072319 — Blog — Rulerless

No talent? Play anyway.

Talent is convenient.

It’s undeniably helpful to have early promise or natural aptitude in a particular area. We tend to enjoy things we’re good at. If you are naturally good at something, you will stick with it all the way to mastery.

However, the flip side concerns me more. If you are not naturally good at something that you really want to master, I urge you to stick with it anyway. Sooner or later, with consistent effort over time, some aspect of it will click. When you evaluate things several weeks, months, or years later, you may even find that your results are indistinguishable from the “talented” person.

Casey von NeumannJuly 11, 2019072319, 082119, 062220, 071620, 102220, 120320, 100421, 011122, 031822, 063022 Comments

"I am so bad at this."

The stories we tell ourselves can help us our hurt us. The ways in which we measure ourselves can reinforce the awful story or help us to build a new one.

We keep the awful stories out of habit. There’s something comforting about clinging to the story that reinforces what we’ve always believed, even when it makes us feel terrible.

A story like, “I keep thinking I’ll be good at things, but I’m always bad at them.”

Casey von NeumannJune 26, 2019072319, 081820, 103020, 120320, 021121, 022521, 051921Comment

You're closer than you think to where you want to be

“How long does it take to learn to play the guitar?”

I get this question all the time. Wanna guess what the answer is?

You guessed it: It depends. It takes a few weeks to a few years to become proficient, depending on how much effort you put in.

I also frequently get the question, “How long does it take to get good at the guitar?”

Now that is a really different question. The answer, for anyone asking it, is you never will.

Casey von NeumannJune 25, 2019072319, 082119, 070320, 122420, 060421, 061021, 111921Comment

How to change

A fellow math teacher presented an intriguing brain-teaser involving coins. I think of myself as someone who enjoys problem-solving, so I gave it a whirl.

Solving the problem took several hours of work over the course of a couple of weeks, including some time spent talking it through with my husband. There was some eccentric behavior on my part, like staring off into space with a frown and sitting on a park bench manipulating a lap full of coins. I found myself in some tricky blind alleys that required challenging mental three-point turns to get out of them. I thought I had the solution, but then discovered that I didn’t; I thought my husband had figured it out, but he hadn’t; then I went for a walk and finally got there.

Casey von NeumannJune 20, 2019072319, 073119, 061920, change, 091520, 092821Comment

Instead of working toward a goal, build a habit

Jerry Seinfeld, when asked about his method for success in comedy, shared a very simple strategy: He wrote new material every day. In order to accomplish this, he drew a big red X on his wall calendar for every day he wrote. A day without an X became unthinkable.

“Don’t break the chain!” he said. In other words, keep that streak going — do whatever it takes to earn that X.

Casey von NeumannJune 12, 2019072319, 082119, 081220, 092120, 101920, 010821, 031521, 090922Comment

If we want to create passionate, lifelong learners...

Young people are told they can be anything they want to be and exhorted to strive to achieve their dreams, but when the people around them are living mundane existences that leave little room for thinking big, what message are we actually sending?

Casey von NeumannMay 28, 2019072319, 072120, 081020Comment