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madewithonerib · 1 month ago

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Founder of Marshmallow Test has Great Advice for Self-Control

[Goals are the same as NY's Resolution]

Here is the history & context of how the psychiatrist who originated this concept, applied it to improve the lives of his family & life:

Walter Mischel, who died on September 12, 2018, was a clinical psychologist best known for his work on delayed gratification. In a series of studies in the 1960s and 1970s, Mischel told children between the ages of three and five that if they could wait 10 minutes to eat a treat, they’d be rewarded with two. Later, he found that the ability to wait longer appeared predictive of how children would achieve in school and in life. (Modern attempts to replicate the study have had differing results, suggesting that the test may have been better at gauging parental wealth than it was any other metric.)

In the process of his work, Mischel developed strategies for self-control that he eventually applied to his own life. Once, for example, he made a promise to his three-year-old daughter that if she stopped sucking her thumb, he’d stop smoking his pipe.

Breaking a habit works like this, he told the New Yorker: If you want to stop yourself from wanting something, you mentally ring-fence it to make it less desirable—and busy yourself with something else, to keep your mind off it.

“The key, it turns out, is learning to mentally “cool” what Mischel calls the “hot” aspects of your environment: the things that pull you away from your goal. Cooling can be accomplished by putting the object at an imaginary distance (a photograph isn’t a treat), or by re-framing it (picturing marshmallows as clouds not candy). Focusing on a completely unrelated experience can also work, as can any technique that successfully switches your attention.”

In Mischel’s case, he used the technique to eventually replace his pleasurable associations with smoking with the image of a man in hospital.

For small children, the key to self-control is often finding a distraction from the object of their desire. “Four-year-olds can be brilliantly imaginative about distracting themselves, turning their toes into piano keyboards, singing little songs, exploring their nasal orifices,” he told The Atlantic in 2014.

But adults may do better by implementing slightly more sophisticated “if-then” strategies: Someone trying to give up smoking, for instance, might choose to take a break to play a game on their phone instead of having a cigarette.

It helps if you have some kind of motivation nudging along your efforts in self-control. Mischel’s best graduate students were not the ones with the most sitzfleisch, but the ones who were there because they wanted to answer some kind of burning question, he told the Times—to cite one example, why some people don’t recover from heartbreak.

The more you employ these tactics, the better you’ll get at them—and the happier you’ll be. “We’ve found a way to really improve human choice and freedom,” he told the New Yorker. “If we have the skills to allow us to make discriminations about when we do or don’t do something, when we do or don’t drink something, and when we do & when we don’t wait for something, we are no longer victims of our desires.”

This post originally appeared on Quartz and was published September 13, 2018. This article is republished here with permission.

Imposter Syndrome

Imposter syndrome, also known as the imposter phenomenon, is the feeling of self-doubt that you're not good enough or don't deserve your accomplishments:

You have difficulty internalizing your abilities and instead attribute your success to other factors [world claiming gift of GOD as an ability they have in themselves, playing GOD 666]

You have an ongoing fear of being "found out" as incompetent or or unable to replicate past successes

You feel like you're tricking your coworkers into thinking you're good at your job

You rationalize your successes, such as by believing you got your job because the hiring manager felt bad for you

Imposter syndrome can cause:

Anxiety and depression

Lessened professional confidence

Sensitivity to small mistakes

Fear of success or failure

Burnout from working too hard

Pushing yourself harder than most

Psychologists Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes first identified imposter syndrome in the 1970s while studying high-achieving women. Some ways to overcome imposter syndrome include:

Writing down your observations to organize your thoughts

Using self-esteem journal prompts to counter self-criticism

Some measures of imposter syndrome include: The Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS), The Perceived Fraudulence Scale, The Leary Impostor Scale, and The Impostor Phenomenon Assessment.

