Psychology generally, and the scientific study of cognition more specifically, have tended until quite recently to focus more on past-oriented cognition (<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/memory">memor</a>y) and present-oriented cognition (perception) and less on future-oriented/prospective cognition (expectation, anticipation).This has been changing. Increasingly, there is interest in how the brain is oriented to, and perhaps even organized around, forming predictions. And there is interest in developing an evolutionary understanding of why anticipatory cognition is so crucial.

Past-, Present- And Future-Oriented Cognition

The <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/finding-purpose/202009/what-actually-is-consciousness-and-how-did-it-evolve">brain evolved </a>as an adaptation enabling organisms to better perceive and control <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/environment">the environment </a>and their own internal state. Consciousness further enhances this ability by modeling the environment and the self. The ability to make predictions, guided by prospective representations—“if-then” possibilities, greatly enhances this modeling ability. A system that can model the environment and itself well can form simulations of the future environment and its adaptations to that environment.

The Brain Models The Environment And Itself… Into The Future 

In attempting to resolve the seeming enigma of how the brain produces consciousness, it’s important to first understand <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/finding-purpose/201902/what-actually-is-thought-and-how-is-information-physical">"What Actually Is a Thought? And How Is Information Physical?" </a>Thoughts are physical representations or maps. The mind is a kind of map. The brain, and its functional product, the mind, evolved as a map of the body’s relation to its external environment.More evolved brains, such as human ones, can integrate past sensory experiences to form representations of things that are not presently “out there”—predictive simulations.<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/finding-purpose/201810/what-actually-is-belief-and-why-is-it-so-hard-change">Beliefs </a>are a form of predictive modeling.

Consciousness, Thoughts And… Maps?

Anil Seth, a <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/neuroscience">neuroscientist </a>at the forefront of the serious science of consciousness, explained and developed the concept of the brain as a prediction machine in his book Being You: A New Science of Consciousness .Seth suggested that even our perceptions of what is presently “out there” are, in a sense, just predictions or simulations (what he refers to as “controlled hallucinations”). These are formed by a continual process of updating predictions or assumptions (“best guesses”) as to what the sensory data are perceiving.

From Best Guesses To Controlled Hallucinations

As Seth explained in his popular TED talk:“Perception—figuring out what's there—has to be a process of informed guesswork in which the brain combines these sensory signals with its prior expectations or beliefs about the way the world is to form its best guess of what caused those signals. The brain doesn't hear sound or see light. What we perceive is its best guess of what's out there in the world.”According to this theory, what we perceive is strongly shaped by top-down expectations / predictions, not just by bottom-up sensory input.

When You’re A Brain Inside A Dark Skull, You’re Guessing

In his book, A Thousand Brains, Jeff Hawkins elaborated on how the brain’s knowledge is stored as numerous models or maps of the world. Research by Hawkins’ group has focused on how the brain has thousands of complementary models of each object it perceives.He calls this the “Thousand Brains Theory of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/intelligence">Intelligence”</a>. Each model operates as a reference frame, physically stored in a tiny cortical column. These complementary reference frames provide “what” and “where” information; acting all together, they provide information about how the different aspects of the object relate to each other.

A Thousand Models Or, A Thousand Brains

So how come we don’t feel like we’re composed of a thousand brains, each with their own independent little model of the world? How come our consciousness feels unified? This is known as the binding problem. Hawkins’ “Thousand Brain Theoryproposes that the cortical columns work together through their connections with each other, some of which are long-range connections crisscrossing the entire neocortex.

The Binding Problem

Through a process akin to “voting,” the different simultaneous models established by different cortical columns encoding perceptions from different reference frames reach a “consensus” best guess (an algorithmic inference) as to what the object is that is being perceived, based on prior learned information (e.g. “the only thing that is consistent with what we’re all perceiving right now, based on the input from all the different senses and from all our different reference frames, is a coffee cup.”).

