JR Foster

Transcript:

To start out with today’s podcast, I’d like to ask you an important question.

If you could establish just one habit that could totally change your entire existence, would you do it?

Chances are, you probably said.

However, most people might say yes, but never actually carry out that plan of action to help change their life.

They might set a goal.

They might write it down.

They might try at it for a while.

They might do plenty of things that help them get closer to their goal.

But when failure comes, they run.

They cower into their holes and see failure as an obstacle.

They see failure as something that they must overcome. 

They envision failure as this giant brick wall that they have to find some way to get around, over, under, or through.

And don’t get me wrong, that is a great way to look at it, but it’s also an imperfect way to envision what failure means.

In the book “Mindset,” Dr. Carol Dweck discusses two competing psychological mindsets that everyone has.

Dr. Dweck categorizes everyone as two types of people: fixed mindset people and growth mindset people.

And while it may seem, cliche to categorize everyone into these two categories, today we’re going to discuss how these two competing mindsets are found in everyone.

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There’s no question that you’ve heard some of the following phrases before:

“I can’t do it.”

“I’m just not good at math.”

“I’m just not built to be good at sports.”

Many of these phrases are often seen as depressing, closed in, or just simply facts.

These phrases seem like they are set in stone.

If I’m not good at math now, there’s absolutely no way that I’ll ever be good at math. 

Ever.

That phrase is set in stone.

It’s what Dr. Carol Dweck calls a fixed mindset.

People who approach problems with a fixed mindset BELIEVE that since they can’t do something now, then they’ll never be able to do it in their entire lifetime.

They believe that they’re trying to find what they’re good at.

They’re sort of searching for themselves and trying to find the skills they’re good at.

For example, they might try out soccer for a couple months, and when someone is better than them at it, they might quit.

Or, instead of quitting, they make an even worse decision.

They find some sort of excuse as to why they failed.

“Oh, my leg was hurting this morning, so that’s why I missed that goal.”

“My team is just bad.”

“No one is passing the ball to me.”

All these excuses and many more apply to EVERYTHING in life.

Not just soccer and math.

I could take any topic and you’ll be able to spot out the people with the fixed mindset.

They’re the ones who believe that if they can’t do it now, they won’t be able to do it in the future.

They’re the ones who find excuses.

They’re the ones who believe they are perfect and absolutely LOVE compliments.

When you give someone with a fixed mindset a compliment, they adore it.

It feeds into their fixed mindset because it helps them confirm who they are: someone that is perfect.

However, after we get back from this short break we’re going to discuss why and how that fixed mindset is so flawed and what you can do to break out of this fixed mindset.

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So, what separates a fixed mindset person from a growth mindset person.

There are actually lots of different things that separate them, but one thing that I believe that separates them the most is their belief in their ability to improve with effort.

While a fixed mindset person might already believe that they are perfect and will create excuses to affirm that perfectness, a growth mindset person will actually do the exact opposite.

Someone with a growth mindset knows that they are completely imperfect.

Not only in what they can’t do on a daily basis, but also what they already do on a daily basis

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Partial transcript: Hey, what’s going on y’all.

My name is J.R. Foster.

Black belt in Judo.

Blue belt in Jiu-Jitsu.

And Med school acceptee. 

If you’re new here, I would just like to say welcome.

Welcome to a growing community of people that are hungry for success and change in their lives.

If you’re not new here, then I have to say welcome back and I look forward to working with you as we go on this journey from white belt to black belt in the game we call life.

It doesn’t matter where you’re starting from in life because a black belt is simply a white belt that didn’t quit.

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To start out with today’s podcast, I really wanted to talk about why I’m doing this podcast and some of the awesome things that y’all will have to look forward to in the near future.

First, I’m going to start doing these podcasts as a weekly, maybe even bi-weekly thing if I can fit in the time while I’m in college this fall.

We’ll see how that goes, but from now on, I’ll be releasing at least one podcast every week on Monday night.

These podcasts will discuss varying topics, but all of them will be centered around one question: “How can I be a black belt in life?”

There are many different sports where you can acquire a black belt, but no one really talks about acquiring a black belt in life.

These topics could be anything from reworking your morning habits, to the concept of “deliberate practice”, to why you should make your bed in the morning.

It could be about anything, but we’ll always focus on that one question: “How can I be a black belt in life?”

This is a profound question because it forces us to think about a couple things: what does it mean to be a black belt in life?

How does a black belt operate in their daily life?

When given certain situations, what should a black belt do and why should he do it?

We’ll have lots of absurd questions on here, and that question is only one of them.

As for my YouTube channel, if you’re not already subscribed, I highly recommend that you do.

Starting two weeks from now, I’ll be posting videos every Wednesday and Saturday night from now on talking about many of the things that we’ll be talking about here on this podcast. 

