BC PRODUCTIVITY
Saved by @SaurabhKulkrni

How to beat Imposter Syndrome.

5 steps to have the career you want:

 Have you ever felt like a fraud?

Like you haven’t earned your accomplishments?

You’re not alone.

Up to 82% of people suffer from Imposter Syndrome.
It’s the single greatest threat to your career (and reaching your potential).

Today I’ve going to break down WHY Imposter Syndrome happens

And a proven plan to overcome it.

Let’s get started.
So, why does Imposter Syndrome happen?

Credit goes to a quirky cognitive bias:

“Dunning-Kruger Effect”
Dunning-Kruger Effect

Novices experience overconfidence due to quick progression on the learning curve.

While experts’ confidence drops because they realize what they don’t yet know.

Paradoxically, the more you become an expert, the more you may feel like an imposter.
Understanding Dunning-Kruger Effect is step #1 to beat Imposter Syndrome.

You’ll see these negative feelings simply for what they are:

Bias.

Feeling like an imposter may actually be a signal that you’re READY.
O.K., we’ve discussed the underlying bias.

Now you’re ready for a plan to overcome it.

Here are 5 tips to beat Imposter Syndrome…
1. Learn the facts

Remember that stat? Up to 82% of people are afflicted with Imposter Syndrome.

It’s not a personal shortcoming. It’s a societal norm.
“Many psychologists believe that Impostor Syndrome is most common in high-achieving women and those who feel underrepresented or different from their colleagues such as people of color, the LGBTQ community, etc.”

—Robert Glazer, Forbes
2. Discuss it with others

Studies consistently find that people who experience Imposter Syndrome feel alone.

But after learning the facts (tip #1),

You know 8/10 people in a room feel (or have felt) similarly.
I struggled with Imposter Syndrome for 11 years.

But then I learned so many high-achievers *still* experience it.

Serena Williams, Howard Schultz, Lady Gaga. The list goes on…

Their courage inspired me to spread the message today.
3. Write down your wins

Our evolutionary wiring makes us focus more on negative stimuli than positive (for survival).

Seeing threats in a jungle is more useful than seeing the beauty.

As a result, we tend to overlook our progress.
So write down your wins—strong performance reviews, high grades, compliments, etc.

Then regularly review your wins.

See how far you’ve come and how seriously capable you are.
4. Let go of perfectionism

The #1 factor that influences success in creative fields?

The volume of work produced.

70-20-10 rule teaches:

- 70% of your work will suck
- 20% will be average
- 10% will be amazing

If you’re avoiding failure, you’re avoiding success.
5. Adopt a growth mindset

You might be sick of hearing about growth mindset

But I must mention it here (because it’s critical to beating Imposter Syndrome).

Growth mindset is the belief that you can improve your abilities through dedication + hard work.
Know this:

Everything surrounding you right now was built by people no smarter than you.

The creators went from idea to execution—and continued to learn along the way.

And so can you.
TL;DR for Beating Imposter Syndrome

1. Learn the facts
2. Discuss it
3. Write down your wins
4. Let go of perfectionism
5. Adopt a growth mindset
If you learned something here, please RT the first tweet.

Together we can:

• Follow tip #2 (discuss it)
• Bring awareness to Imposter Syndrome
• Overcome it 💪

More from Ben Meer

Ben Meer
Ben Meer
@SystemSunday
"Just be creative" is bad advice

(if they don't tell you how).

6 proven methods to boost creativity:

1. 70-20-10 Rule

The #1 factor that influences creative success?

Volume produced.

Change your mindset with the 70-20-10 Rule:

- 70% of your work will be mediocre
- 20% will suck
- 10% will be amazing

If you’re avoiding failure, you’re avoiding success.

(H/T Jonathan Mann)

2. Rapid Ideation

Generate many ideas quickly with this brainstorming method:

1) Select a topic
2) Set a time limit (try 10 mins)
3) Ideate freely on sticky notes w/o filtering
5) Collect & categorize ideas
6) Select the best

Get enough bad ideas, and good ones will appear.