A “Consensus” Best Guess And Vote

The fact that expectations fundamentally shape perceptions and beliefs explains many of the brain’s most successful features, as well as its many problematic bugs.Seeing is believing. But our perceptions are sometimes wrong. This may lead us to form mistaken (and often, intransigent) beliefs. Equally, believing is seeing—that is, our perceptions are shaped by top-down expectations/assumptions about what we are seeing, hearing, etc. When our prior expectations are mistaken, they powerfully influence us to perceive things in mistaken ways.

Seeing Is Believing. Also, Believing Is Seeing. 

Magicians skillfully exploit our perceptual expectations to entertain and amaze us, as do psychics—some of whom are charlatans, others are themselves true believers—victims of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/deception">self-deception </a>as much as they are responsible for deceiving others.We, humans, are highly <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/finding-purpose/202103/fashion-suicide-why-we-imitate-each-other">suggestible</a>, which, for many, combines with an incomplete understanding of science and other complex subjects (and an overestimation of that understanding), leading to beliefs in paranormal phenomena, mystical experiences, and other weird beliefs (including conspiracies), confused as to what is real and what is not.

Optical Illusions And Delusions

Mistaken expectations play a role in many mental disorders. <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/anxiety">Anxiety </a>and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/depression">depression</a>, the most common mental disorders, are characterized by, and some would say partly caused by, faulty expectations of, or predictions about, the future—overestimation of threat or failure.Furthermore, expectations and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/unconscious">unconscious </a>biases in processing bodily sensations play an important role in functional neurological disorders (conversion disorders), and in other psychosomatic disorders. And expectations most certainly play a central role in the ubiquitous phenomenon of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/placebo">placebo </a>response.

Mistaken Expectations And Disorders

<ul><li>Psychology has focused a lot on how the past causes our present behavior. But the future can cause the present too, via prediction / simulation.</li><li>The brain is constantly making predictions. Consciousness enhances the brain's ability to form predictive models of the environment and the self.</li><li>Faulty top-down influence of expectation on perception shapes illusions, weird beliefs, anxiety, depression, psychosomatics, placebos, and more.</li></ul>

The Takeaway

When you’re a brain inside a dark skull, guessing what’s presently “out there” is a form of prediction. What happens when you believe what you predict?

Part 1: Expectations shape many key features of brain and behavior.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

philosophy

Philosophy

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

mindfulness

Mindfulness

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

The Brain as a Prediction Machine: The Key to Consciousness?

Introspection is blind to construction. This does not mean that our introspective guesses are never accurate, just as you might guess the correct answer to a multiple-choice question. 
When you don’t know the actual facts about yourself, your consciousness pieces together a compelling story, much in the same way it does when you’re trying to read the minds of other people to make sense of why they act as they do. 
Introspection makes us feel like we know what’s going on in our own heads, even when we don’t. We don't realize that we’re spinning a story rather than reporting the facts.

We Are Strangers To Ourselves

“Have you ever noticed that everyone driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?”

<ul><li> Naïve realism: the intuitive sense that we see the world out there as it actually is, rather than as it appears from our own perspective. </li><li>When other people don’t share your views, the all-too-common sentiment that comes straight from naïve realism is “I’m right and you’re biased.” </li><li>Disengagement can come anytime there is a distance between two minds that needs to be bridged. </li><li>Minds are inferred rather than observed. They exist only as a theory each of us uses to explain both our own and other people’s behaviour.</li></ul>

Naive Realism – The Human Curse

When others’ minds are unknown, the mind you imagine is based heavily on your own. So, it is heavily distorted by your reality. Neural regions that are active when actually experiencing physical pain firsthand also being active when watching other people experiencing pain. It quite literally hurts to watch someone else being hurt.

Our Reality Vs Reality

Getting to know someone, even over a lifetime of marriage, creates an illusion of insight that far surpasses actual insight.
The violent actors are overwhelmed by empathy for their own group, which all too often naturally leads to disdain for competing groups.

We Believe We Know People Better Than We Actually Do

Your sixth sense functions only when you engage it. When you do not, you may fail to recognize a fully human mind that is right before your eyes. Said differently, sometimes we are triggered to engage with the mind of another and other times we are not. When you can’t see a human in front of you, you fail to empathise.  When we fail to empathise we believe others have lesser minds. This lesser minds effect has many manifestations, including what appears to be a universal tendency to assume that others’ minds are less sophisticated and more superficial than one’s own.

