What I’ve learned since moving to D.C. (some of which should be obvious): 0051

2501.  Even the way we describe seemingly straightforward tasks can make a difference in how people perform;

2502.  What we expect from people (and from ourselves) manifests itself in the words we use, and those words can have a powerful effect on end results;

2503.  The Pygmalion Effect: when our belief in another person’s potential brings that potential to life;

2504.  The expectations we have about our children, coworkers, spouses—whether or not they are ever voiced—can make that expectation a reality;

2505.  Theory X holds that people work because you pay them, and that if you don’t watch them they will stop working.  Theory Y holds the opposite: that people work for intrinsic motives, that they work harder and better when not being ordered around, and that they do it for the satisfaction they receive from good work.  Managers who believe Theory X turn out to have workers who need constant supervision, while managers who hold to Theory Y have employees who work for the love of the job.  Turns out that no matter what their motivations might have been before working for these managers, employees typically become the kind of worker their manager expects them to be;

2506.  While it’s important to shift our fulcrum to a more positive mindset, we don’t want to shift it too far—in other words, we have to be careful not to have unrealistic expectations about our potential;

2507.  We want to push the limits of possibility as far as they can go, not limit them in the way too many discouraging bosses, parents, teachers, or media stories tell us they should be limited;

2508.  As science has shown, when we believe we can do more and achieve more (or when others believe it for us), that is often the precise reason we do achieve more;

2509.  Stop thinking of the world as fixed when reality is, in truth, relative;

2510.  In the work world, as in our personal lives, we are often rewarded for noticing the problems that need solving, the stresses that need managing, and the injustices that need righting.  The problem is that if we get stuck in only that pattern, always looking for and picking up on the negative, even a paradise can become a hell;

2511.  The better we get at scanning for the negative, the more we miss out on the positive—those things in life that bring us greater happiness, and in turn fuel our success;

2512.  Constantly scanning the world for the negative comes with a great cost.  It undercuts our creativity, raises our stress levels, and lowers our motivation and ability to accomplish goals;

2513.  Lawyers are 3.6 times more likely to suffer from major depressive disorder than the rest of the employed population;

2514.  Trained to be on the lookout for the flaws in every argument, the holes in every case, lawyers start to overestimate the significance and permanence of the problems they encounter, the fastest route to depression and anxiety—which in turn interferes with their ability to do their job;

2515.  Scientists estimate that we remember only one of every 100 pieces of information we receive; the rest effectively gets filtered out.  If we have programmed our brain’s filter to delete the positive, that data will cease to exist for us;

2516.  “Inattentional blindness” is our frequent inability to see what is often right in front of us if we’re not focusing directly on it.  This aspect of human biology means that we can miss an astoundingly large number of things that might be considered “obvious;”

2517.  Repeated studies have shown that two people can view the same situation and actually see different things, depending on what they are expecting to see.  It’s not just that they come away with different interpretations of the same event, but that they have actually seen different things in their visual field;

2518.  When our brains constantly scan for and focus on the positive, we profit from three of the most important tools available to us: happiness, gratitude, and optimism;

2519.  The more you pick up on the positive around you, the better you’ll feel;

2520.  The more opportunities for positivity we see, the more grateful we become;

2521.  Psychologist Robert Emmons, who has spent nearly his entire career studying gratitude, has found that few things in life are as integral to our well-being;

2522.  Consistently grateful people are more energetic, emotionally intelligent, forgiving, and less likely to be depressed, anxious, or lonely;

2523.  Gratitude has proven to be a significant cause of positive outcomes.  When researchers pick random volunteers and train them to be more grateful over a period of a few weeks, they become happier and more optimistic, feel more socially connected, enjoy better quality sleep, and even experience fewer headaches than control groups;

2524.  The more your brain picks up on the positive, the more you’ll expect this trend to continue, and so the more optimistic you’ll be;

2525.  Studies have shown that optimists set more goals (and more difficult goals) than pessimists, and put more effect into attaining those goals, stay more engaged in the face of difficulty, and rise above obstacles more easily;

2526.  Optimists also cope better in high stress situations and are better able to maintain high levels of well-being during times of hardship;

2527.  It turns out that there is no such thing—in a scientific sense, at least—as luck.  The only difference (and it is a big one) is whether or not people think that they are lucky—in essence, whether they expect good or bad things to happen to them;

2528.  Sixty-nine percent of high school and college students report that their career decisions depended on chance encounters.  The difference between people who capitalize on these chances and those who watch them pass by (or miss them entirely) is all a matter of focus.  When someone is stuck in a Negative Tetris Effect, his brain is quite literally incapable of seeing these opportunities.  But armed with positivity, the brain stays open to possibility;

