The Web To Being The Best Professional
#Edition 042
Introduction
Welcome to The ContraMind Code.
The ContraMind Code provides you with a system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.
The Newsletter shares the source code, through quick snapshots, for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.
The Code helps you reboot and reimagine your thinking by learning from the best and enables you to draw a blueprint on what it takes to get extraordinary things done. Please share your valuable thoughts and comments and start a conversation.
Take a journey to www.contraminds.com. Listen and watch some great minds talking to us about their journey of discovery of what went into making them craftsmen of their profession to drive peak performance.
The Need to Read
by Paul Graham
Paul Graham is an American computer scientist, essayist, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author. He is best known for his work on the programming language Lisp, his former startup Viaweb (later renamed Yahoo! Store), co-founding the influential startup accelerator and seed capital firm Y Combinator, his essays, and Hacker News.
He is well known for his long essays, and he published this one a couple of days back on the Need to Read. It makes you think about why we need to read and what reading does to another vital aspect - writing.
Here are some salient points from the article:
You can't think well without writing well, and you can't write well without reading well.
Reading about x doesn't just teach you about x; it also teaches you how to write.
A good writer will almost always discover new things while writing.
If you don't need to go too deeply into a problem, you can solve it without writing.
But if you need to solve a complicated, ill-defined problem, it will almost always help to write about it.
Difference Between A Professional Mindset and an Employee Mindset
An avid fan and listener of the podcast reminded us of this episode that was done four years ago.
Many changes have happened to the podcast today, but going back in time was fantastic.
What is impressive is that the ten principles outlined here for developing a professional mindset still seem relevant and timeless advice.
Also, listen to this entire podcast on:
The Science of Stage Fright( and how to overcome it)
Ted Ed Video brilliantly explains through a compelling animation the ‘The Why’ behind our stage fright in about four minutes.
So what is stage fright, and why do we get it?
Human beings, as social animals, are wired to protect their reputation. Humans don’t want other people to think they are idiots or awful.
The threat reaction of being seen as an awful idiot from the primitive part of our brain is tough to control. It’s the fight-or-flight response typically seen in animals.
Therefore, for your modern brain, it’s a speech, but for the rest of the brain, it is wired to the code of the jungle and starts perceiving possible consequences. It begins to run as a self-protective process.
The hypothalamus in the brain triggers the secretion of the hormone ACTH from the pituitary gland. This shoots adrenaline into the blood! The body then starts to react to this attack to protect itself!
Therefore, stage fright is an autonomous nervous system on autopilot. Genetics plays a huge role in social anxiety.
You can overcome stage fright through practice, practice and more practice.
But trick your hypothalamus in the brain by stretching your arms and breathing deeply just before your speech!
The Web To Being The Best Professional
Reading Paul Graham’s article, one thing was clear. Most of the actions and practices we do are interconnected. We don’t realise it, and we must be mindful of them.
You cannot generate ideas if you don’t write. You can’t write if you don’t read. You can’t think deeply about a problem if you don’t write about it. But to think deeply about a problem, you cannot write about your thoughts if you don’t read. However, ideas cannot come to your mind quickly if you don’t practice writing repeatedly. This can happen only if you read more and more. It’s not enough if you read more and more. You have to write more and more. This process is incredibly complex and highly interconnected.
A professional mindset seems to work right at the centre of this web of overlap of these practices, discipline and methods. Daily practice alone is not just enough. Match simulations that prepare their brain for stress and pressure are essential. Hence, as much as game preparedness, being mentally fit is critical. Analysing the opponents on their strengths and weakness makes a difference. Not all venues are the same. Hence, understanding where the game is being played is equally important. Recovery is another essential element that gets extreme focus - recovery from an injury, a loss etc. All these and more elements form the web to being a world-class professional. Success and money are outcomes of these efforts.
The same is the case for being the best professional at work. Many elements like the need for a deep understanding of personal competencies, our strengths and weaknesses, continuous learning investments and practice to improve your strengths and weaknesses, defining a passion and purpose to being the best in what you do, understanding the brain at work and preparing to be tough mentally to situations at work etc. look and sound similar to how a professional prepares for a game. The web of these elements defines who you are at work and to become the best at what you do. You cannot outsource all of these elements to the company you work for. You have to be your CEO - Career Enhancement Officer.
Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:
Reading, writing, thinking, and new ideas or thoughts are all interrelated. Without reading and writing, one cannot hope to get a new idea or thought. You have to cultivate this as a lifelong activity.
Professional mindsets don’t start with a job in mind. It begins with a purpose at heart. A purpose gets fulfilled through lifelong practice. Employee mindsets need to transform into this thinking to achieve excellence and build lifelong relevance of their skills. Because the Life of Companies is getting shorter, but the Life of individuals is getting longer.
Going behind the science of our behaviours can reveal a lot and help us overcome some of our fears and unconscious behaviours or habits.