Matt Chung's Site

Tag: mindset

  • Organizational skills – incremental improvement

    I’ve been told throughout my life that I have a tendency to rush. I struggle with boredom, which according to Brené Brown can be defined as “uncomfortable state of wanting to engage in a satisfying activity, but being unable to do it.”

    People throughout my life would often (with good intention) kindly suggest that I “slow down” … when speaking … when learning a new skill … slow down they said. But for much of my life, I’ve felt similar Charlie Sheen, having only one speed: “Go.”

    And this urge to want to move through life quickly — in a rush — I think partially stems from this belief (argument made by Oliver Burkeman) that it’s a mechanism for avoid the following: we’re all going to die someday and that our time on this earth is limited.

    According to Oliver Burkeman, the average human life spans 4,000 weeks. I find that completely wild, don’t you? Death feels distance and the thought of it is unsettling. But after sitting with this negative emotion for a few deep breathes, a certain calmness follows. By radically accepting that my life is finite, my attention shifts towards ruthlessly prioritizing my life and ironically, the desire to rush dissipates.

    It’s ironic and somewhat paradoxical.

    By increasing awareness of life’s finitude, time begins to slow down. And in contrast, when there’s a lack of this awareness, when traveling through life as if there’s an infinite amount of time, I tend to rush.

    By accepting that my time will soon come to end, I temporarily free myself from what Burkeman calls the “brace position”.I drop the desire to get everything done immediately. Instead, I transition to a state of mindfulness, revisiting projects that I want to tackle, breaking them down into tiny, manageable bite sized chunks and slowly, but surely, chip away at them.

    Adopting the mindset of incremental improvement

    So again, instead of my default tendency to try and make one-off titanic shifts in my life, I am practicing the art of incremental improvement. I’m applying this mindset towards sharpening my organizational skills. Looking back at all my previous attempts on becoming an organized person — the desire for identifying as an “organized person” may stem from a fixed mindset, which can be counter productive for development — I had approached learning organization skills with sort of a “get it done and over with” mindset.

    This attitude of wanting to rapidly get through things reminds of one piece of advice that Kit Laughlin passed on another forum member on Stretch Therapy, who was trying to rush the process of becoming flexible:

    “Just wanting to get it over and done with” is exactly why it’s not working for you. The attitude you bring creates the resistance you feel in your body. I guarantee zero progress with this approach. If you really don’t want to do it (for whatever reason) then don’t. Life is much simpler if you approach it directly like this.

    The above comment reminded me of another topic on the forum, a topic on failure and persistence; developing organizational skills for me has been (and continues to be) challenging. But despite the frustrations and setbacks, I persevere:

    No. That is what your mind tells you, no doubt, but when you try, and fail, and try again, you are developing persistence and determination; and you are signalling to the organism that you are serious about change. What you describe (the idea quoted above) is literally the reason so many people who desire change cannot bring it about. What you argue is a thought—that is all—and it is not true.

    Tiny little victory of pulling quotes

    And I want to hit pause for a second and share that I’m experiencing a proud moment: I was able to find the two above quotes within seconds, pulling them out from my digital organizational systems by:

    1. Launching my DevonThink app on my laptop
    2. Expanding the “quotes” directory
    3. Navigating to “L” (first letter of Laughlin)
    4. Linearly searching for the quote

    I consider my current approach fairly effective. And one way to evaluate effectiveness is by measuring the approach through the lens of the POET compass:

    • P – Presents well (on time and clear)
    • O – out of the way (invisible)
    • E – easy to use/get to (instant)
    • T – trusted (off mind)

    Based on the criteria above, I think that my quote management system works (for me, right now):

    1. Presents well – was able to relatively quickly (in the order of seconds) retrieve the quotes.
    2. Out of the way – Yes, up until the moment I wanted to fetch them, they were out of sight.
    3. Easy to use/get to – In terms of easiness, little effort (a few clicks) and a short linear search, which for me is acceptable since I’m not storing a huge volume of quotes.
    4. Trusted – I have not visited my DevonThink application for (probably) months and the application was certainly off my mind and yet, I could trust that I could return and retrieve the necessary quotes.

    Summary

    Here’s a reminder to self that I can slow down and walk the path of slow and steady.

  • Carol Dweck’s Mindset – Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Recap

    Is this book even for me?