Fighting The Other Person

By thinking that their employees have simplistic motives, bosses overlook the actual depth of their employees’ minds and therefore fail to offer their workers what really motivates them.

People Are Complex

By remaining disengaged from other minds in this way, we neglect a chief source of human happiness: engaging relationally with other people.

Social Disengagement

The language of intentions and motives and other mental states avoids this complication altogether by using the same set of concepts to explain all actions. We use the idea of consciousness and intent and prescribe it to everything.
This mentalistic language is both imprecise and inaccurate matters nothing for providing a functional explanation for almost any behavior, one that uses a language that everyone can easily understand.

The Mental Shortcut To Simplify Life

Religious beliefs are intuitively compelling because minds—in this case, the mind of a god—are intuitive explanations for the behavior of almost anything.Two very important things about when minds emerge in both humans and nonhumans.  <ul><li>First, they tend to emerge when someone has explaining to do.</li><li>Second, minds emerge from our attempts to explain a phenomenon when no other obvious explanation exists.</li></ul>

The Minds Ways

<ul><li>We give things a mind when we can’t truly understand why something has happened.</li><li>Studies reveal that people report that unpredictable gadgets seemed more mindful than predictable gadgets.</li><li>When geometrical figures assume personal characteristics, a unified structure emerges. Unpredictable objects get a mind because a mind makes sense of action. </li><li>When something needs to be explained, mind reading is engaged. We give things a mind to give them meaning. Otherwise, we can’t understand. </li></ul>

Giving Things A Mind Of Their Own

Nature is filled with fakes. Lithops are deliciously succulent plants that look like completely inedible rocks. The praying mantis is a perfectly deadly predator that can look like a completely harmless plant. You don’t need a PhD in evolutionary biology to understand fakery.

Don't Believe Anything

As a member of one of the planet’s most social species, you are hypersensitive to eyes because they offer a window into another person’s mind. 
Given the obvious benefits of attending to others’ eyes, it makes good sense that we would be hypersensitive to anything that even vaguely resembles them.

Observing The Eyes

The basic principles of perception described here are simple, based almost entirely on similarity: “if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then it must be a duck.”

We Deduct Based On What We Have Seen

When we’re seeking to understand another’s mind, we rely on at least three strategies.  1. We project from our own mind. 2. Use stereotypes.  3. Infer a mind from a person’s actions.

Understanding The Mind Of The Other

As Galileo knew, to see the world accurately, you need to look in the right place and then view it through the right lens. These are two pieces of wisdom that you and I can easily forget.  A man on one side of a river shouts to a man standing on the other side, “Hey, how do I get to the other side of the river?” The other man responds, “You are on the other side of the river.”

Our Perspective Is Unique

Childhood instincts are not outgrown so much as they are overcome by more careful and reflective thinking.
As we grow up we learn nuances of a situation. Even in small groups, the social spotlight does not shine on us nearly as brightly as we think.
Becoming aware of the power of your own perspective is the very thing that enables a broader perspective. Relax. Others likely won’t notice, and if they do, they likely won’t mind.

We Are Not On The Spotlight

<ul><li>Distortions like this are easy to find. When your own views are one-sided, a balanced account will necessarily differ from your own perspective, and the errors in reporting will therefore seem to exist in them rather than in you. </li><li>The problem of expertise is one of many examples of mistakes that come from projecting our own minds onto others: assuming that others know, think, believe, or feel as we do ourselves. </li><li>The less willing or able others are to give you a piece of their minds, the more their minds become a blank slate onto which you project your own. </li></ul>

Beware of your own Biases

<ul><li>What you pay attention to</li><li>Your interpretation of what you are paying attention to</li></ul>The two different versions of egocentric biases, are produced by differences in attention (the neck problem) and the differences in interpretation (the lens problem).  Of these two, existing evidence suggests that the neck problem is easier to overcome than the lens problem.

