Home » Archives for Christine Carter » Page 7

Author: Christine Carter

by Christine Carter

Parenting Video: Raising Learners

“The only thing you can control is your own effort.”
–Theodora van den Beld

This video is the 1st in a series about fostering academic success from The Raising Happiness Homestudy. Watch the rest of the videos here.

Three Ways to Create a Growth Mindset

(1) Use growth-mindset praise. First, identify where you are most fixed-mindset in praising your children. Is it during athletics? When they bring home grades? For me, it was when my kids brought home art projects. Identify a specific situation: this will be your action trigger.

Second, decide what you will say the next time you praise your kids. The key is to focus on the process rather than the end-result.

(2) Ask process questions. Who taught you how to do that? Did you use a different strategy this time? With younger kids, just asking them very simple things (Who did you sit by when you did that? What type of material did you use?) can be enough to provoke a process-oriented conversation.

(3) Identify where your KIDS are most fixed-mindset. Do your kids have fixed-mindset ideas about one area of themselves? Help them identify where the fixed-mindset is hamstringing them, and help them outline a practice strategy. Think of my belief that I couldn’t carry a tune, and how that almost prevented me from auditioning for the high school musical.

 

Related Video: How to Praise Children

Join the Discussion

  • Where are you most fixed-mindset? What sort of change have you scripted?
  • Where have you been successful at fostering a growth-mindset?

Your reflections and suggestions (comment below this posting) will inspire others to make similar changes, so don’t hesitate to “brag” about your successes. By the same token, if you are struggling, tell us about it! Others will certainly have suggestions for you.

audio_icon-100x100

If you would like to download the audio version of this video to listen to in your car or on the go, click the link below. DOWNLOAD THE AUDIO VERSION HERE.

 

This post is taken from “The Raising Happiness Homestudy,” an online course I created as a companion to my book Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents. I’m sharing “classes” from this online course here, on my blog. Want to see previous posts? Just click this Raising Happiness Homestudy tag. Enjoy!

by Christine Carter

Flow Class: What is Productivity, Really?

To me, productivity is the ability to produce or create something of value and meaning for myself and others. 

As such, productivity as a “knowledge worker” is not just dependent on the time we have to work–it is also dependent on our energy and motivation, our ability to focus, our creativity and insight, and our raw intellectual power. Productivity is not just about how efficient we are or about how many emails we answer. It’s about how much we accomplish that is meaningful. It is how our work is valued in today’s economy.

This course is about better managing our time, of course. But more importantly, it is also going about managing our energy, attention and intelligence.

This link will take you to the rest of the productivity post. See you over there!

This post is taken from “The Science of Finding Flow,” an online course I created as a companion to my book The Sweet Spot: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less. Want to take the course? It’s free! Just click this The Science of Finding Flow tag. Enjoy!

by Christine Carter

Bring Back the Raising Happiness Habit Tracker!

This video is the 4th in a series about being happier as a parent from The Raising Happiness Homestudy. Watch the rest of the videos here.

“Things start as hopes and end up as habits.”
― Lillian Hellman

 

This Week’s Practice: Begin a New Habit

 Click here to download the habit tracker PDF

Knowing how to form a new habit and break an old one is a life-skill used again and again. This week, work on yourself first. (I know, it is tempting to want to fix other people first. Resist, for now.)

What habit would bring greater happiness into your life? If you aren’t sure, I recommend starting a daily exercise or meditation habit.

Here’s How to Use the Habit Tracker:

 (1) Put your big over-arching goal at the top.

(2) Choose one ridiculously easy turtle-step per week.

(3) Each day you take your turtle-step, mark the X. (Clearly this worksheet was designed for children. Embrace your inner-child while you do this.)

(4) If you do get Xs everyday (or every weekday, or each day the habit is relevant), give yourself a “whoot!” and move to the next turtle step next week.

(5) If you don’t take your turtle-step each day, c’est la vie. Next week: make the turtle-step even easier. Is your next step ridiculously easy?

I know, this seems slow and rather painstaking. Wouldn’t it be easier if we could just set our mind to something and then do it? Don’t be discouraged; we humans need time to make changes. Even though the turtle-steps are absurdly small, they are the beginning of big change.

 If you want to learn more about habit formation, this blog post will give you a little more of a foundation.

If you would like to download the audio version of this video to listen to in your car or on the go, click the link below.
DOWNLOAD THE AUDIO VERSION HERE.

 

This post is taken from “The Raising Happiness Homestudy,” an online course I created as a companion to my book Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents. I’m sharing one “class” from this online course per week here, on my blog. Want to see previous posts? Just click this Raising Happiness Homestudy tag. Enjoy!

by Christine Carter

Welcome To Unit 2!

“What if you actually HAVE all the time you need, but you just don’t know it?”

This post is from a series about how we choose to spend our time in my online course, Science of Finding Flow. Read the rest here.

 

This post is taken from “The Science of Finding Flow,” an online course I created as a companion to my book The Sweet Spot: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less. I’m sharing one “lesson” from this online class per week here, on my blog. Want to see previous posts? Just click this The Science of Finding Flow tag. Enjoy!