3. Walking Meetings

What do Steve Jobs, Nietzsche, and Aristotle all have in common?

Each used walking as a strategic tool for clear thinking.

In the words of Nietzsche, "All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking."

4. Dates with Creativity

"In order for art to imitate life, you have to have a life…

For me, art was imitating art because all I was doing was working." —Whitney Cummings

The best remedy for uninspired work?

Dates with creativity (Courtesy of Julia Cameron).

More on that…
ALL
Ben Meer
Ben Meer
@SystemSunday
Eliud Kipchoge is the first man to ever run a marathon in under 2 hrs.

That’s roughly 4 mins 34 sec per mile—for 26.2 miles straight!

Kipchoge (@EliudKipchoge) recommends two books for peak performance:


The Practice of Groundedness
by @BStulberg

Lessons:
• Learn the 6 principles of sustainable excellence
• How to perform at a high-level w/o burning out
• How to be consistent

In the words of Kipchoge, “It molds you as a human being.”


9 key themes Groundedness will teach you:

1. Outcomes matter but you've got to enjoy the process if you are to have longevity.

2. Consistency is way more valuable than intensity

3. How you perform on your average days is more important than how you perform on your great ones.

4. After big wins or devastating defeats, the medicine is the same—getting back to doing the work itself.

5. Become a master of showing up.

6. You don't have to like failure, but you've got to be okay with it.

7. Take the work extremely seriously, but yourself not so much.

8. Community is everything. Nobody reaches the top alone. The people around you shape you. Surround yourself wisely.

9. Stress + rest = growth. Figuring out the appropriate dose of each is key, and a moving target.
ALL
Advertisement
Ben Meer
Ben Meer
@SystemSunday
6-Month Personal MBA (Book List):

Month 1
• Strategy: Zero to One
• Entrepreneurship: The Lean Startup

Month 2
• Accounting: Financial Intelligence
• Per. Finance: I Will Teach You to Be Rich

Month 3
• Marketing: 22 Laws of Marketing
• Operations: The Goal

Month 4
• Systems Thinking: Thinking in Systems
• Public Speaking: Steal the Show

Month 5
• Negotiation: Never Split the Difference
• Networking: Power Connector

Month 6
• Leadership: Teams of Teams
• Effectiveness: Almanack of Naval

That was a 6-month personal MBA.

All it takes to complete? Read 30 mins/day.

If you enjoyed this list, please RT the first tweet and follow me @SystemSunday.

Cheers,
Ben

P.S. If you like productivity, you will love my weekly newsletter (it’s free).

Every Sunday I feature the best tech products for wealth, health, and free time.

Try it
MBA
Ben Meer
Ben Meer
@SystemSunday
If you are prone to overthinking, read this:

For years I struggled with overthinking.

It was downright debilitating.

Fortunately, I found some strategies that help.

Here are 7 concepts to limit overthinking (and live your best life):

1. Morning Pages (Julia Child Method)

Empty your mind’s confusing thoughts on paper.

You’ll fill your day with clearer thinking.

The secret? Long-form journaling.

Here’s how:

1. Block out 45 mins
2. Grab a pen and journal
3. Write stream-of-consciousness (unfiltered)

2. 5 Second Rule

“The moment you have an instinct to act on a goal you must 5-4-3-2-1 and physically move or your brain will stop you.” —Mel Robbins.

The 5s Rule improves your ‘locus of control.’

It helps you flip the switch from uncontrolled anxiety to excitement…

According to neuroscientists, 95% of our decisions are based on feelings.

The problem with that:

You must first change your behavior to change how you feel.

In the words of Aristotle, “Do good, feel good.”

Like jumping in a pool: Count down from 5, and take action.
ALL
Ben Meer
Ben Meer
@SystemSunday
10 free websites so useful they should come pre-bookmarked on every browser:

1. Quillbot

A free paraphrasing website (popular among students).

• Input text and hit Rephrase
• Get AI-inspiration on how to rewrite
• Scan text for plagiarism (built-in feature)
• Credit sources

https://t.co/JBf4rpT9zF


2. 12ft Ladder

Want to read an article, but there’s a paywall?

