Praise = Exceptional Talent?

I'm getting a head start on Spring cleaning and found this in my outbox. Subject: Blog. Addressed to noone. It's dated around the same time I created this blog (or maybe earlier 03/07/2007). I'm kicking myself because I neglected to reference where I heard or read the following:

A study reveals that kids who have not developed their abilities or social skills often received negative to positive comments at a 300 to 1 ratio.

Sound familiar?

The study also mentions exceptionally talented and well-adjusted kids were almost uniformly given specific praises many times each day ... suggesting a healthy balance of constructive criticism and praise brings out the best.

Praise = exceptional talent, or at least helps us develop the talent we have.

Almost a year later, the message above is definitely something worth sharing yesterday, today and NOW. So I've decided to throw it up on my blog. Why?

Almost a year later, you still can't walk out of a East Palo Alto City Council meeting without hearing the negative. What is the ratio of negative to positive comments at the East Palo Alto City Council meetings?

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Daniel Kahneman each day we experience approximately 20,000 moments. A moment is defined as a few seconds in which our brain records an experience. The quality of our days is determined by how our brains recognize and categorize our moments ­either as positive, negative, or just neutral. Rarely do we remember neutral moments.

Maybe adults aren't that different from kids ... and maybe we spend too much time focusing on each other's mistakes, and not enough time praising and celebrating the simple successes along the way. If praise works for developing great children, why not for talented and well-adjusted adults.