HABITS OF MIND

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HABITS OF MIND

• How do people learn?
• How do people think?
• How do people produce knowledge?

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What are the Habits of Mind?

• A habit of mind is
• knowing how to act intelligently when you DONT
  know the answer
• having the inclination to behave intelligently.

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1. PERSISTENCE

• Not giving up easily
• Staying focused on the task at hand
• Looking at alternatives to solving a problem
• Developing a plan for solving problems

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Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One
is a matter of quality the other, a matter of
time. Mirabel Morgan
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Thomas Edison. . .

• holds 1039 patents
• invented
• the rubber used in tires
• batteries
• fluorescent light bulbs
• the movie camera
• the phonograph

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Results! Why, I have gotten a lot of results. I
know several thousand things that wont work.
Thomas Edison
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Genius is one percent inspiration and
ninety-nine percent perspiration. Thomas Edison
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2. MANAGING IMPULSIVITY

• Thinking BEFORE acting or speaking
• Intentionally forming a vision of a product, plan
  of action, goal, or destination
• Reflecting on alternatives and consequences

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• The immature mind hops from one thing to another
  the mature mind seeks to follow through.
• (H. Overstreet)
• Great things are not done by impulse, but by a
  series of small things brought together.
• (Vincent Van Gogh)

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LISTENING TO OTHERS WITH UNDERSTANDING EMPATHY

• Actively listening is a sign of intelligence
• Paying close attention to what is being said
• Reading between the lines
• Holding your judgments until youve listened to
  the other person

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Listening is the beginning of understanding. .
. Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of
listening. Let the wise listen and add to their
learning. . . Proverbs 15
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4. THINKING FLEXIBLY

• The capacity to change your mind as you receive
  additional data
• Approaching a problem from different angles
• Shifting from one perspective to another
• Flexible people are the ones with the most control

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If you never change your mind, why have
one? Edward deBono
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METACOGNITION

• Thinking about your thinking
• Ability to know what we know and what we dont
  know
• Are you getting positive results with your
  pattern of thinking?

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When the mind is thinking it is talking to
itself. Plato I cannot always control what
goes on outside. But I can always control what
goes on inside. Wayne Dyer
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STRIVING FOR ACCURACY AND PRECISION

• Focusing on quality
• Taking pride in your work
• Focusing on excellence in ones work

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I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but
it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as
if they were great and noble. Helen Keller
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QUESTIONING AND POSING PROBLEMS

• Effective problem solvers know how to ask
  questions to fill in the gaps between what they
  know and what they dont know

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Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for
tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop
questioning.Albert Einstein
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8. APPLYING PAST KNOWLEDGE TO NEW SITUATIONS

• Intelligent human beings
• learn from experience
• make new connections between past and present
  experiences

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Everything we do seeds the future. No action
is an empty one.Joan Chittister
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THINKING COMMUNICATING WITH CLARITY AND
PRECISION

• Language and thinking are closely entwined
• Like two sides of the same coin, they are
  inseparable

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• When you hear fuzzy language, it is a reflection
  of fuzzy thinking
• Intelligent people strive to communicate
  accurately in both written and spoken word

• Use precise language by
• defining terms
• using correct names
• using universal labels

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The limits of my language are the limits of my
mind. All I know is what I have words for. L.
Wittgenstein The difference between the right
word and the almost right word is the difference
between lightning and lightning bug. Mark Twain
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Watch your thoughts they become words. Watch
your words they become actions. Watch your
actions they become habits. Watch your habits
they become character. Watch your character it
becomes your destiny. Frank Outlaw
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GATHERING DATA THRU ALL YOUR SENSES

• Intelligent people know that all information gets
  into the brain through the senses
• Intelligent people pay close attention to their
  environment

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• Most linguistic, cultural, and physical learning
• is derived from the environment by observing
• taking in through the senses

• Those whose sensory pathways are open, alert, and
  acute absorb more information from their
  environment

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Joy in looking and comprehending is natures most
beautiful gift. Albert Einstein If all meanings
could be adequately expressed by words, the arts
of painting and music would not exist. John Dewey
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CREATING, IMAGINING, INNOVATING

• All human beings have the capacity to generate
• new
• original
• clever
• and ingenious
• products
• solutions
• techniques

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• Come up with different solutions
• Be motivated from your heart and mind
• Creative people are open to criticism in their
  efforts to refine their technique
• Creative people take risks and try new things

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The future is not some place we are going to but
one we are creating. The paths are not to be
found, but made, and the activity of making them
changes both the maker and the destination.John
Shaar, political scientist
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RESPONDING WITH WONDER AND AWE

• Successful people have not only an I CAN
  attitude but also an I ENJOY feeling
• They enjoy figuring out things by themselves and
  continue to learn throughout their lifetime

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• Remain curious
• Become a lifelong learner
• Find the beauty all around you
• Become passionate about
• learning
• Inquiring/questioning
• mastering

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The most beautiful experience in the world is the
experience of the mysterious.Albert Einstein
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TAKING RESPONSIBLE RISKS

• Flexible people seem to have an uncontrollable
  urge to go beyond established limits
• They learn to view setbacks as
• interesting
• challenging
• growth producing

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• Flexible people
• take educated risks
• draw on past knowledge
• are thoughtful about consequences
• have a well-trained sense of what is appropriate
• know that NOT all risks are worth taking

• It is only through repeated experiences that risk
  taking becomes educated

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The only way to succeed is to be brave enough
to risk failure.Bobby Jindal
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Courage is the mastery of fear, not the absence
of fear.Mark Twain
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14. FINDING HUMOR

• It is said that laughter is the best medicine
• people who engage in the mystery of humor have
  the ability to see situations from an original
  and often interesting vantage point

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• Laughter
• frees creativity
• engages higher level thinking skills such as
• anticipation
• finding new relationships
• visual imagery
• making analogies

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• not all humor is acceptable
• human indifferences
• hurting a persons feelings
• vulgarity
• violence
• profanity
• making fun of others
• laughing at others but not at yourself
• causing pain

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THINKING INTERDEPENDENTLY

• Humans are social beings
• All of us together are more powerful than any one
  individual
• No one of us is as smart as all of us

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Take care of each other. Share your energies
with the group. No one must feel alone, cut
off, for that is when you do not make it.Willie
Unsoeld (famous mountain climber)
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LEARNING CONTINUOUSLY

• Intelligent people are in a continuous learning
  mode
• They are always
• striving for improvement
• growing
• learning
• improving themselves

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Insanity is continuing to do the same thing over
and over and expecting different results.Albert
Einstein
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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then,
is not an act, but a habit.Aristotle
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