“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.”–Warren Buffet

I have always enjoyed the start of a new school term. Usually characterised by a renewed sense of purpose, a spring in the step and some new goals to reach towards. But how do we keep ourselves and our students motivated and committed long enough to bring those goals to fruition?

Resilience is a crucial life skill for all of us. Whether it is a relationship ending, a poor result on an exam, a sporting fixture lost or a job application that got knocked back- we need to learn how to cope with these things. We need to use this skill often.

In a study of 373, 7th grade students, students were divided into two groups and were taught about the brain and study skills (Blackwell, Trzesniewski & Dweck, 2007). Both groups were taught about the structure and function of the brain in the first two lessons. However, half of the students received training about the stages of memory (reading for memory, teaching mnemonic strategies), while the other half were taught about the growth mindset (the malleable brain and growing the “neural network maze” through learning). Three times as many students in the growth mindset group showed an increase in effort and motivation compared with the control group during the training. After the training, the control group continued to show declining grades, but the growth-mindset group showed a clear rebound in their grades. UPP’s Thrive Online Modules are based on this malleable intelligence intervention, and is focused on changing mindsets.