WWW: Barking up the Wrong Tree

[Mister.Right]

I've started reading this blog http://www.bakadesuyo.com which has a lot of really good summaries of research about different areas of self-improvement. I've started taking notes about the various areas of the blog to make it easier for me to remember. Thought I'd share my notes here for those interested. I'll include the link to that particular blog post for those wishing to read the full thing. I'll just update this first post with other notes when I take them.

 

How to be more confident (http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/10/how-to-be-more-confident/#)

 

* Surround yourself with people who believe in you - when you're praised by someone you respect you're more likely to believe it and work harder, when others believe in you they push you harder. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, and makes confidence come easier. Your social setting can strongly affect what you believe is possible and that will affect your confidence, the effort you expend, and the results you achieve.

* Focus on Learning - When you focus on learning, failure is a part of the process and won't shake your confidence. A "growth mindset" measures yourself by effort, not results. Ignore any result, good or bad, that comes after you put in only a halfhearted effort. You should be proud of any result that follows hard word, even when the result is not what you had hoped.

* Create a Ritual - Rituals had the power to make you more confident. If you engage in a ritual prior to a potentially high anxiety task, like singing in public or solving difficult math problems, you end up being calmer by the time you approach the task, and more confident in what you're about to do. As a result of that, you actually perform better.

* Accumulate Small Wins - Set smaller achievable goals and build from there. By accumulating little wins, your confidence grows until you feel unstoppable. Gaining the satisfaction of "very definable, minor achievements," gives more confidence to attempt more small wins each and every day and become more overall successful.

* It's Rational to do the Irrational - Do what works, even if it seems irrational. Research shows good luck charms do inspire confidence and improves performance. Activating good luck beliefs make people consistently able to boost self-confidence and this up-tick in self-assurance in turn affects a wide range of performance. That's right, have a lucky charm will make you perform better.

* Get to Work - It is not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest. The same is true of confidence.

2015/4/23