    I was pursuing a bookstore — Waterstones, the Wimbledon location — and ended up purchasing Carol Dweck’s book titled “Mindset: Changing the way you think to fulfill your potential”, despite some initial hesitation. Before walking over to the checkout counter with book in hand, I picked the book off the shelf and skimmed the first couple pages and quickly learned that Carol Dweck posits there are two development mind sets: fixed and growth.

    “Isn’t it obvious that a growth mindset is better generally speaking and I definitely possess a growth mindset, right?”, I thought to myself.

    Turns out, like most things in life, it’s not so simple, not so black and white. In reality, as the book points out, there’s a general tendency for most people (me included) to possess a fixed mindset in some areas of our lives while at the same time, holding a growth mindset in other aspects.

    In any case, so far, even after reading only the first three chapters, I’ve already not only started questioning some of my beliefs, but also recognized that some parts of my life where I’ve unknowingly and unconsciously held myself back from even making an effort — even trying — certain activities.

    Two mindsets: fixed vs growth

    So, what is a growth mindset anyway? It is the belief that through through consistent effort, strategies and help from others, you can develop certain qualities (e.g. smartness). This mindset differs to that of the fixed mindset, that certain qualities are set in stone, unmovable, and a consequence of this belief we may end up experiencing “urgency to prove yourself over and over again”.

    With a fixed mindset, an individual’s underlying intention or motivation is driven to prove something about themselves. For example, say I consider myself “smart”. As a result of labeling myself as such, I may pursue certain activities that prove  — over and over again — to both myself and others that I am actually smart. Or I may end up avoiding certain behaviors all together out of fear of disapproving myself.

    In contrast, with a growth mindset, the main objective is to learn and growth. To this end, individuals with a growth mindset approach activities through the lens of learning, through applying effort.

    Captured Quotes

    “If you are somebody when you’re successful, what are you when you are unsuccessful?” (pg. 32)

    “Becoming is better than being” (pg. 25)

    The top is where t”he fixed-mindset people hunger to be, but it’s where many growth minded people arrive as a by-product of their enthusiasm for what they do.” (pg. 48)

    “The growth mindset allows people to value what they’re doing regardless of the outcome” (pg. 48)

    “What I mean is that even when you think you’re not good at something, you can still plunge into it wholeheartedly and stick to it.” (pg. 53).

    Self Realizations

    Avoidant behavior due to impact on (self-imposed) beliefs

    As mentioned above, I for sure thought that I held a growth mindset across all domains in my life (personal and professional) but reading this book puts me in deep reflection. Already, I’ve self-discovered that I tend to avoid crossword puzzles, drawing art with a pencil, Rubik’s cube, building physical objects with my hands, all because I don’t posses the natural gift or talent. As a result of lacking these possessions, I avoid pursuing these activities all together since distort an image — of “smartness” — I hold about myself.

    But now, it seems blatantly obvious that all those skills above — crossword puzzles, Rubik’s cube, building physical objects with my two hands — can be cultivated.

    So, what can I put into practice, now?

    Crossword puzzles? Rubik’s cube?

    We shall see.

  • Juste Debout: 1 month of training for 1 minute of dancing

    Juste Debout: 1 month of training for 1 minute of dancing

    Tomorrow, I compete as a dancer in the infamous international street style dance competition — Juste Debout — and for the past 1 month, my 2 vs 2 partner (Aubrey) and I been consistently training together. Every week her and carved out 1.5 hours, time spent in a studio practicing. And now, all this comes to a crescendo in about 24 hours, when we take the stage in London and dance for a grand total of 60 seconds.

    This past month has been quite a journey. High highs. Low lows.

    And along the way, I felt a bit stuck with my dance, hitting an invisible plateau. Despite moving my body more, I ironically felt more disconnected with my dance, I felt a bit more performative, a bit more robotic.

    Thankfully, I rode out this anxiety and frustration and ultimately, the universe had my back. During this period of disconnection with myself, I happened to have one off dance private with Jevan. And during our 60 minute lesson, he fundamentally shifted the way I approach my dance. Up until that point, my focus and intention was, in this order:

    1) Demonstrate I can dance the fundamental and foundational moves in this style we call house dance and

    2) Sprinkle some of my own personality into the movement.

    However, he had me invert the two, prioritizing dance first and that unlocked something in me and I’m now back to enjoying dance a bit more. My dance rounds — when looking back at the footage — have much more of me in it. There’s more clarity. More conviction.