2529.  Priming yourself to expect a favorable outcome actually encodes your brain to recognize the outcome when it does in fact arise;

2530.  Imagine a typical paper-pushing office.  The objective reality of the physical place will always be the same: walls, carpet, stapler, computer.  But, as with everything else, how we see that space is up to us.  Some people will view the environment as constricting, confining, and depressing; others will see it as energizing and empowering.  In other words, to some, it’s an office; to others a prison cell;

2531.  Training your brain to notice more opportunities takes practice focusing on the positive.  The best way to kick-start this is to start making a daily list of the good things in your job, your career, and your life;

2532.  When you write down a list of “three good things” that happened that day, your brain will be forced to scan the last 24 hours for potential positives—things that brought small or large laughs, feelings of accomplishment at work, a strengthened connection with family, a glimmer of hope for the future.  In just five minutes a day, this trains the brain to become more skilled at noticing and focusing on possibilities for personal and professional growth, and seizing opportunities to act on them.  At the same time, because we can only focus on so much at once, our brains push out those small annoyances and frustrations that used to loom large into the background, even out of our visual field entirely;

2533.  One study found that participants who wrote down three good things each day for a week were happier and less depressed at the one-month, three-month, and six-month follow-ups.  Even after stopping the exercise, they remained significantly happier and showed higher levels of optimism;

2534.  The items you write down each day don’t need to be profound or complicated, only specific;

2535.  A variation on the Three Good Things exercise is to write a short journal entry about a positive experience;

2536.  In one experiment, researchers Chad Burton and Laura King, instructed people to write about a positive experience for 20 minutes three times a week and then compared them to a control group who wrote about neutral topics.  Not only did the first group experience larger spikes in happiness, but three months later they even had fewer symptoms of illness;

2537.  The best way to ensure follow-through on a desired activity is to make it a habit;

2538.  Looking at the world through a lens that completely filters out all negatives comes with its own problems.  That’s why I like to offer a slightly revised version of the metaphor: rose-tinted glasses.  As the name implies, rose-tinted glasses let the really major problems into our field of vision, while still keeping our focus largely on the positive;

2539.  The key is not to completely shut out all the bad, all the time, but to have a reasonable, realistic, healthy sense of optimism.  The ideal mindset isn’t heedless of risk, but it does give priority to the good.  Not just because that makes us happier but because that is precisely what creates more good;

2540.  Focusing on the good isn’t just about overcoming our inner grump to see the glass half full.  It’s about opening our minds to the ideas and opportunities that will help us be more productive, effective, and successful at work and in life;

2541.  The most successful decision come when we are thinking clearly and creatively enough to recognize all the paths available to us, and accurately predict where that path will lead.  The problem is that when we are stressed or in crisis, many people miss the most important path of all: the path up;

2542.  On every mental map after crisis or adversity, there are three mental paths.  One that keeps circling around where you currently are (i.e., the negative event creates no change; you end where you start).  Another mental path leads you toward further negative consequences (i.e., you are far worse off after the negative event; this path is why we are afraid of conflict and challenge).  And one, which I call the Third Path, that leads us from failure or setback to a place where we are even stronger and more capable than before the fall;

2543.  In a crisis, economic or otherwise, we tend to form incomplete mental maps, and ironically the path we have trouble seeing is often the most positive, productive one.  In fact, when we feel helpless and hopeless, we stop believing such a path even exits—so we don’t even bother to look for it.  But this is the very path we should be looking for;

2544.  Study after study shows that if we are able to conceive of a failure as an opportunity for growth, we are all the more likely to experience that growth.  Conversely, if we conceive of a fall as the worst thing in the world, it becomes just that;

2545.  We are not imprisoned by our circumstances, our setbacks, our history, our mistakes, or even staggering defeats along the way.  We are freed by our choices;

2546.  By scanning our mental map for positive opportunities, and by rejecting the belief that every down in life leads us only further downward, we give ourselves the greatest power possible: the ability to move up not despite the setbacks, but because of them;

2547.  Great suffering or trauma can actually lead to great positive change across a wide range of experiences.  After trauma, people also report enhanced personal strength and self-confidence, as well as a heightened appreciation for, and a greater intimacy in, their social relationships.  Of course, this isn’t true for everybody.  There are a number of mechanisms involved, but not surprisingly, mindset takes center stage;

2548.  The strategies that most often lead to Adversarial Growth include positive reinterpretation of the situation or event, optimism, acceptance, and coping mechanisms that include focusing on the problem head-on (rather than trying to avoid or deny it);

2549.  It appears that it is not the type of event per se that influences posttraumatic growth, but rather the subjective experience of the event.  In other words, the people who can most successfully get themselves up off the mat are those who define themselves not by what has happened to them, but by what they can make out of what has happened.  These are the people who actually use adversity to find the path forward;