However, many of those videos will be much more concise on the message I’m trying to convey and I feel like this podcast will allow me to explore 

I’m going to make it consistent. Both with the uploading of videos and podcasts.

If college gets too crazy, we’ll see about making adjustments, but I’m almost positive that it won’t be a problem because I’ve scheduled literally every minute of my college daily life.

As for why I’m doing all this? Well, I just feel like it is my duty.

From a young age, I’ve had the privilege of hanging out and being coached by so many great and successful mentors.

Some of these people range from Olympians in Judo all the way to million dollar business owners.

All of these people have taught me valuable lessons that have helped me reach where I’m at today and will help me reach where I want to go in the future.

They’ve all helped alter my mindset from a young age into what I am today.

Lastly, I wouldn’t be able to do this without my parents, both of whom are highly successful in their own regards.

From having five kids to running a business, I don’t know how they keep it all together.

I wouldn’t be able to do this without my dad teaching me how to learn, read the right books, put aside my ego, ask the questions everyone else is too afraid to ask, and give me the opportunity to just absorb every single piece of knowledge that any successful person throws at me.

I wouldn’t have even considered starting this podcast without my mom, who has always taught me the spirit of giving back, even when you feel like you have nothing else to give. She’s taught me what it means to be a true Catholic in the eyes of God.

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Anyways, in today’s podcast, I want to focus on

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This is the audio playback of my Youtube video, Should we DEFUND THE POLICE?, found here: https://youtu.be/mKKgYz-4qF0

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This episode is sponsored by

· Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

This is the audio from my most recent video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/RBTlRsp35ew

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This episode is sponsored by

· Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Discover the Secrets to Achieving a 4.0 in College and in Life - Part 1

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Why Are Some People So Much More Successful Than Others? - A Discussion

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This episode is sponsored by

· Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Attention College Students: Stop Putting Up With BAD NOTE TAKING Forever!!!

After experiencing many problems with taking notes in highschool, I decided to do something about it.

All throughout highschool, I was an avid note taker.

I wrote down almost everything that the teacher said or put on the board.

I would lug around my 20 pound backpack filled to the brim with textbooks and notes that I hardly ever looked over.

I tried taking notes on my computer, but I found myself just mindlessly typing the content on the board and once again, never looking over those notes as well.

And in the event that I did look over the notes, my brain wasn’t processing the material.

I understood that pain of reading the same notes over and over, hoping that I remember them for the test.

I wasn’t exactly learning all the material. I was just regurgitating it for the test and forgetting half of it as I prepared for the next test.

But then that’s when I found a solution.

The iPad Pro.

I found a solution that addressed all the problems I had with my note taking and solved them.

So that’s why I’m making this video today.

I figured, why not make the ability to take excellent notes available to everyone?

So let’s get down to business.

There are many reasons that the iPad Pro is the greatest note taking device of all time.

The first is Notability.

Notability allows me to save and organize my notes electronically and export them anywhere I want them.

So boom. That solved the massive backpack problem that I was having.

The next is the Apple Pencil.

Instead of me mindlessly typing notes and never reviewing them, I had a way to write down my notes electronically so that I was actually concentrating while the teacher was talking.

And it felt amazing to do it as well.

This pencil writes better and feels better to hold than even the mechanical pencils with the little goeey pencil wraps.

So boom. That solved the mindlessly typing notes problem I was having.

Here’s a bunch of other crazy awesome things I can do with the iPad Pro’s Notability that regular note taking just can’t do:

Dragging and dropping images

Writing on those images

The double tap feature that allows me to switch seamlessly from pencil to eraser

Drag and dropping my writing

Different pencil colors and sizes

Different highlighter colors and sizes

The ability to import documents into Notability and draw on them

The ability to take pictures of the board and then draw on those pictures

And finally, I can record the lecture while I’m writing and then play it back and watch myself write as the lecture went on.

But there was still one more problem I was having.

Reviewing notes.

Like I said, when I would review notes in highschool, I wasn’t actually reviewing them. I was reading them and regurgitating them for the test, and then the cycle would repeat.

So I needed a solution.

And the solution I found was quite simple.

Write down the majority of the notes you take in a question format.

For example, when I would write down the definition of nitrogen fixation in biology, instead of me just writing the word and then the definition (which is what most people do when they take notes), what I would write is “What is nitrogen fixation?” and THEN I would write down the definition.

This caused me to read the question when I reviewed my notes and try to answer it without looking. 

If I got it right, good. I moved on to the next question.

But if I didn’t, then I knew I didn’t know that term and it was worth spending time reviewing it.

This method of taking notes in a question format helped me solve two major problems I was having in my note taking:

I knew what I didn’t know vs. what I did know for the test.

I wasn’t mindlessly reading my notes anymore.

So boom. That just solved my problem with reading back through my notes.

Now, I’m not saying you should go out and buy and iPad Pro.

You don’t need to in order to apply this method

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