3 attitudes to overcome harsh and unfavorable environments

Lincoln was a dirt spoon among dirt spoons. He even lived like a beggar for months away from his parents at the age of nine. How could he overcome the poor environment and grow into a great president who abolished slavery? You can get a hint through Lincoln’s youth revealed in .

Ambition and self-confidence

Lincoln was ambitious from an early age. He desperately wanted to contribute to the community and go down in the American history books. How could Lincoln have harbored such ambitions even in his worst childhood? A friend of Lincoln’s is said to have convinced Lincoln that ‘he was born for more than he seems’. In other words, Lincoln believed in his potential. As revealed in pedagogical research, ‘self-efficacy’ is the best predictor of the ability to perform a specific task. Self-efficacy is the ‘self-belief’ about one’s ability to perform a specific task. So, how can you increase your self-efficacy? It is to see your own potential high. In other words, when there is self-confidence that sees oneself highly like Lincoln, self-efficacy increases, and the increased self-efficacy becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and enables one to perform actual tasks well.

Continuous learning

Lincoln read anything from an early age. Even when Lincoln’s father saw Lincoln reading, he became violent. Lincoln was very poor and had no books at home. However, whenever he had the opportunity, he not only read every word, but whenever he had the time to remember everything he read, he wrote letters on the ground with wood. These learning habits are the most powerful force that made Lincoln great until he became an adult and later became president. What is Learning? Professor Peter Senge said that learning is the ability to get what you want. Even in a harsh environment, if it becomes a learning machine, the environment will never become an obstacle.

Excellent interpersonal relationships

We are not living alone. You can grow faster and achieve greater success when others help you. Lincoln was loved by those around him early on for his outstanding empathy, kindness, and humility. So the people around him genuinely wanted Lincoln to succeed and were willing to help with whatever was needed. With the help of those around him, Lincoln obtained materials to study in a poor environment and a way to enter the political world. It’s harder for you not to succeed when everyone else wants you to succeed.

Ambition driven by self-confidence, constant learning, and excellent human relations. If you can have these three things, you will be able to grow and succeed in any poor environment. Go for it!