The Two EgoCentric Biases

<ul><li>Anyone who’s ever spoken in front of a large audience or walked down a crowded city sidewalk can confirm this. Individuals within large groups are almost invisible. </li><li>What your brain extracts automatically from a group is an overall assessment, not its distinct individuals. </li><li>Our stereotypes go wrong, three wicked ways matter most: getting too little information, defining groups by their differences, and being unable to observe the true causes of group differences directly. </li></ul>

Group Stereotypes

You define yourself not by the attributes that make you the same as everyone else—has two arms, two legs, breathes air—but, rather, by the attributes that make you different from everyone else—spent 
A group defined by its similarity to others is, by definition, no group at all. Your social senses, just like your eyes, are difference detectors. 
When groups are defined by their differences, people think they have less in common with people of other races or faiths or genders than they actually do and, as a result, avoid even talking with them.

We Define by Differences not by Similarities

Stereotypes routinely stray beyond observation and into explanation. When groups differ, the easy answer is that the differences are due to something essential, internal, or stable about the group members, rather than to something external and therefore unstable, such as social norms and hair dye. We inhabit a world of human differences and predilections, but the extrapolation of these facts to theories of rigid limits is ideology.

A World Of Differences

When a man looks into the camera and renounces his citizenship, you have every reason to assume that he means what he says. When that camera zooms out to show a jihadist holding a gun to the man’s head in one hand and a script in the other, you know his words are misleading. The problem is that life is viewed routinely through the zoom lens, narrowly focused on persons rather than on the broader contexts that influence a person’s actions.

The Context Matters

Much more effective for changing behaviour is targeting the broader context rather than individual minds, making it easier for people to do the things they already want to do. Statistics (the numbers) doesn’t reveal the context. Therefore the fundamental problem that plagues all statistics is an explanation. When a statistician moves beyond the data, problems ensue.

Changing The Behaviour

<ul>
<li>Human beings are more likely to do things that are easy rather than hard. They don’t have some deep desire to litter; they’re just more likely to do whatever is going on around them. </li>
<li>And so you do what social animals do when they’re unsure: you look to other people for information about how to behave, to see if others seem as concerned as you feel. </li>
<li>Failing to recognize an emergency makes someone human, not necessarily a callous jerk.</li>
</ul>

Social Influences

<ul><li>The relatively slow work of getting a person’s perspective is the way you understand them accurately, and the way you solve their problems most effectively. </li><li>The main barrier to getting perspective is that others won’t tell you what you’d like to know. They lie, mislead, misdirect, avoid, or simply refuse to divulge the truth. </li><li>The main reason people lie is to avoid being punished, and so enabling people to give you their perspective requires putting them in a context that diminishes the fear of punishment. </li></ul>

Get The Perspective Of The Other

We then developed a household policy of complete immunity as long as you tell the truth. This combination of delay and immunity has worked wonders for us. <ul><li>When the employee fears retribution and the boss isn’t open to hearing the truth, nobody speaks their mind and the event becomes pointless. </li><li>Interrogators often learn that they, as the interrogator, are the main barrier to truth telling.</li></ul>

The Role Is The Problem

one common laboratory technique for creating fast friends is to have two strangers disclose private thoughts or memories to each other. This is why shyness is one of social life’s biggest curses. Companies truly understand their customers better when they get their perspective directly through conversation, surveys, or face-to-face interaction, not when executives guess about them in the boardroom.

The Curse Of Shyness

Mindwise Book Summary explores why we see human motivations in inanimate objects, why we fight others and why we are strangers to ourselves. If you’re interested in human behaviour and why people separate others into groups, this is the book for you.