2550.  Every setback comes some opportunity for growth that we can teach ourselves to see and take advantage of;

What I’ve learned since moving to D.C. (some of which should be obvious): 0050

2451.  I think our (personal) insecurities can fuel our imaginations to come up with the worst possible outcome to a situation when the reality is nowhere nearly as bad;

2452.  I think our (own) perception of ourselves is (probably) different from how others view us.  The reality is probably somewhere in the middle.  We’re not as skilled as we fancy ourselves to be, but (at the same time) we’re also not as bad as others believe we are;

2453.  The choices we make, not the chances we take, determine our destiny;

2454.  Unaged whiskey is (just) another name for moonshine;

2455.  So you want to see the Seattle skyline, but you don’t want to pay the admission to the Sky View Observatory in the Columbia Center; then try the Starbucks on the 40^th floor.  It may have the best view of any Starbucks in the world;

2456.  Red Robin (Gourmet Burgers) (RedRobin.com) was founded in Seattle;

2457.  It’s kind of bizarre seeing an older woman (with glasses and some white hair) sitting on a stoop, drinking a beer and smoking a joint at 2:30 in the afternoon . . . right next door to a men’s shelter;

2458.  To be in the “Blue Angels,” pilots have to be carrier-qualified, active-duty in a Marine or Navy jet squadron and logged a minimum of 1,250 flight hours;

2459.  I’ve bought a homeless man food (McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets and a soda to be exact);

2460.  I’ve given a homeless man a beer;

2461.  There’s Mexican shawarma;

2462.  The Estofado con Pollo (i.e., chicken thigh stewed in tomato, chilies, olives, almonds and raisins served with rice and corn tortillas) at Mezcaleria Oaxaca (MezcaleriaOaxaca.com) in Seattle is really tasty;

2463.  Mezcaleria Oaxaca (in Seattle) has the best tortillas (corn or otherwise) I’ve ever had.  They’re each handmade and grilled fresh;

2464.  Mezcaleria Oaxaca (in Seattle) may be the best Mexican restaurant I’ve ever eaten at;

2465.  Kerry Park has a great view of the Seattle skyline;

2466.  Taco Del Mar (TacoDelMar.com) is kind of a cross between Chipotle and California Tortilla.  You order like Chipotle, but the food tastes (and looks) like California Tortilla;

2467.  (Seattle) Seahawks fans have earned their reputation as the “12^th Man.”  They’re really loud.  On game days, you can hear them a ½ mile away from the stadium;

2468.  The giant Pacific octopus is the biggest in the world. . . . It (typically) lives 3-5 years;

2469.  Sea otters have the densest fur in the animal kingdom. . . . And they’re really fast eaters;

2470.  Fur seals have the second densest fur in the animal kingdom;

2471.  I’ve eaten 108 shrimp in one sitting (during Red Lobster’s “Endless Shrimp” promotion);

2472.  The (glass) sculptures at Chihuly Garden & Glass (ChihulyGardenAndGlass.com) are incredible.  If you’re in Seattle, it’s worth a visit;

2473.  When it comes to the environment, Seattle is really progressive.  Besides recycling bins they also have compost bins at (fast food) restaurants and at Safeco Field (i.e., where the Mariners play);

2474.  You should double check your flight time the night before.  That way you won’t be silently imploring the train to go faster and you won’t have to franticly jog through (most of) the (Seattle-Tacoma Airport) parking garage and the entire concourse because (indubitably) your gate is all the way at the other end of the airport;

2475.  Just as our view of work affects our real experience of it, so too does our view of leisure.  If our mindset conceives of free time, hobby time, or family time as non-productive, then we will, in fact, make it a waste of time;

2476.  Allowing ourselves to engage in activities we enjoy can actually greatly enhance our performance at work.  But simply doing them is not enough to get results.  But if you change the fulcrum so that you conceive of such free time as a chance to learn and practice new things, to recharge your batteries and connect with others, you’ll be able to leverage the power of that rest time and return stronger than before;

2477.  The more you believe in your own ability to succeed, the more likely it is that you will;

2478.  Studies show that simply believing we can bring about positive change in our lives increases motivation and job performance; that success, in essence, becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy;

2479.  One study of 112 entry-level accountants found that those who believed they could accomplish what they set out to do were the ones who ten months later scored the best job performance ratings from their supervisors.  Their belief in their own ability was an even stronger predictor of job performance than the actual level of skill or training they had;

2480.  Our beliefs about our abilities are not necessarily innate, but can change, as our mindset is almost always in flux;

