Psychological Super Powers: 3 Steps to Focus Like an Expert

Are you struggling to write that academic manuscript, get it published, finish your dissertation, and you just feel like you need to focus? You're not alone and today we're going to talk about three tips to help you focus like an expert.

My name is Caitlin Faas and I'm a psychology professor and coach, whose expertise has been built in child and adolescent development and earning that Ph.D. But now I'm building expertise in becoming a really great coach and helping busy professionals be their best selves on their academic path. I'll give you examples from both, as we talk about these three steps.

1. Practice, practice, practice

The first step to focusing like an expert, you're not going to want to hear this, but it's all about putting in the hours. Cal Newport talks about this, with Deep Work, and Malcolm Gladwell talks about this with 10,000 hours, but the idea is to really focus and practice deliberately so that you can gain expertise.

My example is that when I was learning statistics, I spent hours in front of my computer, searching discussion forums, I would ask other people that I knew who were experts, I checked out it seemed like every book from the library about statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM). And so I spent the hours and it wasn't glamorous, it was really tedious, but now it has a big payoff when people ask me, "How do you know about statistics?" or, "How are you able to just think of that phrase or think of that answer?"" I can say, "I put in the hours."

2. Reject distractions

The second step to focusing like an expert is to say no to distractions in an active and passionate way. One of the keys to this is to make sure that you have a clear vision for the future and the thing you want to accomplish. Completing your Ph.D. or writing that manuscript, you have this vision that you want to accomplish it and it feels clear. Then everything else that doesn't relate to that needs to be something that you say no to. It could be tempting to write that grant proposal or write a different paper that isn't keeping you focused on your current paper that you want to publish.

For me, actually taking the statistics example that I used before, if I kept learning statistics and just continued to go to classes and workshops, that would actually be a distraction from what I'm trying to do now, which is share the knowledge that I have about statistics with people like you.

Because my goal is teaching, sharing knowledge, and being a speaker, that's where I need to keep my focus. It seems like a really easy distraction to just keep learning. And so sometimes you can say, "Oh, yeah. Netflix is a distraction for me." Well, right, that is something that you could say no to maybe more easily, like you know you should say no to Netflix.

But look for the distractions like learning more information, that's actually something you also need to say no to right now so that you can be an expert for the vision that you have.

3. Delegate your weaknesses

The third step we want to recommend for focusing like an expert is to actually delegate your weaknesses. You don't have to be an expert in everything, you want to be an expert in a few things and to focus on that.

Something that I delegate is my website design and the graphics that are created for my website. It's not something I'm interested in learning how to do and the people I have that work on my team are excellent at it. I'm happy to support them in their business endeavors. That's something that I delegate, but it's something that I get a lot of compliments about and I always make sure I say, "Oh, that's not something that I did myself. I hired people to do that." By doing something like delegating a weakness, I'm still able to build something that's part of my vision and my platform for speaking and teaching and coaching and consulting.

In conclusion, you don't have to be an expert to act like an expert, for whatever vision you have for your future.

If you need help working on these steps, we have a worksheet that will help guide you on how am I going to focus on these three steps and work towards my vision. So be sure to download that and reach out and tell us what you're working on.

Psychological Super Powers: How to Do Something New When You're Scared

Have you ever had something where your first reaction is, "Oh, that's something new. I don't want to try it. I'm too scared. I already have a lot of fear about something." So today's example, I'm going to be talking about starting a business and how I made that happen.

This is one of those things that a lot of people say, "If I start a successful business, I'm going to have to quit my job tomorrow." Our brain just goes there, so the psychological super power we'll be talking about is how to do something new when you're feeling scared. I'll share part of my story to help you with trying something new yourself, today.

Become comfortable with uncertainty

My example is that three years ago, I didn't even know what a coach was. I think a student mentioned it to me, and I thought, "What? What are you talking about?" Then later, my sister told me about her corporate coach at work, and all these pieces started to come together, that coaching was an option, something that was very different from being a practitioner or a therapist, which had been something I'd never been interested in.

All these pieces started to emerge for me. Now, I have a coaching practice and I have a steady stream of clients. Two years ago, I wouldn't have even guessed that this would be something that would be so enjoyable for me and something I continue to do.

