It’s called the Curse of Knowledge for a reason
Your colleagues simply don’t get it. No matter how accurate your explanations, their responses remain the same: confused smiles and hesitant nods. Then, the meeting ends, and once again, no progress has been made.
I’ve seen it happen over and over again in my previous life as a Project Management Consultant. Experts like you would show up excited only to leave disappointed and misunderstood. The good news is: you can change that overnight.
What follows is why your communication isn’t optimal and a real-life example that illustrates a solution.
The Curse of Knowledge in a nutshell
It’s a cognitive bias. What’s that? Something (bad) your mind automatically…
Don’t let their fears hold you back
I know how it feels. Doubtful, disapproving comments coming from “well-meaning” family members or friends can feel like a punch in the gut.
You’re already doubting yourself, beating yourself up, and feeling anxious about your plans being too outlandish. You fear that you’re not good enough. The last thing you need is more negativity.
Deep down, you know that your loved ones only have your best interest at heart. You understand that their behavior is nothing more than an expression of their own fear of the unknown. …
Narrow concepts about time diminish its importance
No matter how old or how young we are there is at least one time in our lives we had the epiphany that our time is limited. This realization may have resulted after a loss of a loved person which we experienced or may have come as a sequence of an open-minding anniversary that we celebrated.
Another realization came to the surface when I was reflecting that the earth was formed around 4.54 billion years ago, whereas a human’s life in the best case scenario reaches 90 years. It’s evident we are so insignificant. …
If there’s anyone who can face challenges both chosen and unchosen, it’s Tiger.
Tiger Woods is one of those rare athletes (like Serena Williams and LeBron James) who can be universally identified by his first name. He is often considered the greatest golfer of all time. He has won 15 major tournaments (second all-time) and 82 PGA Tour tournaments (tied for first). He has won a higher percentage of tournaments started (22.8%) than any other professional golfer ever.
Tiger is iconic almost beyond compare, but I don’t think his accomplishments on the golf course are the most impressive aspect of his career or his life. …
Elon Musk, Martin Luther King Jr., and Viktor Frankl can help you push through a conflict that may define the trajectory of your life.
Would you want Elon Musk’s brain?
As Musk discussed with Joe Rogan, he doesn’t think other people would. It’s constantly abuzz, a never-ending machine of ideas, calculations, and decisions. Sure, it’s helped him become the world’s richest man, but try never having a dull mental moment.
I can’t relate that well to Elon Musk. I’m not a billionaire, an entrepreneur, an innovator, a father, a South African, an immigrant, a genius, or any other title that applies to Elon Musk.
But like Musk, I sometimes struggle to reckon with the thoughts swirling in my brain. Although I’m far from a…
You’re leveling up way more often than you realize.
Growth is hard. It can be so frightening because it requires us to be honest with ourselves. It requires us to deal with emotions we’d love to lock away for just another day. It requires us to push ourselves into uncertainty where we can only guess our next step. It demands from us to put effort into the things we want to build even though we lack energy after a debilitating day.
Probably you don’t realize how often you’ve evolved after a day you consider as “worst day ever”. These terrifying, harrowing days reveal the highest potential to learn from…
Psychologist and co-founder of Big Self School, Dr. Shelley Prevost, shares her learnings from building an online business during a pandemic
As a freelance writer, I’ve been a part of more remote teams than in-person ones. Some of them were in the formal setting of a content agency or company I’d work for. Others were informal groups, with the main goal of online creators to support each other.
Whenever I’m a part of a remote team, it’s a peculiar experience. On the one hand, it seems like I just interact with a computer — type in messages, send emails, and get responses. All along, I’m alone in the room. It doesn’t feel like I’m interacting with another human.
But then it…
4 Benefits to the Magic of Writing Away from Your Keyboard
During the Pandemic our lives have become more screen-based than ever— and that is saying something. We Zoom, we do our social media, we game, we yoga, we take classes, we research, we livestream, we write, we hit up Google to prove we’re right about who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016.
All online.
Our eyes can only take so much screen time. Digital eye strain is a real thing.
It’s not just what our eyes are telling us. Our brains are telling us something too, and it’s about how we learn. We are also learning to connect…
You know which one it is — but do you care as much as you could?
Dear Big Selfer,
Here’s an obvious truth of life that everyone needs to be reminded of sometimes:
The only person you’re going to spend the rest of your life with is you.
Even the most intimate partnership doesn’t come close to that. People in your life will come and go. Some of them will stay. But there’s just one person you take with you anywhere you go.
Even for that reason alone, it’s worth spending some time getting to know yourself. …
Is it an issue of skill or a will?
I still remember the first time I hired an employee on my team who wasn’t performing. The temptation to ignore the situation and hope it went away was very real. At the time, it felt so personal as if this employee was doing something to me by failing to meet expectations. Frankly, I remember it feeling a lot like a kick in the gut.
I also remember the choice that my boss gave me in dealing with it.
She told me that I could choose to ignore it, compensate for it, work around it, and accept the toll it will…
Big Self
Good mental health unlocks your purpose.
