In fact, your brain is making some mistakes even as you read these lines. Your mind is full of preconceived thoughts based on past experiences. And this is typical for any person. We can be compared to inmates who look through the bars of a prison cell, although they have long forgotten that these bars exist.
The fact is that our beliefs put us in a rigid framework, and our preconceived thoughts distort our perception. Such thoughts cause us to constantly make mistakes in judgment. And worst of all, we hardly realize it.
But the good news is that by studying your own way of thinking through the prism of constant self-awareness, you can learn to notice mistakes immediately when they arise. Below are 7 mistakes that can be avoided through self-awareness:
1. When prioritizing, avoiding discomfort is more important than achieving your goals
Example. You buy a ticket to the cinema, the movie turns out to be terrible, but you stay until the end of the screening only because you paid money for the ticket. Most people in this situation would rather be left to watch a bad film than waste that time on something more useful or enjoyable. Why? Because we don't want our money to be wasted.
It is believed that our tendency to avoid threats, versus our tendency to maximize our capabilities, gave us a better chance of survival. Each of us tends to value minimizing losses more than maximizing opportunities. But in the modern world, this is rather a problem.
A good way to tackle this problem is to ask yourself: What do I want most in life? You can ask yourself this question every morning while standing in front of the mirror. This approach will give you the opportunity to realize your greatest values and start making your dreams come true.
2. You miscalculate the probability
Imagine the following situation. You flip a coin and the odds of getting heads or tails are 50/50. Let's say you got tails 23 times in a row. This, of course, means the next time it comes up heads, right?
But this is not the case!
The probability of falling heads or tails does not change. It is still 50/50. The previous 23 times tails were dropped does not in any way affect the likelihood of which side the coin comes up next. Regardless, people tend to have illogical expectations about the outcome based on their past experiences. Gamblers lose precisely because of this imperfection of our thinking.
Include self-awareness and rational thinking in such situations so as not to repeat your mistakes.
3. You convince yourself that your wrong decisions are good ones.
Have you ever tried to convince yourself that buying an extra pair of shoes that you absolutely don't need isn't such a bad decision? If so, then at that moment you were under the influence of cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance occurs when you have two ideas and are unable to keep them in your head at the same time. You want to feel like a forward-thinking decision-maker, and the wrong decision doesn't fit that image at all. This is why you end up convincing yourself that your decision was right, as it will allow your decision to match your self-image.
What is the best way to overcome cognitive dissonance? Become aware of your tendency to make excuses for bad decisions so that you can feel the moment when you are about to make that decision. And when you can sense that moment, make a conscious effort and realize that sometimes you make bad decisions (and that's okay if you learn from such mistakes). You will give up the idea that you are the person who makes wise decisions and can accept the fact that you made the wrong decision.
4. You pay more attention to information that matches your beliefs
Have you ever noticed what happens when you buy a new car of a certain model? You suddenly start to see many more cars of this model on the roads! This is because your brain is unconsciously looking for information that matches your reality.
Do you have a tendency to communicate more actively with those people who share your ideas about the world? It can be assumed that the beliefs of most of your friends match your beliefs. There is a special psychological term for this phenomenon: the tendency to confirm one's point of view. We tend to those ideas and information that confirm our beliefs. And this means that we become people with narrow thinking and poor imagination.
But it is important to understand that other beliefs have a right to exist, even if we disagree with them.
The ability to understand this is rare, but it is very important for creativity and personal growth. It also means that you don't have to always look at things the same way.
5. You confuse selection criteria with results
Why do the best universities produce brilliant specialists who subsequently gain prominence in a wide variety of fields? Because these universities have a great teaching program? Or is it because they only select the brightest students for themselves?
Successful graduates of a renowned university would be successful no matter which university they graduated from. These schools only accept the brightest candidates, who will be successful anyway. But it is likely that you will attribute the success of these graduates to the prestige of the university rather than the selection process you need to go through to get there.
Professional swimmers do not develop the necessary physical skills through hard training. Quite the opposite: they become professional swimmers because they were born with the physical fitness necessary to swim. In other words, their physique is a selection criterion, not a result of their training.
Why is this confusion a problem? Because you attribute success to these wrong criteria and mistakenly hope to succeed.
Here's another example. If you see a slender model on TV drinking a special drink, you get the impression that such a drink will help you lose weight. But each of us knows that such a belief is incredibly far from the truth. And yet, the picture on the TV screen makes people buy sugar-containing drinks, which in fact will only distance you from the ideal body that the advertisement promises.
What can be done to solve this problem? Don't take things as they appear at first glance. Be mindful of the information you receive every day. And most importantly, be mindful of how this information affects you.
6. You allow your perception to be manipulated
Have you ever had to buy home appliances with a 20% discount off the promotional price? Or clothes that were advertised at the same price yesterday and are now selling for a promotion with a 50% discount?
Well, what if they tell you that in fact, these goods cost 2 times less than even with a discount? You are unlikely to still want to buy them so badly.
Trading networks are making people victims of the anchoring effect.
The anchoring effect is a preconceived reaction in our thinking, due to which we tend to focus too much on the information we receive first. Such information becomes a starting point for us - an anchor. Stores use this anchor to get us to buy more and more.
Imagine this situation. You walk into a store that is closing soon. At the entrance, you see a large sign with the words: “SALE - PRICES FOR ALL SHIRTS REDUCED FROM 2000 RUB TO 1000 RUBLES. HURRY UP, SALE IS ENDING TODAY! "
You think, “Great! Of course, I was not going to buy a shirt, but this is such a chance. Discount - 50%! After all, good quality clothes last longer than cheap ones. " And you buy a shirt. The thing is, if this shirt originally cost 1000, then you probably would not be convinced that this is such a good deal. But when you see that the price has dropped from 2,000 to 1,000, you start to show interest.
You have been subconsciously influenced by the original price posted by the store that wants to sell you the shirt. We tend to make decisions based on comparisons. And in the absence of other information, we unconsciously rely on the number that we hear first.
How to overcome this tendency? Try to be aware of the presence of the anchoring effect. Realize your tendency to believe the first price you hear. Be aware of the source of this information.
7. You are out of control when overwhelmed with choices.
Have you ever faced a situation where you had too many choices and in the end, you didn't choose anything at all? This is the so-called paradox of choice.
When we have too many options to choose from, we often cannot make a decision. We are overwhelmed and just try to get away from the situation In another situation, we simply choose something to do away with the problem of choice. In the modern information world, this situation is becoming an increasingly serious problem.
How to solve it? Reduce the number of options. Always remove unsuitable options before too many options pressurize you. Concentrate on what you want to get and pay less attention to other options. This will allow you to clearly go towards your goal.
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