An exploration of the human mind's capacity for instinctive understanding about the feelings and desires of others explains how the ability or inability to understand the minds of those around us leads to connection or conflict.

communication

Communication

books

Books

Winner of the 2015 Book Prize for the Promotion of Social and Personality Science (Society for Personality and Social Psychology) Why are we sometimes blind to the minds of others, treating them like objects or animals instead? Why do we talk to our cars, or the stars, as if there is a mind that can hear us? Why do we so routinely believe that others think, feel, and want what we do when, in fact, they do not? And why do we think we understand our spouses, family, and friends so much better than we actually do?In this illuminating book, leading social psychologist Nicholas Epley introduces us to what scientists have learned about our ability to understand the most complicated puzzle on the planet—other people—and the surprising mistakes we so routinely make. Mindwise will not turn others into open books, but it will give you the wisdom to revolutionize how you think about them—and yourself.

Nicholas Epley is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Nicholas Epley has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Nicholas Epley's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Nicholas Epley

Mindwise

Imagine you get into an elevator with your dream client. The client asks you: What do you do for a living? You have 30 seconds to close the client. What would you say?

Here’s what I’d say: You know that feeling you get when you have to painfully squeeze out the last squirt of toothpaste in the tube before going to bed after a long miserable day at work? Prospect: Oh yes! That’s the absolute worst! The absolute worst! [Mirror]

So, people come to me feeling just like that when their hair turn grey because paid ads are sucking the life out of them — and their wallets.I bring a stroke of life back by helping them diversify their online traffic streams through Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, and Pinterest ads so that they can focus on growing their businesses instead of constantly stressing about what happens when one traffic source randomly goes dry.Prospect: It sounds like we should totally have a chat sometime. My ads are driving me crazy! Let’s exchange business cards and we can find a time that works

Let’s break it down and let’s help you craft an elevator pitch that matches your style. I don’t pitch. I have conversations. We’re all humans.

Everyone just wants to have a good time. <ul><li>Replace professionalism with kindness . </li><li>Replace presentations with conversations . </li><li>Replace the pitch deck with an elevator pitch . </li> </ul>People always try to teach us how to sell things, but nobody ever taught us how to sell ourselves. I’m the guy Bay Area startup founders call in to help organize their ideas to help them bring aspiring billion-dollar ideas to life. In other words, I sign NDAs for a living.

Maybe you feel like your elevator pitch could be sharpened a bit. Maybe you feel like you sound a bit cringeworthy when you’re talking to strangers. Maybe you’re just up for trying something new. Before jumping into your pitch, keep these two pointers in mind: <ul><li>Always tailor your words to the situation and person. </li><li>Never give an unsolicited elevator pitch. </li> </ul>

An elevator pitch needs to be prompted first. My dream client walks into the elevator. Here’s how I’d start the conversation.

I like to be super friendly and just say: Hey! I don’t think we’ve met yet, I’m ______. I listen carefully to their names and respond with a warm: Great to meet you ______!

Prompt the elevator pitch first

With a curious playful overtone in my voice, I then ask: What do you do for a living? Usually, they’re more than happy to talk about themselves whereafter they usually leave me with the golden prompt question: And you, what do you do for a living?

This is where the elevator pitch conversation comes in. Prepare the listener for the problem. Every idea’s purpose is to solve a problem. Before saying a single word about yourself, set the stage with an emotional analogy.

Humans are wired to process emotions we can relate to. Not facts. A problem is worthless if its pain points cannot be perceived. By starting with a relatable emotion, we’re making sure the person feels empathetic towards the pain points of our customer.

Show the problem. You might think here’s your opportunity to boast about what you do, but I like to stay problem-focused. I love to craft a relatable mental image of my clients next. We’re guiding the listener to step into the shoes of our customers.

Step 2: So, people come to me feeling just like that when _____

Give the emotional benefit and the solution you bring. You are here to save the day. Show benefits over features — they say. Show the emotion of the benefit — I say.

Step 3: I bring _____ by _____ so that _____ instead of _____.

Simplify what you do to an emotional level. To get to a point where you have your perfect elevator pitch conversation, I recommend following the following steps: <ol><li>Fill in the blanks. </li><li>Read the pitch out loud. </li><li>Cut what feels uncomfortable. </li><li>Practice in front of a large mirror. </li><li>Practice with co-workers & friends. </li> </ol>Let your kindness do the work.

Human connections, not sales connections.