Simply insert the URL into 12ft Ladder.

All sites have a non-paywall version they send to Google for SEO.

12ft finds the cached, un-paywalled version of the page.

Now you’re in.

https://t.co/E5vBxDGils


3. Untools

Benefit from a collection of thinking tools and frameworks.

Categories include:

• Systems thinking
• Decision making
• Problem solving
• Communication

https://t.co/vMgngVKMow


4. UnrollMe

Is your inbox overflowing with email subscriptions?

Use UnrollMe to bulk unsubscribe (it's free).

Another cool feature? “Roll-up” subscriptions into a single email.

You’ll be *many* steps closer to inbox zero.

https://t.co/uukYkPgbRv
ALL , CATEGORY PDFMAKERAPP GRAB PDFMAKERAPP GRAB THIS READWISEIO SAVE THREAD READWISEIO SAVE

More from Productivity

Hiten Shah
Hiten Shah
@hnshah
Do you use keyboard shortcuts?

If you do, I’d love to know what your favorite app with keyboard shortcuts is...
PRODUCTIVITY
Andrew Wilkinson
Andrew Wilkinson
@awilkinson
I increasingly believe that the only successful approach to productivity is treating yourself like an addict

If you want to stop drinking alcohol, don't keep it in the house 🙅

Here's how I keep myself productive:

1. Clean Out The Cupboards 📱

I use iOS Screen Time to block all social media, news, and yes, EMAIL, from my phone.

I also remove the ability to install new apps.

My wife set the code, so I don't have any easy way to get around it.

2. Add Guiderails 🚆

On my Mac, I have an automation that quits all apps each morning before I get to work and pulls up OmniFocus on the screen, so it's always the first thing I see when I open my computer and can't go down a rabbit trail.

3. Reduce Dopamine Hits 🥱

I use to spend my entire day in my inbox.

As I'd send emails, new ones would stream in constantly, and before I'd know it I'd spent 4-5 hours just responding to emails instead of moving important projects or individual work forward.

I setup @Mailman_HQ, a Gmail plug-in @mohitmamoria and I built, to only deliver email once in the morning and once in the early afternoon, and to automatically batch any emails from anyone I hadn't emailed with before at 7AM...
LIFE , PRODUCTIVITY
Advertisement
Farris Cash \U0001f4b5
Farris Cash 💵
@FarrisCash
A 2-minute read that'll help you 10x your potential;

Do hard shit

It doesn’t matter what it is. A cold shower, a difficult workout, writing etc. force yourself to face and work through adversity.

Discipline is a muscle you train with experience.

Stop chasing happiness

Happiness is a response to an outcome—a fleeting feeling in the moment.

When you get it you get it, you immediately raise the bar. What you have isn’t good enough for long.

Aim for joy instead.

Find joy in the process—the outcome doesn’t matter.

Define success for yourself

Don’t get caught up chasing money, fame, or job titles that society celebrates as success.

Figure out what’s important to you—define what success looks like, it'll change over time.

Avoid people and things that don’t help reach your goals.

Don't dwell on the past

Everyone makes mistakes—own them and move on.

Don’t let guilt or regret steal from your future.

Turn the page and get busy writing the next chapter of your life.
PRODUCTIVITY
Sam Julien
Sam Julien
@samjulien
Reducing the Pain of Context-Switching 🔀

Context switching is a huge pain as both a dev & dev advocate and makes it hard to be creative!

Three things that help:

📥 Centralize your capture
🤔 Review regularly
🤖 Automate where you can

Let's dig into each of these!


📥 Centralize your capture

"Cognitive setup" is the big drain of context-switching. Try @fortelabs' "slow burns 🔥 vs heavy lifts 🏋️‍♂️".

Trade 1 big block of cognitive setup + creative work for short sessions that keep the project context fresh. More:

First "slow burn" strategy: centralize where you capture ideas, take notes, & track project status. You might gather:

- Links to relevant docs or websites
- Ideas
- Notes or caveats
- Dated status updates

You can put these in physical journals, 1 app, or multiple apps.

