Mindset QCCQ

Quote- "All of these people had character. None of them thought they were special people, born with the right to win. They were people who worked hard, who learned how to keep their focus under pressure, and who stretched beyond their ordinary abilities when they had to." (Pg.92)

Comment- I chose this quote because I thought it was the main point that was being made in the article, which kept repeating that mindset is more important than talent. For example, in the article when it talked about Jackie Joyner-Kersee hailed as the greatest female athlete of all time, it said, "It was not natural talent taking its course. It was mindset having its say." (pg.88) This article said that sometimes having the natural talent is a curse because they can easily fall into the fixed mindset. As the article says, "The naturals, carried away with their superiority, don't learn how to work hard or how to cope with setbacks," and this is what happened to Pedro Martinez, "the brilliant pitcher then with the Boston Red Sox, who self-destructed when they needed him most." The article also mentioned how people "prize natural endowment over earned ability...We don't like to think of them [our champions] as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary." I agree with the author, that says that this is a lot more amazing. It is more impressive to see someone work their hardest to win a battle or game than to see someone who is naturally talented and just shows up and wins. Hard work and discipline is not just important in sports but in life.

Connection- I could relate to a lot of things this article talked about because I play soccer so I have experience with winning and losing and being part of a team. I know that the best games are the ones where we try our hardest rather than giving up right in the beginning after the other team scores on us. I remember clearly I game I played with my team a few weeks ago. We started off not so great because we didn't have our usual goalie so one of our players, who had not much experience, play as a goalie. The other team scores on us and at first we sort of started giving up because we knew they were a better team but we knew it was going to be one of our last games and we should be a competitive team so we gave it our best, we scored on them and although we lost, we played really well as a team and personally for me I would say that at that game I played my best, better than in any other game in the season. I felt proud of my team and I and how we were able to play to our best against that team.

I think this also connects with math because there are some people who are naturally good at math but there are some that have a hard time. I think it is important for those who are not so great at it to work hard in order to understand it and do well in tests and quizzes.

Questions- How long did it take Ben Hogan to get back to the top after he was hit by a bus? How was he able to do that?