The Life-Changing Elevator Pitch That Consistently Lands Me 7-Figure Clients. Get smarter at landing high-income clients by sharpening your elevator pitch..

career

Career

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Love & Relationships

The Life-Changing Elevator Pitch That Consistently Lands Me 7-Figure Clients

Researchers acknowledge the consequences of negative emotions and the benefits of positive emotions on our physical and mental wellbeing. Studies in positive psychology prove that people who react in a positive manner in the workplace have stronger relationships, greater psychological safety, and enhanced learning, creativity and motivation. 
Ultimately, employee and organizational performance improves when positive emotions (i.e., optimism, gratitude) are more prevalent.

Being Positive

Positivity was never meant to exclude the experience of negative emotions. Toxic positivity is defined as the denial, suppression or _ignoring _of negative emotions. 
It’s happiness at all costs and the belief that our interactions with family, friends, and coworkers must exclude anything that doesn’t feel positive.

Toxic Positivity

It’s difficult to divulge how we are feeling in an honest way, especially when we feel pressured to confess an unpleasant emotion to our coworkers. Maybe we view this reaction as a sign of weaknesses or vulnerability, or maybe we are in denial about our true feelings. So, we put on a happy face and turn it towards the world, all while churning inside with anger, fear, shame, sadness or disgust.

Emotional Complexity

When we suppress negative emotions, we fail to give ourselves or others a chance to grapple with them. The more we can improve expressing and receiving emotional responses, the more we can authentically share our positive and negative feelings in a healthy way. Managing emotions comes from building emotional intelligence (EI). It’s a skill that is honed over a lifetime. One <a href="https://www.scn.ucla.edu/pdf/AL(2007).pdf">study</a> found that the mere act of labeling our feelings (a common EI technique) helps us release them.

The Role Of Emotional Intelligence

The perspective we take is that some emotions are good, and others are bad. We convince ourselves that that if we can avoid the bad feelings and force the good feelings, everything will just fall into place. Actually, emotions are neutral. We label some of our emotions negative because they are hard for us to process, they feel unpleasant, and they require a great deal of our energy.

The Value Of Negative Emotions

Cultivating a growth mindset starts with believing that we can change and grow over time to be better. Use this strategy to acknowledge that, in this moment, you are sad, angry, or fearful, but that you will work through it and come out better for it.
It is an internal dialogue that says, “I have dealt with hard things before, and I will again.” The difference between this mindset and toxic positivity is that you do not deny the negative, you just embrace a paradigm that allows you to feel the emotion and move through it.

Cultivating A Growth Mindset

If we want to allow for a better expression of emotion, we need to move beyond basic questions such as, “How are you?”, “Are you ok?” or “What’s wrong?” While these are common phrases, they don’t allow people to express what they are truly feeling. Consider the following alternatives:<ul><li>It seems you are (angry), what happened that led you to feel that way?</li><li>Tell me more about what is going on for you right now?</li><li>This project will bring up a lot of unknowns. Let’s talk about everyone’s fears if we move forward.</li></ul>

Ask Thoughtful Questions

The real emotion (fear, anger, sadness, contempt) is often the very one we want to avoid. They often feel painful, and we lack the skills to proactively manage them. Holding space allows us to process and express our feelings when we are ready. When we leave room to recognize our feelings, we might ask a question, share a compassionate perspective or just be in silence. Getting more comfortable with negative emotions ensures that you are not countering every difficult feeling with a positive response.

Recognizing The Real, Natural Emotions

One of our previous consultants used to remind us: “You can’t tell your story while you are in it.” We often try and understand our situation too soon. Sometimes, we just need to be in the moment. Be okay with feeling sad. Be aware of our fears or recognize our anger. The lessons unfold over time.

Jumping To Conclusions

“Should” is a trigger word. When we say that we “should” or “shouldn’t” be feeling something, it is a clue that we are not ready to move forward from our emotional state. Stay with what is. Avoid shaming someone (or yourself) for feeling a certain way or brushing things off when they really are a big deal to youWhile “don’t worry and be happy” is great advice, don’t allow it to come at the expense of your true feelings. Emotions are your greatest teacher.