    But I digress.

    Over the past month, I documented our training journey and below are four short clips of each week.

    Training Week 1

    Training Week 2

    Training week 3

    Training week 4

  • Harry Mack on mastery, art of practicing, and flow state

    I recently listened to a podcast episode by Harry Mack — a very gifted freestyle rap artist — named “Flow State” and I want to share a few key insights I took away regarding the art of practice. Though the discussion around his beliefs and advice revolve around freestyle rapping, I believe the principles can be more generally applied to other areas of life (e.g. dance) and ultimately, I think he’s ultimately describing mastery.

    Harry Mack Podcast Snippet (60 seconds) recapping mastery

    Some background: like many others, I like to think that I am someone who values process vs results. Though hitting objectives and reaching goals are important, especially in certain contexts, I stay rooted in the art of mastery in both my personal and professional pursuits. These days, given dance is at the forefront of my life, I’m less concerned about winning a dance battle and more concerned with exploring my mind and body during a performance:

    • What am I feeling?
    • What are my thoughts?

    Together, these two help gain more self-awareness, help me better understand WHO I AM and help me better align myself with WHO I WANT TO BECOME.

    Similarly, on a professional level, these days I’m less concerned with my title and role (something I used to obsess over) and more with what the day to day responsibilities include.

    Now, I’ve been interested in the topic of practice and mastery for over a decade; according to my Amazon purchase history, I bought the book “Talent is overrated” and “Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment.” It’s a topic that I find myself gravitating towards on a daily basis.

    Okay, enough background. Let’s get into it.

    Main Take Away

    Harry Mack transferred his knowledge of practice — he’s been playing music since he was 7 — and applied mastery to freestyle rap.

    What practicing is NOT: just doing the activity

    Here’s a common misconception when it comes to practice: just do the activity (e.g. dance, play the instrument) itself. Nope. That is NOT practice. While Harry Mack concedes that doing the activity itself will improve you skills and will help you ascend to a higher level, performing the activity is insufficient to reach what he considers an elite level. To reach an elite level, one must devote time to actual practice.

    So what is it?

    What is practicing?

    Practice is about identifying your weakness and is more or less fairly regimented. A subtle (but what I consider important) point he makes is that the activity should feel fun and that you are more or less “creating little games for yourself … that are aimed at specific weaknesses so that you can improve upon them.”

    I apply this concept of practice to my dance journey. One (of many) area of weaknesses that I’m aware of is my lack of coordination to intentionally perform polyrhythms: move two (or more) body parts at different rhythms. Most recently, I am working on polyrhythm that consists of 1) The cross step 2) Head isolation and 3) Arm movement. Though the integration of all three is what I’m trying to accomplish, I am breaking it down in parts that are manageable and within the range of my abilities. Harry Mack underscores the importance of making the exercises tailor fit for yourself:

    “If you are not able to achieve the goal at a decent percentage, you need to slow down, shaving away excess, so you get right to the thing that you’re working on.”

    Harry Mack’s example of practicing triplets

    His practice is not something he would not typically do in front of others because practice seems rather mundane and he believes (though I disagree here) that his audience would not find it entertaining or engaging.

    An example of practice (for him) is triplet rhythms, with one syllable rhymes. The practice would be him rapping four bars:

    Off of the top I get in the zone.

    I’m on the one I’m never no clone.

    I do my bars direct off the dome.

    I send these rappers all the way home

    He’d perform this exercise for 20 minutes and reminds the listeners of the podcast that the practice is NOT a performance.

    Performance: where the rubber meets the road

    As mentioned above, practice is highly regimented with clear parameters. When it comes to performing (in front of others), Harry Mack offloads all the regimented practice, letting it all go: “[Performance is] bringing everything together in real time without the regimented structure and there are no rules”

    Summary

    Ultimately, to practice, you want to come up with your own exercises that:

    1. Get you into a flow state
    2. Match your current skill level

    Flow state is not about repeatedly doing something easy. It’s a meditative state.

    In fact, it’s about “doing the thing that is at the razor’s edge of your ability …. we can make practice fun; don’t bite off more than you can chew. The surest way that practice doesn’t feel flowy and fun is try to do something that’s way outside your ability and you’re just fucking up the whole time.”

    If you are tripping up, try slowing it down, making it easier somehow, or reducing scope.