Month: July 2010

10 Great Ways to Push Past Uncertainty

Each and every day, at some point, I ask myself this:

“Am I sure?”

Am I sure I want to do that?  Am I sure this is the right approach?  Am I sure there’s not a better way?

It’s sensible to question your behaviour. Questioning is healthy. Too much questioning, however, is not.

photo by helgasms!

photo by helgasms!

Many of your actions involve pushing past uncertainty.  Unless it’s a routine or something you’ve already overcome, you cannot be sure.  The push past uncertainty doesn’t bring you to certain, let’s be clear.  The push brings you to a place where you can make your choices without excess fear and a clouded mind.

Here are 10 methods of reaching a clear focus:

  1. Accept that uncertainty isn’t negative. Certainty isn’t always positive. I’m sure you wouldn’t relish an event involving certain death, for instance. Uncertainty is natural, not negative.  It’s better to be uncertain than overconfident because, unlike overconfidence, you can overcome uncertainty.
  2. Stop fearing the worst. By expecting nothing, you kid yourself that even a small gain will be a good result. But reality doesn’t work out this way. Automatic fear of the worst only sets you up toward failure and reduces enthusiasm. Be prepared for all eventualities, but don’t actively expect the worst outcome.
  3. The unexpected will open the mind. Not everything should be planned. So long as it’s not dangerous, it’s good to do something on a whim once in a while.
  4. Go one step further than you usually would. When you reach uncertain territory, a small step outside your comfort zone could be enough to change your attitude. You can step even further next time!
  5. Say yes to what you like the sound of. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But uncertainty can make you turn down stuff you actually want to do. When you’re scared of what might happen, you shield yourself from the fun stuff too. If you wish you had the courage to do something, allow yourself the courage to say yes and do it. Dare yourself to explore the things you want.
  6. Treat the opinions of others as exactly that. People don’t care as much about your actions as you’d think. But still you panic. You are your own worst enemy. It’s easy to obsess over the way a person views what you do and it stops you in your tracks. Truth is, people usually obsess over their own actions, just like you! Ditch the concern and do what feels right for you.
  7. Research more. Literature exists on almost every conceivable topic. When the risk feels too great, read a book on the topic or watch a video about it. Find out more until you have greater conviction and understanding.
  8. Treat your situation as a set of events, not a ‘success’ or a ‘fail’. You’re not in a movie. Fear of failure is enough to get you thinking like a film. The ending will either be happy or sad and you don’t want to risk the latter becoming a reality. Of course, we’re not treated to a beginning, a middle, and an end. If you keep thinking that, you’ll keep fearing failure. There are plenty events and no script. Enjoy improvising!
  9. Visualise yourself taking action. Relax a while and paint a mental picture of a scene in which you step into uncertainty and make your move. Imagine what you would do and how you might feel. Break down those barriers. Much concern may only be due to a block on seeing a future beyond the uncertainty. Your visual image of working beyond that won’t automatically turn into reality, but it will help you to think about the situation and overcome initial blocks.
  10. Keep the rest of your life in check. With too many issues already on your plate, you’re unlikely to see the point in chasing further unpredictable outcomes. The more organised and up to date you are with day-to-day life, the less burdened you will be when coming up against uncertain times.

What uncertainties have you managed to overcome in the past?  How did you make that breakthrough?

EduLinks – Inside, outside, inside-out

EduLink madness.  Time for another dose of goodies.

NUS – Students told to protect themselves from unscrupulous landlords

Advice for students on moving into rental property.  Includes a list of top tips.

Radio 4 Today – Students chose subjects ‘far too early’

A Cambridge principal has suggested that degrees should last 4 years.  A first year of broader study would help students make better decisions for the future.  At present, they believe students are not able to make a proper choice at an early age and without proper understanding of what they are choosing.

Would you have liked a first year with more range of study subjects to help you make a clearer choice?

Mind Hacks – Against Narrativity

Do we understand ourselves through stories, or are there other ways?

From Futurity – Mind-body connection is a touchy subject

Physical concepts such as roughness, hardness, and warmth are among the first that infants develop. They are critical to how young children and adults eventually develop abstract concepts about people and relationships, such as discerning the meaning of a warm smile or a hard heart.

Touch is an important sense for exploration of the world, and so these sensations help create the mental scaffold upon which we build our understandings of the world as we grow older.

e! Science – Memory links to 40 winks

Sleep is so awesome. Nice work, sleep!

Huffington Post – 11 of the craziest things about the universe

The sun could be made out of bananas and it wouldn’t drop in temperature. Every breath you take contains an atom breathed out by Marilyn Monroe. And so on.

Every time I type the word ‘universe’, I always instinctively type ‘university’.  Can’t imagine why…

Critical Thinking lecture series

What is critical thinking, where does it come from, and how do we think critically? Don Ward takes us on a journey.

