Be uncertain
View this email in your browser (|ARCHIVE|) Until you learn to get a handle on it, doubt can be a paralyzing force in life.
It holds many of us back from doing our best work and often from even just trying.
Why? Because human beings are hard-wired to act cautiously: we’re inclined to make choices based on where we perceive loss is at a minimal level.
The difficulties start when we turn that into a learned behavioural pattern. That’s how cycles of intense self-criticism get started.
We’re conditioned to see doubt’s presence as a threat to our confidence. This is a mistake.
Doubt is not a “check engine” light on your personal dashboard. It’s not a malfunction.
Doubt is your advocate.
But only if you allow it to work that way.
Social psychologist Adam Grant of the Wharton School of Business reminds us that there are two kinds of doubt.
The paralyzing one is self doubt: it locks us into a fear-driven scarcity mindset.
The second one is what he calls idea doubt. That’s the one you want to hang out with.
When you are willing to test ideas and be sceptical about outcomes—but in a way that’s independent of how you think about yourself—interesting things start to happen. You begin to take more chances with your work. Not in a let’s-cut-corners kind of way. Rather, in a way that yields unexpected outcomes: and that’s the magic behind creativity.
I’ve talked before about the importance of looking at compound interest (http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=89226eb68936fc712577977b8&id=35bf935570) as a skill.
Idea doubt is a good example of where you can apply this.
It motivates you to try different approaches. The more you do this, the more you see there is power in the deliberate choice of just showing up with the intent to act.
Very best, Patrick
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