Dr. Angela Duckworth

They give you a model.

They show you what's possible by example.

So he would run these studies and little girls and boys would watch an adult do something like play with a toy.

And they would watch behind this like plate glass divider.

And then when you let them into the room and they could do whatever they want, they just did exactly the same thing with the toy as the grownup did.

We learn through modeling.

And when we're not confident that we can do something and we see a model who...

maybe looks like us, maybe doesn't look like us, but we vibe with in some other way we identify with them, that creates agency in us.

And I've heard that from my own students.

They'll tell me like, oh, you know, you're an Asian female and I have found you to be an example for me.

And I say to them, like, wow, I don't even think about being an Asian female, but clearly they could see what was possible through that.

But what I really want to dwell on is the fourth thing.

The fourth thing was the most important thing, more important than your physiological state, more important than pep talks, and even more important than having a model.

And that was what he called a mastery experience.

I called a small win.

You want someone to have agency, they need a small win.

Every Olympic coach knows this.

You have an athlete that loses a race and then another race, and all of a sudden they're in a rut.

You know what they need?

They need a small win.