Any time we're starting something new, our brain stops us and says, "This is uncertain. I am not comfortable with uncertainty. I want you to walk away from this option and this opportunity." For starting a business, becoming comfortable with uncertainty is one of the first crucial pieces that we need to think about.

Say yes to as many things as possible

In the beginning, I want you to think about being opportunistic and just trying as many things as possible. What are you interested in? What can you do to develop a business? Is it coaching? Is it something else? If you can say yes to as many things as possible in the beginning, then things can start to fall into place for you.

For me, when I was finishing my coaching training and I was looking for that first client, I was trying all these different things.

I didn't know what was going to work out. When I let go of the expectation and just tried everything, there was my first client, waiting for me.

Be open to productive failure

The second thing that can really help is being open to failure. If you're an over-achiever like myself, being open to failure sounds like a red alert, something to avoid.

There's actually two types of failure. There's defensive failure and productive failure. Defensive failure, we don't really learn anything from it. We don't really have any insights. Productive failure, we fail at something and then we're able to see what the lesson was and pick back up with next steps, to continue progress.

When I talk about my journey from becoming a coach and I didn't have any clients, I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know how to start a business, and then I tell you that I have a thriving coaching practice now, right? That all the steps in between, I can tell you one path about how I succeeded, and what steps I took to be successful, but what we don't usually share are all the ways I failed along the way, too. Trying to make that productive failure is really crucial.

Set small goals

The third thing is actually about thinking about your goals, but not in the way you think. When we're doing something new, it's actually really easy to get overwhelmed with, "What should I be doing in a year? What should I be doing in five years?" Often, we don't know, right? When something's new, we're not sure where it's going to take us.

Can you think of, "What are some steps I can do to start a business or start a side hustle today? This week? What do I want to do in the next month? What's actually feasible with my schedule?" Then think about 90 days. What does 90 days look like for the next three months?

For me, with my own business, I know what the next three months look like and I have goals for the year, because I'm further along. I'm a couple years into the process now. I can't tell you where this will take me in five years, right? I'll probably look back on this video and say, "Oh yeah, that's where I was with this." When you're new, don't get overwhelmed with where you're going to be in two years, because again, I certainly couldn't have told you where I'd be -- Here today.

All that being said, we have a worksheet to help you walk through your steps. Just download it below and that'll get you started. I'd love to talk about this with you further, especially if you have any questions. I actually made this video because so many people reach out to me privately, because they ask about, "How did you get started," and, "What were the first steps?" So, happy to talk about it with you!

Psychological Super Powers: How to Create Luck

Doesn't it seem like everybody is talking about luck and being lucky? They're talking about the law of attraction. Have you seen that movie, "The Secret"? Whether or not you believe in universal energy patterns and have different spiritual beliefs, we're going to talk about the psychological underpinnings of luck today and how you can harness that in your own life.

My name is Caitlin Faas and I'm a psychology professor and coach and I know I use this in my life when I think about my career and I look back on the last ten years. I often say to people, "I was lucky to have this experience. I met this person at the exact right time for me." What I know is that I set that intention, even if it wasn't clear at the time, hindsight is always 20/20, but I was using a psychological principle called priming.

What is priming?

Priming is pretty magical because it's something in our brain that works through our implicit memory system. So it's not really conscious to us. You experience this every day, all the time.

Maybe a friend mentions a movie to you and you hear the name and you say okay. You don't really actively think about it, but then a week goes by and you start to notice all these things, like there's an advertisement for the movie and another friend asks you about the movie and then you see it in a magazine. All these things start to add up. What's happening behind the scenes is that your brain is watching and scanning your environment all the time for things that you've been primed for. Advertisers are really great at using this.

 How can you introduce priming in your life and harness the power?

1. Introduce the idea to your brain

First, we want to make sure that you introduce the idea to your brain. Are you kind of swirling around with unclear thoughts about what you actually want? Narrow it down, write it down and get intentional about that list. When I was working on my dissertation proposal I went through pages and pages of trying to narrow down my idea. "I think it's this. No, I think it's this. Let me narrow it down to this category." I was constantly reiterating, "Okay, can I get to this place, to this particular idea."

2. Introduce the idea to everyone else

The second way to activate priming is then to introduce the idea to everyone else in your life. This can be really scary. It feels like there's going to be judgment about your statement or "I'm putting this into the world, how will people react?" but once you start to tell other people about your idea then they'll be able to help you. They'll be primed and they'll want to help you develop that idea, whatever it might be.