2481.  In a study performed by Margaret Shih and her colleagues at Harvard, a group of Asian women were given similar math tests on two separate occasions.  The first time around, they were primed to think about the fact that they were women, stereotypically worse at math than men.  The second time around, they were told to focus on their identity as Asians, generally thought to be math whizzes compared to other ethnic groups.  The result: The women performed far better in the second situation than they did in the first.  Their math IQs hadn’t changed and neither had the difficulty of the questions.  But in the second instance they believed more in their ability, and this was enough to make a substantive difference in performance;

2482.  If you’re sporting self-doubt, you’ve undercut your performance before you even begin.  So when faced with a difficult task or challenge, give yourself an immediate competitive advantage by focusing on all the reasons you will succeed, rather than fail.  Remind yourself of the relevant skills you have, rather than those you lack.  Think of a time you have been in a similar circumstance in the past and performed well.  Years of research have shown that a specific and concerted focus on your strengths during a difficult task produces the best results;

2483.  This doesn’t mean you should ignore your weaknesses or chant empty affirmations to yourself or take on tasks you can’t handle, it just means to focus on what you are actually good at;

2484.  More important still than believing in your own abilities is believing that you can improve these abilities;

2485.  Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck found that people can be split into two categories: Those with a “fixed mindset” believe that their capabilities are already set, while those with a “growth mindset” believe that they can enhance their basic qualities through effort;

2486.  A growth mindset is not dismissive of innate ability; it merely recognizes that “although people may differ in every which way—in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments—everyone can change and grow through application and experience;

2487.  People with fixed mindsets miss choice opportunities for improvement and consistently underperform, while those with a “growth mindset” watch their abilities move ever upward;

2488.  When we believe there will be a positive payoff for our effort, we work harder instead of succumbing to helplessness;

2489.  Beliefs are so powerful because they dictate our efforts and actions;

2490.  Those who simply believed in their own power to change followed a course of action that maximized their performance.  The others, given the same opportunity, squandered it;

2491.  Once we realize how much our reality depends on how we view it, it comes as less of a surprise that our external circumstances predict only about 10 percent of our total happiness;

2492.  Yale psychologist Amy Wrzesniewski found that employees have one of three “work orientations,” or mindsets about our work.  People with a “job” see work as a Job, a Career, or a Calling.  People with a “job” see work as a chore and their paycheck as the reward.  They work because they have to and constantly look forward to the time they can spend away from their job.  By contrast, people who view their work as a career work not only out of necessity, but also to advance and succeed.  They are invested in their work as an end in itself; their work is fulfilling not because of external rewards but because they feel it contributes to the greater good, draws on their personal strengths, and gives them meaning and purpose.  Unsurprisingly, people with a calling orientation not only find their work more rewarding, but work harder and longer because of it.  And as a result, these are the people who are generally more likely to get ahead;

2493.  Unhappy employees can find ways to improve their work life that don’t involve quitting, changing jobs or careers, or going off to find themselves.  Organizational psychologists call this “job crafting,” but in essence, it involves simply adjusting one’s mindset.  New possibilities open for the meaning of work simply by the way it is constructed by the individual;

2494.  If you can’t make actual changes to your daily work, ask yourself what potential meaning and pleasure already exist in what you do;

2495.  Researchers have found that even the smallest tasks can be imbued with greater meaning when they are connected to personal goals and values.  The more we can align our daily tasks with our personal vision, the more likely we are to see work as a calling;

2496.  Turn a piece of paper horizontally, and on the left hand side write down a task you’re forced to perform at work that feels devoid of meaning.  Then ask yourself: What is the purpose of this task?  What will it accomplish?  Draw an arrow to the right and write this answer down.  If what you wrote still seems unimportant, ask yourself again: What does this result lead to?  Draw another arrow and write this down.  Keep going until you get to a result that is meaningful to you.  In this way, you can connect every small thing you do to the larger picture, to a goal that keeps you motivated and energized;

2497.  Forget about your current job title.  What would our customers call your job title if they described it by the impact on their lives?  When you make these larger connections, your mundane tasks not only become more palatable, but you perform them with far greater dedication, and see greater returns in performance as a result;

2498.  This is not to say that all jobs have equal meaning, but that even a rote or routine task can be meaningful if you find a good reason to be invested.  You feel productive at the end of the day.  You showed people you were smart or efficient.  You made life easier for a client or customer.  You improved your skill set.  You learned from a mistake;

2499.  You can have the best job in the world, but if you can’t find the meaning in it, you won’t enjoy it, whether you are a movie maker or an NFL playmaker;

2500.  When a manager openly expresses his faith in an employee’s skill, he doesn’t just improve mood and motivation; he actually improves their likelihood of succeeding;