Stavya Week 11: The Power of Belief
Photo from Google
I remember sitting in my 4th grade classroom, looking up at a large poster on the wall saying “Believe in yourself,” and thinking to myself, Why is this even important? It is one of the most overused phrases in our society today, but it points to something more significant than you may think.
I want you to imagine yourself in your math class when your teacher gives you a seemingly challenging problem that they say has never been solved before. What would you do? Would you attempt to solve the problem, or disregard it, assuming that you do not have the skills to solve it in the first place? Exactly the opposite happened to an interesting man that I recently read about by the name of George Dantzig. Dantzig overslept one night and arrived 20 minutes late to his statistics lecture. He saw two problems on the board and copied them down, assuming that they were part of a problem set that he would have to complete for homework.
Dantzig took many days to work through the two problems, but he was eventually able to solve them and placed his solution on his professor’s desk. A few days later, his excited professor called Dantzig up about it and informed him that he had solved two problems that were deemed unsolvable for thousands of years; even the great Einstein had tried and failed to solve them. It was the belief that the problems were not that difficult that pushed Dantzig to find a solution to them. What Dantzig’s story tells us is that we all have perceived limitations that do not actually exist. If Dantzig had heard that the problems were unsolvable, he would have never had the confidence to attempt them in the first place.
The idea of believing in yourself is called self-efficacy in psychology. According to this article, psychologist Albert Bandura and countless other researchers have shown that self-efficacy has a large impact on us, from our feelings to our motivation. Those with a high self-efficacy are more positive and are better able to bounce back from challenges and failures. On the other hand, those with a low self-efficacy are more likely to avoid challenging situations and are more pessimistic about their lives overall.
The power of belief is something that we can all harness right now. Whether it is through positive self-talk or adopting a growth mindset, belief is a useful tool that we should all leverage.
Stavya, I enjoyed how you chose to write about a phrase so hackneyed it has become overlooked and undermined in society. Believing in yourself seems so obvious a task—yet we often don’t do it at all, making the focus of your blog a valuable lesson to be learned. I further enjoyed the way you utilized interactive storytelling to make a powerful point: putting myself in a math student’s shoes and considering whether I would’ve even attempted a shot at the problem, in contrast with Dantzig’s eye-opening path to success, prompted me to reflect on myself and how I approach problems in my own life. I enjoyed how you supplemented your blog with informative research surrounding the psychological concept of self-efficacy and a creative picture, where a charismatic young man uses the t in ‘can’t’ as a stepping stool to success. You ended your blog with an effective call to action, highlighting the accessibility of belief—it only takes a change in our mindset to make a change the way we approach obstacles and challenges in life. Overall, I really enjoyed how enlightening and motivating your blog was, and it’s taught me a lot more about myself and the perspective on life I should be maintaining. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteLike you I can also recall the numerous inspiration-based quotes and posters all around my elementary class walls. Though I have never really thought to pay attention to them. Personally I would not choose to answer the challenging problem (unless I get points for it). The specific section regarding the challenging problem works effectively in creating a connective tone and getting the readers thinking about your blog in detail. The high level of detail while depicting George Dantzig’s story again adds to the connectivity aspect and creates a humorous story. It’s funny to see how easy our brain is tricked, if teachers generally state that a difficult problem we would more likely want to do it. I appreciate the psychological connection as it adds to the depth of your blog. Throughout your blog you have maintained a connective and factual tone while portraying to the readers the significant that a simple quote such as “believe in yourself” actually has. Overall, your blog taught me to have a higher “self-efficacy" in order to prosper!
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