Look For Small Clues And Triggers

Here’s a leadership lesson you don’t often hear: “While ‘don’t worry and be happy’ is great advice, don’t allow it to come at the expense of your true feelings. Emotions are your greatest teacher.”


corporateculture

Corporate Culture

mentalhealth

Mental Health

How to handle negativity without being annoyingly positive

There is a kind of person who seems at first glance to have an admirable degree of self-motivation, thoroughness and drive. They are up at dawn, they rarely take holidays, they are always sneaking in an extra hour or two of work. 
Their bosses are highly impressed, they are constantly promoted, their grades have been excellent since primary school, they never miss an appointment or turn in a piece of work that is less than stellar.

The Perfectionist

Perfectionism, tragically, does not spring primarily from a love of perfection in and of itself. It has its origins in far more regrettable feeling of never being good enough. 
It is rooted in self-hatred, sparked by memories of being disapproved of or neglected by those who should have esteemed us warmly in childhood.

The Problem With Perfectionism

We become perfectionists from a primary sense of being unworthy; uninteresting, flawed, a disappointment, a let-down, a nuisance. So powerful is this sense, so appalling is its pressure on our psyches, we are prepared to do more or less anything to expunge it. 
Working all hours, currying favour with authority, doing twice as much as the next person – these are the tools with which we seek to cleanse our apparently undeserving selves. One part of the mind promises the other that the completion of the next challenge will finally usher in peace.

The Hidden Unworthiness

We aren’t interested in perfect work at all: we are trying to escape from a feeling of being awful people, and work simply happens to be the medium through which we strive to grow tolerable in our own eyes. But because our problem didn’t begin with work, work can never prove the solution. 
Our real goal is not, as we think, to be an ideal employee or professional, it is to feel acceptable. But responsibility for a sense of acceptance cannot be handed over to our bosses or customers or a ceaselessly demanding capitalist system; these will never let us rest easy.

The Hidden Truth

We need to allow ourselves to imagine that we deserved to be accepted from the start and that it cannot forever be our fault in our minds that we were not. It is not up to us to try to prove that we have a right to exist. It is asking too much of ourselves to have to experience a referendum on our legitimacy every time we hand in a report, every exam we have to pass, every customer we have to serve.
Working well is an admirable goal, but it becomes a symptom of mental perturbation when it becomes the cover for a secret aspiration to correct a deficit of early love

Get Real

How Perfectionism Makes Us Ill

Imposter syndrome is a collection of thoughts and behaviors related to feeling like you are a fake or a fraud, despite your accomplishments.
Doubting your abilities, in spite of your accomplishments can create a considerable amount of anxiety, fear, and depression, and it can lead to burnout in the workplace. But sometimes, what might be perceived as “imposter syndrome” is actually the result of a toxic or biased work environment.

It's Not You, It's Them

Although the solutions for overcoming imposter syndrome often focus on the individual experiencing it, the workplace environment also plays a critical role—especially given that it is most often seen in women and people of color, many of who may not have supportive mentors or colleagues who look like them.
Even if women demonstrate strength, ambition, and resilience, our daily battles with microaggressions, especially expectations and assumptions formed by stereotypes and racism, often push us down. Imposter syndrome as a concept fails to capture this dynamic and puts the onus on women.

The Work Environment

When the concept of imposter syndrome was first developed, it didn’t take into account the impact that a biased workplace can have on a person. Lacking this context, as well as the inclusion of a diverse set of participants in the original studies, the focus has been on fixing the individual experiencing imposter syndrome, rather than the environment that might be causing it.
This includes:
<ul>
<li>A very fast-paced workplaces, along with workplaces that place a high value on external achievements. </li>
<li>A workplace where managers only offer criticism, rather than praise or encouragement.</li>
</ul>

Imposter Syndrome And The Biased Workplace

Another factor that makes a person susceptible to impostor syndrome is if they are either a pathbreaker or the first (or only) person of a race or gender to hold a position or ascend to a certain level within the company. 
In this situation, not only are they are possibly navigating a biased system, they are often doing so without guidance from others who understand their unique situation.