Why you still feel like you're faking when you've already made it? September 23, 2024 | By Arlin Cuncic, MA Medically reviewed by Amy Morin, LCSW

Ever find yourself consistently experiencing self-doubt, even in areas where you typically excel? Do you often feel like a fake or a phony despite all your accomplishments? Because same. In fact, it's a common phenomenon called impostor syndrome. Imposter syndrome may feel like nervousness, accompanied by the belief you'll be "found out" and it may also manifest as negative self-talk. Symptoms of anxiety and depression often accompany imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome is not a diagnosable mental illness. Instead, the term is usually narrowly applied to intelligence and achievement, although it also has links to perfectionism and the social context. It can show up in the context of work, relationships, friendships, or just overall, that holds us back from the self-confidence we've earned and deserve to feel. Psychologists Suzanna Imes and Pauline Rose Clance first used this term in the 1970s. Clance PR, Imes SA. The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Group Dyn. 1978;15(3):241-247. doi:10.1037/h0086006

The irony is, that people with imposter syndrome are often highly accomplished, impressive individuals. On the outside, there is no apparent reason for them to feel like an imposter, and yet they still do. This is what makes it such a challenging psychological phenomenon that needs to be unpacked.

"Not only can imposter syndrome affect your internal feelings about your work or self-worth, but it can also actually affect the way you approach projects, relationships, or any other areas in which you are feeling insecure," explains Hannah Owens, LMSW. "This essentially creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, which is what makes it so insidious and necessary to address when it arises."

The Five Types of Impostor Syndrome

Based on research by Dr. Valerie Young, an expert on impostor syndrome and co-founder of the Impostor Syndrome Institute, imposter syndrome can be broken down into five basic types:

The Perfectionist. This type of imposter syndrome involves believing that, unless you were absolutely perfect, you could have done better. You feel like an imposter because your perfectionistic traits make you believe you're not as good as others might think you are.

The Expert. The expert feels like an imposter because they do not know everything there is to know about a particular subject or topic, or they haven't mastered every step in a process. Because there is more for them to learn, they don't feel as if they've reached the rank of "expert."

The Natural Genius. In this imposter syndrome type, you feel like a fraud simply because you don't believe you are naturally intelligent or competent. If you don't get something right the first time around or it takes you longer to master a skill, you feel like an imposter.

The Soloist. It's also possible to feel like an imposter if you had to ask for help to reach a certain level or status. Since you couldn't get there on your own, you question your competence or abilities.

Superman/human. This type of imposter syndrome involves believing you must be the hardest worker or reach the highest levels of achievement possible and, if you don't, you are a fraud.

How Do I Know If I Have Imposter Syndrome?

Originally, the concept of imposter syndrome was thought to apply mostly to high-achieving women. Since then, it has been recognized as a more widely experienced phenomenon. Imposter syndrome can affect anyone—no matter their social status, work background, skill level, or degree of expertise.

While impostor syndrome is not a recognized mental health disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR), it is fairly common. It is estimated that 70% of people will experience at least one episode of this phenomenon at some point in their lives.

If you wonder whether you might have imposter syndrome, ask yourself the following questions:

Do you agonize over even the smallest mistakes or flaws in your work? Do you attribute your success to luck or outside factors?

Are you sensitive to even constructive criticism?

Do you feel like you will inevitably be found out as a phony?

Do you downplay your own expertise, even in areas where you are genuinely more skilled than others?

If you often find yourself feeling like you are a fraud or an imposter, it may be helpful to talk to a therapist. The negative thinking, self-doubt, and self-sabotage that often characterize imposter syndrome can affect many areas of your life.

Mastery: Practice Makes Perfect

“Put them to work … It’s process. It’s one [foot] in front of the other.”

#perfectionist #taking onus for success #taking GOD's glory #playing GOD #New Year's Resolution #Marshmallow Test #Self-Control #impulse control #imposter syndrome #fear #anxiety #self-fulfilling prophecy #222/2222 #666/6666 #Scientology #victim of our desires #distinctions

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