My dissertation proposal, when I landed on that third proposal idea ... I'm pretty sure it went to three rounds ... when I landed on that third idea, I was then able to tell the world, "I'm studying college students that drop out. Do you know anyone?" and people responded to me. They knew people who had dropped out of college. I was connected to admissions counselors and other people at universities about this issue. It became something iterative because I shared it with the world.

You can prime your brain and you can prime others but the third thing we want to make sure you know is that you also need to make your own luck and take the steps necessary to do the work for what you're excited about. This year for example, I am working on speaking engagements and being in front of more crowds and on more stages, so I have a very specific goal for that. I'm telling others. I'm telling you right now.

You know anyone who needs an inspirational speaker?

I'm also taking actions to be a better speaker and engage with people, meet new people. Little things start to add up and all of a sudden I'm making my own luck and doing the hard work necessary to make that happen.

If you want to work on these things yourself, we have a worksheet that goes with this video to talk about the steps, walking you through how can you use priming to your advantage. Sometimes it can seem things like the law of attraction is too good to be true or serendipity and luck but this worksheet will break it down with scientific, concrete principles to help you move forward.

We'd love to hear from you, keep us posted on what's bringing you luck this month.

Psychological Super Powers: How to Make the Most of Networking

Do you groan when you hear the word networking?

You're not alone in that. A lot of my colleagues, when we're at conferences together, kind of do the duck and, "Don't look. Don't look at me. Don't talk to me. I don't want anything to do with this corporate networking world. Avoid." But today, in our Psychological Super Powers series, we're going to talk about networking, and how you can make the most of it.

Caitlin Faas, Psychology Professor and Coach, talking about networking with you today. So let's talk, first, about what happens when you walk into a room to network. First, we walk in and we immediately start scanning and judging the room. We start looking at people, noticing things about them. Often, I'll look at outfits, or think about what people are wearing, who might look friendly, and we start to make all these snap judgments, because our brain is actually trained to do that.

1. Overcome first impressions

We are trained to make first impressions. It's automatic for us. We are trying to jump to conclusions and not really think about it systematically. So, you'd think that we'd systematically go through an algorithm, and kind of add things up, make judgments based on reasonable conclusions, but we're not. That's not what we're doing in this situation.

So, cognitively, we jump to conclusions about the people that we see, and often, it's not positive for us. We notice somebody's outfit and say like, "They're better dressed than I am." We start to say thing about, "They're probably not going to talk to me." It happens back-to-back-to-back in our head. So, thinking about how can we walk into the room and kind of have that inner voice paused and say, "Okay, wait a minute. Stop. What's going on here?"

We talk about this more in the worksheet, so that's the first point, thinking about the room and what's happening when we walk into a room, and how we're automatically going to make judgments.

2. Know that you can succeed

The second thing that happens at networking events is that our brain tells us, "This is a risk. Exit. Get out of here. You're out of your comfort zone," and we immediately start to kind of shut down and not know what to do, but it's also starting to think about, "What's the worst that could happen in here?"

I can start to say things to myself like, "I'm not good enough," or, "These people are better than me," but stopping that internal dialogue, again, to say, "This is not a risky situation. I can succeed in this situation. I can make the most of this," and it keeps us from starting to swim in the land of the middle school lunch table scene, right? It's very similar to what happened in middle school. So kind of reminding ourselves, we conquered the middle school lunch table scene. We also will conquer this networking event.

3. Generate creativity

The third reason we want you to think about networking today, and how to make the most of it, is that networking is actually what leads to innovation and creativity.

We know that from research, it's our weak ties that are going to bind us together. There's a lot of great work about this. If you've ready Sandy Pentland's Social Physics, or Adam Grant's Give and Take, a lot of innovative ideas and a lot of connections happen through networking, so reminding yourself of that can be important.

So, the person I'm doing this series with, Amanda Crowell, the cognitive psychologist, this is our joint series, we actually met at a conference in 2012, and it was one of those situations where we were at each other's posters, and we could have diverted and said, "No, I'm not going to engage. No, I'm going to go back to my room and not talk to people," but it turned into something where we were at each other's posters. We decided to go to lunch together that day. We became friends on Facebook.

Years went by. We didn't necessarily engage with each other that whole time, but now, we've evolved into a partnership where we're making a series like this together, and it was all through just that one instance, making sure we went to lunch together that day. So, inspiration for your networking event.

