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How to handle and learn from mistakes
The benefits of psychological safety in a workplace
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Daydreams and Reality
We have two characteristic modes of viewing things—an abstract (or far-mode) and a concrete (or near-mode) view.
Because of the two modes, many big goals have a far-near incompatibility that can make it difficult to take action on. The person who dreams up the goal is different from the one who executes it.
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7.2K reads
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Taking action = eventual success
Inaction is the biggest cause of our failures and our miseries. If we could consistently do the things we know we should do, we would be more successful, and our lives would be better. Yet we struggle to take action.
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Get Better at Taking Action
Traditional approaches often focus on human will alone. But, our minds are complicated things, with many conscious and unconscious control mechanisms.
To take action, we need to not only have new inputs to turn us in the right direction, but also the ability to keep headed in the chosen ...
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7.16K reads
Sticking Your Neck Out
Our nature may be to view the cost-benefits of taking actions and be willing to retreat to conformity instead of getting punished.
Some ventures into different kinds of actions are discouraged if they don't yield big rewards. It may explain inaction to start your own business, but a ...
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Explaining inaction
Some possible but weak reasons why action is hard:
- Talent. But the world is full of brilliant stars that flame out and mediocre minds that build empires.
- Preferences can explain our failure to try, but don't explain our inner struggles with inaction.
- Ca...
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Confidence
Motivation and expectation of success create a feedback loop:
- Your motivation to complete a task depends on the value of the reward and your expectation of success.
- Your expectation of success depends on your motivation.
If your projects tend to f...
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We're Short-Sighted
Procrastination may be a delaying tactic to avoid wasting energy here and now, even if you think you might work harder later on.
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Social-Desirability Bias
Our conscious mind may be functioning more by making reasonable-sounding explanations for its behavior rather than actually making decisions.
This means that we fail because the unconscious parts of our mind have decided not to take action. You might be convincing yourself that you w...
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7.31K reads
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Difference between Habits and Goals
- Goal is an end-point. Habit is a daily persistent action.
They each require different forms of action, like being fluent in a new language in six months is a goal, but practicing 30 minutes each day is a habit.
- Habits influence our automatic b...
Ask Questions And Listen
When you're having an argument, there are two different views involved, and maybe two different realities. Instead of making it a black and white, right or wrong argument, try to ask genuine questions to help you understand what the other person is thinking.
Calm down, create mental spa...
The winding path: Goals and projects
Imagine your ambitions on two levels:
- A goal level, which is big-picture and abstract. It has just enough detail to inspire, but not so much that you're stuck pursuing things that don’t matter when conditions change.
- Underneath that, have projects: these tend...
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