Getting more of what we want and less of what we don’t

“Feedback is a gift” is a well-known saying. Some people may be suspicious of this phrase – until they engage with the work of Professor Carol Dweck (Dweck, 2006; Yeager & Dweck, 2012) which may lead to a transformation in their thinking about our ability to learn. From reading the books of Norman Doidge (2007, 2016) and Oliver Sacks (1994, 2007) I was already familiar with neuroplasticity; that as adults we can still make new neural pathways. It takes adults a while to make new pathways, about three months to re-wire our neurons. The change will feel uphill at the start as the brain is working against the established thought processes. Over time it will become easier until we are able to go in the direction of our newly trained neural pathways.