For me, no 1 app can do everything so I use:

- @NotionHQ for status updates
- @draftsapp for jotting down ideas/notes to categorize later (not having to think about where to put an idea as you're having it is 💯)
- @obsdmd for archives/notes/research ("knowledge management")

You can go really deep into knowledge management; just google "Zettelkasten" and you'll see what I mean. If you want to check out Obsidian for yourself, here's a great intro tutorial:
PRODUCTIVITY
Brian Armstrong
Brian Armstrong
@brian_armstrong
1/ Productivity tip: when I keep procrastinating on something I often trick myself by saying, "ok just work on it for the next 20 minutes" or some short period of time, "and then you can chill/relax guilt free" and give myself some treat (sugar, netflix, etc)

2/ Usually at the 20 minute mark (sometimes I set a timer) I'm so engrossed in what I'm doing that I don't want want to stop and end up working on it for the next hour or two. But getting started seems to be the hardest part.

3/ Key to this: you have to actually be ok with stopping after 20 minutes and being guilt free if that's how you feel. So it's not a trick, i have the option every time, I just often don't want to use it once i'm in the zone.
PRODUCTIVITY

You May Also Like

Anu Satheesh \U0001f1ee\U0001f1f3
Anu Satheesh 🇮🇳...
@AnuSatheesh5
Stories of Guruvayurappan
Shri Krishna Leela

This is a beautiful story of Guruvayurappan. Once there lived in Guruvayur a poor family. Kitta, his wife & kids were struggling for their daily needs. With only a coconut tree in house, he earned a living by selling coconuts.


Kitta was from a low caste family. He was a great devotee of Guruvayurappan. Everyday before going to work he always prayed infront of a picture of Guruvayurappan in his house. His only wish was to worship at Guruvayur & have annadanam in temple. But he was not allowed there


It was Utsavam time in Guruvayur. From far behind kitta and family worshipped Guruvayurappan. Annadanam was given daily and no one was left empty stomach. Only Kitta didn't receive. That night, it was only Kitta's family who was sleeping without food. After temple nada closed


Shri Krishna, dressed himself as a Brahmin went to temple Kitchen. He packed food and went directly to kitta's house. Reaching Kitta's house, Shri Krishna told he was sent by a cook of Guruvayur temple and gave them the food he packed. Kitta and family was very happy seeing food.


When Kitta finished his food, Brahmin asked it will be better if he get a tender coconut( karikku)to drink. Kitta climbed the tree and gave all coconuts to him. After having 1 tender coconut, the Brahmin asked to bring remaining coconuts to Guruvayur temple the next day.
ALL
Anu Satheesh
Anu Satheesh
@AnuSatheesh5
Guruvayur Sri Krishna & Coconut with Horns.
#Krishnaleela
#Bhakthi
🕉
We’ve all grown up listening to stories of Shri Krishna. This one is a famous story of Shri Krishna in Guruvayur Temple, also called Dakshina Dwaraka.


There lived a villager who planted coconut saplings and had promised that he would offer the 'first coconut' from each of his coconut trees to "Guruvayurappan". When the trees started to yield coconuts, he collected the first coconut from all the trees in a sack 👇


and set forth to Guruvayur.

On the way he was stopped by a robber who asked all the items in the sack. The villager told the robber that the coconuts in the sack belonged to Guruvayurappan and so he was unable to hand it over.
@SriramKannan77 @Jayalko1


The robber with anger asked the villager "Is Guruvaurappan's coconut any different? Does it have horns ?".
Saying so the robber pulled the sack forcefully out of the villager's hand, and coconuts came out..👇


To their astonishment each and every coconut in the sack had horns! Even today, the coconut with horns are displayed in the temple for devotees to see.

