset
(00:02:55) Sponsors: Eight Sleep & ROKA
(00:05:17) Mindset & Narrative
(00:12:58) Intelligence Feedback vs. Effort Feedback, Identity Labels
(00:20:10) Intelligence vs. Effort Praise: Performance, Persistence & Self-Representation
(00:26:45) Fixed Intelligence vs. Growth Mindset
(00:28:53) Tool: Intelligence (Performance) vs. Effort Narrative, Labels
(00:32:30) Tool: Failure & Identity; Effort & Verbs
(00:34:36) Sponsor: AG1
(00:35:41) Tool: Timing, Intelligence vs. Effort Praise & Performance
(00:40:080 Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset: Failure & Performance
(00:50:28) Tool: Shift from Fixed Mindset
(00:54:23) Sponsor: InsideTracker
(00:55:30) Stress-is-Enhancing Mindset
(01:05:53) How Stress Can Enhance Performance
(01:13:21) Growth Mindset + Stress-is-Enhancing Mindset & Performance
(01:20:36) Reframing Stress
(01:25:45) Tool 1: Student & Teacher Mindset
(01:28:17) Tool 2: Effort Praise/Feedback: Verbs not Labels
(01:31:24) Tool 3: Errors & Seeking Help
(01:32:58) Tool 4: Self-Teaching & Growth Mindset
(01:34:35) Tool 5: Reframe “Mind is Like a Muscle” Analogy
(01:39:20) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube Feedback, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, Momentous, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter
Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac