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Yes I Can: Learn to use the Power of Self-efficacy

Yes I Can: Learn to use the power of self-efficacy is a practical and personal book founded on solid psychological concepts. Throughout the pandemic and lockdown Laura was deeply inspired to write something very positive and actionable in all sorts of trying times. Challenge yourself to look in the mirror and draw the best out of you. It’s not hocus pocus. Laura is a storyteller and she uses her own experiences as examples.

Dr Laura Ritchie is a cellist, Chartered Psychologist, Professor of Learning and Teaching, and importantly she is someone who found her YES. Yes I Can addresses the topics of perception, perspective, self-efficacy beliefs, metacognition, self-regulation, and agency by presenting these psychological concepts through a uniquely inviting and approachable, storytelling voice. Laura interweaves psychological theory with personal stories, told in a memoir-like way, drawing upon experience from her musical, academic, and personal life. The important aspect of these stories is not that they are about ‘Laura’ but act as a bridge between research and everyday practice, and serve as a lens for the reader to look both at and into their own experience.

This book will transform your understanding and perception of ‘can’ to become a fundamental part of life. More than a mindset, it is about understanding the processes underlying self-beliefs, which allow you to move from wherever you are through the vision of possibility to achieve your goals. Strategic thinking, instead of grit or willpower, serves to allow you to adopt the yes in your daily life.

 

Ebook and paperback available HERE

 Audio book available via all major outlets   (scroll down for sample)

“If you doubt yourself, your abilities, your absolute fierceness, Yes I Can is THE book for you. Dr. Ritchie breaks down every niggling doubt on the road to success. She gives every reader concrete tools to achieve greater heights. Highly readable and relatable. You won’t regret moving Yes I Can to the top of your TBR stack!”

Andra Watkins, New York Times Best Selling Author

 

“Laura Ritchie is a beacon of light in the dense fog of pedagogy. Her thinking and writing provide clarity to practices and processes that can too often become inaccessible due to complex language and confused thinking. Ritchie’s writing is based on practice and empathy, it not only suggests new ways of thinking it encourages the adoption of that thinking. This book is not just recommended it is essential”

Grant Scott, Founder and Curator of the United Nations of Photography, Head of Photography and Senior Lecturer, Oxford Brookes University

 

“Laura Ritchie has a magical ability to translate the art of possibility into practical learning and life skills that can maximize our sense of joy, audacity, hope, and resilience. If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re good enough, or if you have the talent to accomplish your goals, or if you’re strong enough to run life’s marathon, read this book – then stretch your legs and go!”
David Preston, founder of Open-Source Learning and author of Academy of One
“Laura Ritchie’s latest book, “Yes I Can: Learn to Use the Power of Self-efficacy,” could not come at a better time. If you have been struggling in the pandemic to learn new skills or relax with a new hobby, or if you are contemplating something even more extreme such as a change in careers, Laura Ritchie’s warm, honest, encouraging voice in these pages can help you take charge of your learning. Her emphasis on deliberation and self-awareness can help you channel the doubts and fears of your inner critic into a new direction: self-efficacy, a belief in yourself and in your capacity to take/make opportunities that will help you to achieve your goals. Learning is not easy or automatic like so many of the conveniences of modern life, but learning is always possible, and this book will help you embrace that sense of possibility, of challenge, of change. Change is inevitable; there is no standing still, and the pandemic has made that fact of life even more clear, sometimes scarily so. But change also creates an open space for learning, and in that open space you can take charge of your own learning. In fact, you have always been in charge of your own learning, despite the best efforts of school to try to convince you otherwise. As Ritchie says, “Only you can judge and decide what your capabilities are.” If you are ready to begin to explore your untapped capabilities, this book is a great place to start!”
Dr. Laura Gibbs, @OnlineCrsLady

Contents

Foreword by Daniel Cervone, Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago

Introduction (listen below!):

Author’s note

Chapter 1: Awareness of Yes and the Self

Chapter 2: Life’s Maze

Chapter 3: Self-efficacy and the Self

Chapter 4: Motivation

Chapter 5: Learning and You

Chapter 6: Words and Impacts

Chapter 7: Reinforcing YOU CAN

Chapter 8: Moving forward in the Now