The Pioneers

The best solution for preventing imposter syndrome is for workplaces to become more inclusive. Until that happens, though, in addition to recognizing the role the work environment plays, there are a few strategies people can use to mitigate the effects.
If you can’t find the support you need within your immediate work environment, get creative about finding it externally, such as by joining a professional society or seeking out a mentor from a different division. It helps to identify and name your inner critic to help create a bit of separation from it.

Survive An Unsupportive Work Environment

humanresources

Human Resources

Is It Imposter Syndrome, or Does Your Company Suck?

Determining whether you are satisfied with your job, whether it is right for you, and why that is important often involves personal intuition and circumstances. For some people, the right job might entail earning a certain salary. For others, the right job might involve having a supportive team.
With more than 21,000 participants in their study, researchers found that over a 40-year span, people who stayed in the same organization over time became less satisfied, and people who moved to different organizations over time became happier.

The Right Job

Job satisfaction can be defined as any combination of psychological, physiological, and environmental circumstances that cause a person to truthfully say that they are satisfied with a job.

Defining Job Satisfaction

Communication can be extremely important to retaining levels of satisfaction, on both a personal and professional level. 
It is exhibited in allowing employees to be open, collaborative, trustworthy, and even confrontational when needed.

Proven Ingredients for Job Satisfaction: Communication

Defining a company culture links to job satisfaction as it provides values and guidance about topics ranging from organizational goals to appropriate levels of interaction between employees.

Proven Ingredients for Job Satisfaction: Culture

It’s no surprise that once a culture is established in a workplace, satisfaction can then be enhanced by added feelings of security. Security may arise from knowing you work for a viable company with long-term goals, insinuating feelings of belonging to that company (Berg, Grant, & Johnson, 2010). 
This can be enhanced by having honest communication and transparency within a company.

Proven Ingredients for Job Satisfaction: Security

Tied into increased motivation for employees, leadership, or influencing a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals can lead to job satisfaction by making sure communication and instruction of tasks is adequate and easily understood.

Proven Ingredients for Job Satisfaction: Leadership

Employees can gain more satisfaction with their job when more challenging opportunities arise. 
This can lead to participation in interesting and diverse projects and get employees away from the monotony of a role.

Proven Ingredients for Job Satisfaction: Opportunities

Employees can become more satisfied with their job when they know there is an individualized plan for them. 
Beyond the formal nature of appraisals, if there is a path in place for growth, this can encourage employees to stay happier for longer.

Proven Ingredients for Job Satisfaction: Career Development

Job satisfaction can be increased if a resilient workplace is a cooperative environment. 
This means a place with respect for diverse ideas and opinions, honest and constructive feedback, mentoring opportunities, and freedom from harassment.

Proven Ingredients for Job Satisfaction: Working Conditions

Does the employee proactively seek out a manager for feedback? Does the employee go the extra mile to achieve tasks within a company? Does the employee try to stick to company goals, lead meetings, and ask questions when unsure about how to complete a task?
If yes, these employees are ones who can show more satisfaction in the workplace. Proactiveness in the workplace can lead to positive job appraisals, which when fed back to the employee, can lead to satisfaction.

Proven Ingredients for Job Satisfaction: The Role Of Proactiveness

While pay and benefits are not the only reason employees find satisfaction in their workplaces, research going back more than 30 years (e.g., Gerhart, 1987) shows that pay and benefits, at least according to how employees view themselves in their roles, has ranked high on lists of job satisfaction factors.

Proven Ingredients for Job Satisfaction: Pay and Benefits

Beyond monetary gain and being paid fairly for the work they do, job satisfaction for employees means that promotional policies are unambiguous and in line with their expectations.
Satisfaction at a job is not exclusively linked to pay, but to the perceived fairness of how one is recognized at work for achievements.

Proven Ingredients for Job Satisfaction: Rewards and recognition

Learn how to determine your own or your team's job satisfaction and why it matters. Or simply find out whether your job's right for you!

What is Job Satisfaction and Why is it Important?

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