Northwest History – How to Read a Book in One Hour

Reading from cover to cover is something you’re likely to do with a novel, but it doesn’t work so well with a dense academic text.  Especially if you’re looking for core messages and key quotations.  Among the advice given in this piece is one suggestion I often follow myself:

“Read two academic reviews of the book you photocopied beforehand. Don’t skip this step, these will tell you the book’s perceived strengths and weakness. Allow five minutes for this.”

I sometimes go overboard and read as many as 10 reviews if there are that many available.  I prefer to browse as many reviews as I can because they touch upon different aspects and from different points of view.  You may not be able to get the quotations that way, but it should help your search after, since it gives you a grounding for what is in the book.

Times Higher Education – The Great Unknown

How does a university become ‘outstanding’?  Can you accurately rate a university in terms of success?  The author states, “The great university exists, or potentially exists, in all universities.”

I enjoyed HallyMk1’s description of the piece:

“What makes a great university? Man burns lots of carbon to claim that it’s league tables.”

As for the author’s conclusion, I’ll leave you with that:

“In a world of often opposing forces – financial, political, institutional – one thing is certain: the force of higher education, what it is and what it can be, is most certainly human ambition. As this is of our own making, it seems clear that we are much more than tourists in higher education; instead, as its inhabitants we must take ultimate responsibility for it.”

Keep a professional Facebook profile and still be yourself

Your Facebook profile is a little piece of you.  You want it to provide an accurate representation of yourself.  Facebook is where you probably feel safe enough to say what you like and act how you want.

How would you feel if professional social networking could get you better job prospects?  What if you might fare better with an open profile?  What would potential employers see when they typed your name into Google?

photo by constantine✖belias™

photo by constantine✖belias™

Internet psychologist, Graham Jones, recently mentioned a University of Wisconsin study that gave social networks like Facebook a positive spin for employment:

“[The report] shows that users of social networks are more likely to get a job and when they do get the job they get higher starting salaries than people who do not engage with online social networks.”

Even better, it’s good enough just to focus on friends and family.  There’s no need to talk business or cover topics you don’t feel belong on your Facebook profile:

“There was a twist in the study; the social networking profiles were written in three ways. One group of profiles were business-like, another were focused on friends and family, while a third group concentrated on the alcoholic exploits of the candidates…! Needless to say, the alcohol-related applicants were rejected – but the other two were treated equally. This squashes the myth that you should separate your social networks into one for friends and another for business. Employers, it seems, are just as happy to take you on if your profile is family related.“

A professional profile doesn’t mean ‘business-related’.  It means that you have a positive online presence.

There are tales of ‘friending’ the boss and then making work-related remarks that end up in getting fired.  But you can still be yourself without resorting to status updates about hating work or throwing a sickie.  Do those comments truly represent you, or are you making hastily written, throwaway comments?

Unless your life is not complete without hate-filled comments about work, it’s time to get the rest of your profile in shape.  You don’t need to sacrifice the person you are.  At least, you won’t sacrifice the positive stuff that you want everyone to see anyway. 😉

Take steps like these to make sure your Facebook profile is professionally personal:

  • Filter the photos – First, filter your own snaps.  Don’t just upload everything you take.  If you want people to respect you, then you need to respect them too.
    Second, filter other user photos by deleting your name tag against any photos you don’t want to be associated with.  Even if someone else takes a photo of you and they publish it with your name tagged to it, you can delete that tag.  Of course, you can ask beg for them to take the photo down too.  Either way, you aren’t required to have your Facebook name associated with it.
  • Filter your friends – Do you know everyone you’re following?  Do you want all your old schoolmates listed as friends, or were you just thinking about the numbers?  Be selective, or at least choose what each friend gets to see on your profile. Like this…
  • Put your friends into lists – Click the ‘Friends’ tab on Facebook.  At the top of that page there is an option to “+ Create a List”.  Make different lists of friends based on who they are and what type of information you want to send their way (or not).
  • Mind your language – There’s a difference between dropping an occasional f-bomb and using it every other word.
  • Think before you update – Are you saying something in the heat of the moment?  Slow down and make sure you feel it’s necessary to post an update.
  • Log out or lock your computer when you go away. And don’t leave your phone alone! – Mates will be mates.  If you leave an open Facebook profile unattended, you may find a nasty surprise when you get back.  In my update streams, it’s always the same people who don’t protect themselves.  Again and again. As if they want it to happen.
  • Don’t be controversial – Status updates to stir up trouble are a no-no.  Joining groups or liking things that are not publicly acceptable is asking for trouble, even if not amongst your closer friends.  Same for doing anything as a joke.  People won’t understand unless they’re in on the joke.
  • Lock down updates – If you must update your friends on something controversial, use the padlock under the text box to customise who sees it.  You can specify who you don’t want seeing the less savoury updates…although it’s still not the safest option.
  • Keep private and/or personal details exactly that! – Send messages when you’re talking to a select few people and sharing non-public details.  It’s the easiest way for the sake of you and your friends.

These are just a few ideas.  How do you keep your profile looking respectable while staying true to yourself?