Below Picture is not original, as we cannot take photos inside temple.
Hare Krishna
Guruvayurappa
🕉🕉🕉🕉🕉
Shubham
ALL
Advertisement
Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
SRI KUMARIAMMAN, KANYAKUMARI (TN)
#bharatmandir #navratri2021

Created by Maharshi Parasurama and also one among the 108 Shakthi Peethas in the world. The name Kanyakumari stands for Kanya(Virgin) and Kumari(girl).
Devi took this form to vanquish the demon Banasura
@GunduHuDuGa


Once, Banasura(grand son of Mahabali) obtained a boon from Shiva that he could be vanquished only by a virgin.
So, Devi took the form of a kumari and started meditating with the desire to marry Shiva at Suchindram.
Pleased Shiva fixed the midnight hour for marriage with Devi.


Devarshi Narada knew that the marriage would end the chance of killing Banasura. So, he assumed the form of a cock and crowed. Shiva returned back to Suchindram thinking that it was dawn.
Angered, Devi cursed that all food and articles meant for wedding turn into sand and shells


When Banasura heard about Devi’s beauty, he tried to take her by force. Devi, then, killed him and granted the wish of Devas to remain there always protecting them.
The murti of Devi stands with a rosary in hand. Her diamond nose-ring is said to be visible even from the sea.


Once an ancient mariner mistook it for a lighthouse and sailing towards it, his ship wrecked upon the Kanya Kumari rocks. In order to prevent such a tragedy from happening again, the eastern door of the shrine is opened only on five special occasions throughout the year.
ALL
Anumah, Abdulraheem Okehi \U0001f468\u200d\U0001f52c\U0001f1f3\U0001f1ec \U0001f1eb\U0001f1f7 \U0001f1f5\U0001f1f9 \U0001f1ea\U0001f1f8
Anumah, Abdulraheem Ok...
@AnumahABD
Department List of UCAS-China PROFESSORs for ANSO, CSC and UCAS (fully or partial) Scholarship Acceptance
1) UCAS School of physical sciences Professor
https://t.co/9X8OheIvRw
2) UCAS School of mathematical sciences Professor

3) UCAS School of nuclear sciences and technology
https://t.co/nQH8JnewcJ
4) UCAS School of astronomy and space sciences
https://t.co/7Ikc6CuKHZ
5) UCAS School of engineering

6) Geotechnical Engineering Teaching and Research Office
https://t.co/jBCJW7UKlQ
7) Multi-scale Mechanics Teaching and Research Section
https://t.co/eqfQnX1LEQ
😎 Microgravity Science Teaching and Research

9) High temperature gas dynamics teaching and research section
https://t.co/tVIdKgTPl3
10) Department of Biomechanics and Medical Engineering
https://t.co/ubW4xhZY2R
11) Ocean Engineering Teaching and Research

12) Department of Dynamics and Advanced Manufacturing
https://t.co/42BKXEugGv
13) Refrigeration and Cryogenic Engineering Teaching and Research Office
https://t.co/pZdUXFTvw3
14) Power Machinery and Engineering Teaching and Research
EDUCATION
Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
SRI SWETHA VINAYAGAR, THIRUVALANCHUZHI, KUMBAKONAM
(TN)
#bharatmandir

While main deity is Shiva as Kapartheeswarar, the kshetram is famous for Ganesha, known as Swetha/Vellai Vinayagar (white Vinayak)

During samudra manthan, Vasuki snake (used as rope) started spewing venom.


Unable to bear the intense heat, Devas rushed to Siva. He told them that this was because the task was started without getting Ganesha’s approval.
So the Devas created a Ganesha murti from white sea foam and worshipped it.
It was later taken by Indra to Indralok.
@GunduHuDuGa


But once Indra had to come to Earth to pray to Shiva to seek relief from a curse inflicted on him. So he brought the murti of Ganesha with him. When he came here, he wanted to take bath before puja. So he gave the murti to a boy to hold for sometime. The boy was actually Shiva.


He kept the murti down and vanished. Indra could not lift it again and a divine voice told him to let Vinayagar stay there and visit every Ganesh Chaturthi to pray.
Since Vinayagar is made of foam, no abhishekam is done here. Only punugu is applied n camphor powder is sprinkled
ALL