Personal Growth & Change

There are things you don’t know that you don’t know. And that fact is keeping you from having the best life you could possibly have.

"Knowing that you don't know is the first and most essential step to knowing, you know?" - Claire Keen (Michelle Williams) in "Synecdoche, New York" (a line perhaps inspired by Mark Twain.) Are you aware of what you think you know that "just ain't so"?

"Being an artist means: not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree." Rainer Maria Rilke

Tama Kieves includes this quote in her book, and adds: “Can you really know what the perfect timeline is for forging one extraordinary life? How long does it take to heal inside, learn to breathe large, and meet the world unconditionally with love, conviction, and talents you didn’t even know you had?"

"Why did I wait this long. Why didn't I do this sooner?" Neal Rogin, Emmy-Award Winning screenwriter. -- Read more about the Undo Public Speaking Fear program and get free course: "The Five Common Myths About The Fear Of Public Speaking" http://anxietyreliefsolutions.com/Undo

Beliefs can be casual thoughts, but also ingrained attitudes about life and abilities, and affect how much we develop creativity and pursue other interests.

Eric Maisel offers "three important points about acquiring a creative mind" - "The first is the Buddhist idea of monkey mind: we're just thinking about too many things and it's getting worse all the time now that we have social media…"

The way to improve our internal level of confidence is to eliminate limiting beliefs. Every negative belief we have lowers our confidence.

Morty Lefkoe notes, "It is important to distinguish between confidence about being able to perform a specific task (such as fly a plane or speak a foreign language) and confidence in yourself. One might not be confident about being able to perform a specific task even though they have high level of self-confidence.  Such a person knows that her inability to perform a specific task means nothing about her as a person."

Elinor Otto picked up a riveting gun in World War II, joining the wave of women taking what had been men's jobs. These days she's building the C-17.

Another photo: Elinor Otto, 93, prepares to rivet a wing while working at Boeing in Long Beach. She said about women doing their jobs compared to men: "It turned out we worked better than them, faster, because they were so sure of themselves."

Hear interview with Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a Professor of Business Psychology, about the downsides of over-confidence https://soundcloud.com/douglaseby/confidence-and-optimism-both

Does our ego serve us, or can it hinder our personal development? Eckhart Tolle says “one of the jobs of the ego is to blame others. Another job of the ego is to make yourself feel guilty.

One of the themes Lady Gaga keeps advancing in her work, and in interviews such as this one with Ellen DeGeneres, is to respect your unique self.

"Through honoring your identity and really fighting for who you are every single day of your life, down to your core, you can have more faith and more hope in life and in the future."

Women often underestimate themselves and their intellectual abilities in comparison with a man who can dominate in his one subject.

Another example of someone experiencing impostor feelings and beliefs is actor Emma Watson, who commented: “It’s almost like the better I do, the more my feeling of inadequacy actually increases, because I’m just going, Any moment, someone’s going to find out I’m a total fraud, and that I don’t deserve any of what I’ve achieved."

By Mirabai Bush

"At Google, bright young engineers have been sitting in front of screens for most of their lives. They are outer focused. Data driven. They all had the education and intelligence to get to Google. But they didn’t have very well developed self-awareness or awareness of others. I developed a course for them, a practical, real-world meditation the employees can take with them wherever they go."

Related book:  Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning http://shrd.by/DAKVMz

A psychologist declares fear is not a disease, and many actors and other artists embrace fear in their work, but anxiety can interfere with creativity.

Ben Stiller stars in and directs a movie version of Thurber’s famous story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” He comments about his own choices as well as the story: “At a certain point, you want to be taking chances. That’s when you’re having the most vital experiences.”

Researchers suggest that being unable to make desired changes, the cause is often some hidden competing commitments that are driven by big assumptions.

People who feel like impostors will often "play it safe" by not even attempting a creative project, out of a self-limiting belief of being incompetent.

Actor Emma Watson commented about its impact for her:

“It’s almost like the better I do, the more my feeling of inadequacy actually increases, because I’m just going, Any moment, someone’s going to find out I’m a total fraud, and that I don’t deserve any of what I’ve achieved.

Do we need to create new beliefs? By Morty Lefkoe. “The Lefkoe Method is very effective at eliminating negative beliefs. But why don’t you replace them with positive beliefs?" One of his programs:  ReCreate Your Life

'She feels more wounded by what she calls the "victim industry," the lawyers, judge and journalists who she feels sensationalized her case for their own interests. "You shouldn't be able to make what happened to me worse so it's more interesting," Geimer said.'

Do you hold yourself back in order to get along, make others feel good, or for other reasons? Does your voice in the world represent who you are?

Writer and director Lake Bell ["In a World…"] comments on how the 'sexy baby vocal virus' is diminishing women.

Writer Amy Kaufman comments, “It wasn’t until [Natalie Portman] attended Harvard University that she says she was able to find her own voice, abandoning the ‘yes, ma’am’ attitude she’d adopted during adolescence.”