In conclusion, we want you to remember that networking is really important. We are social beings who are wired to connect with each other and to learn from each other, so use that as inspiration.

We have a three-part guide for you about how you can make the most out of your next networking event. It gives a lot of tips, and is something you can print out to remind yourself.

So, download that worksheet, and let's talk about it.

Psychological Super Powers: How to Conquer Self-Control

Have you done this before? You have procrastinated all day, and you sit down, ready to work on that project. I'm going to write that blog post or write that manuscript. It's 3:00 p.m. and then you say, "Oh, I don't actually have the energy to do any of this. It doesn't even matter that there's a deadline approaching."

I've been there. My name is Caitlin Faas. I'm a psychology professor and coach, and in today's psychological super-power video, we're going to break down what you can do about those deadlines and procrastination.

Ego fatigue

So this would happen to me all the time in graduate school. I would say, "I'm going to read five journal articles after dinner today." I'd set that goal in the morning, and dinner would roll around, and then I wouldn't be motivated to do any of that after dinner. And I would actually feel guilty that I hadn't met the goal that I set for myself. Well, what I didn't know at the time was that it's actually ... There's a term for this. It's called Ego Fatigue, and it wasn't necessarily my fault that I wasn't setting that goal.

Ego fatigue is a cognitive concept that actually describes your self control, a really important resource for your brain. When things are automatic, and just naturally occurring, your ego fatigue is ... You don't have any. You don't have any depletion and you feel really great. You're just running along, you're doing your thing.

As the day goes on, we actually experience a lot of decisions and these decisions add up quickly and wear down our willpower. Even picking a shirt for the day. Making the decision about decaf or not, or adding the almond milk or not. People asking you questions at work. All of these add up so that by the end of the day, a lot of us feel a lot of ego depletion.

Task switching is another thing that contributes to ego depletion. When we check our email, go back to the manuscript, talk to somebody about this, go back to the manuscript, right? All of these things, we think it's just a second, but it really isn't. It's task switching, and it's distracting us. 

The last thing that contributes to ego depletion is creativity itself. It takes a lot of creative energy to be able to write that post or come up with a brand new sentence. One new sentence takes a lot of work. All of those things add up for ego depletion, and at the end of the day you're tired and making maybe poorer decisions because of this ego depletion that's happened. 

My amazing friend, Dr. Amanda Crowell, writes more about ego fatigue on her blog post here.

Let me tell you three tips to help with this:

1. The first is to always do a task at the same time, same routine.

We want you to rest on your routines. So when I was writing my dissertation I would go into my office, even though I didn't have to I could've stayed home and worked technically, but I would go into the office, sit down at my desk, pull up my laptop, put in my headphones, put on the classical music, pull up the document, and start. That routine got my brain ready to know this is what I do, this is when I focus, now I have to make this happen. 

2. The second tip is to make sure that you don't actually break up your writing.

You can take breaks, but you want to focus on the writing task all at once. So, when I was working on my dissertation, I knew that this was the time I was designating towards writing, and I could take a break, perhaps after 15 minutes, or even 25 minutes on some days, but when I took that break, I didn't then task switch to checking my email, for example, because that's distracting and my brain, our brains, can't handle too many of those switches. It actually takes a lot to be able to come back around, to focus when it's time to focus. So stay on the same task.

3. The third tip is to do your creative writing or work during your most productive time.

Figuring out your patterns for that is really important. I'm a morning person, it took me awhile to figure that out in graduate school, but I knew that I needed to go in in the morning and get that creative writing done so that when the evening rolled around, which is not my productive time, maybe I could edit then or work on other tasks, but that was not my creative time. That's still true now.

Find your time. Then, for me, it was really a game-changer in terms of knowing, "I don't have to feel guilty about not being able to work in the evenings." I just needed to be able to harness the right energy at the right time.

So the next time you find yourself with a big creative task that you need to get done, make sure you remember this concept of decision fatigue. It's not your fault that you work best at different times during the day and the key is to harness that energy and figure out what works best for you.

So I challenge you today to think about what's one way that you can avoid decision fatigue this week?

Also, I want to invite you to make sure you download the worksheet that goes with this that gives you tips on what you can do and it can be a visual reminder of how to remember decision fatigue.