010. 7 Mistakes Your Brain Makes Everyday And How To Fix Them Using Mindfulness

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This is Ash Roy, the founder of Productiveinsights.com and your host. Today's podcast is an article I wrote as a contributor to Lifehack.org.

The article is called Seven Mistakes Your Brain Makes Every Day and how to Fix Them. Written by Ash Roy narrated by Ash Roy featured on Lifehack.org.

You know your brain makes mistakes without you even realizing it, don't you? In fact, it's probably making a few mistakes as you're listening to these words. Yep, you heard that right. Your mind is full of biases based on your past experiences. And it's not just you that holds true for every one of us. It's like we're all inmates looking through the bars of a prison cell who have long forgotten that the bars even exist.

See, your beliefs imprison you, and your biases skew your perception. These biases are causing you to make errors in judgment all the time. And the worst part? You're barely aware of it. But the good news is that by paying attention to your thought patterns through a regular mindfulness practice, you can become aware of mistakes as they happen.

Here are 7 Mistakes you can overcome using a regular Mindfulness Practice.

1. You prioritize avoiding discomfort over achieving your dreams - Ever sat through an awful movie at the cinemas because you paid good money for the ticket? You're not alone. The truth is, most of us would rather suffer through an awful movie than do something more enjoyable with our time. Why? Because we want to get our money's worth. Evolutionary science says that our tendency to avoid threats, as opposed to our tendency to maximize opportunities, gives us the best chance of survival from predators and this tendency was passed on through generations.

Over time, you're hardwired to prioritize loss minimization over opportunity maximization. We all are. But this is no longer required in today's world. Some great entrepreneurs, like Steve Jobs, figured this out and lived their lives to the fullest. A good way to approach life is to ask yourself, what do I want most out of this life? Much like Steve Jobs did when he looked into the mirror each morning, you'll naturally gravitate towards the things that matter most and give yourself the best chance of realizing your dreams.

2. You incorrectly predict the odds - Imagine this you toss a coin which has a 50 50 chance of turning up heads or tails. Let's say the coins turned up tails for the last 23 consecutive times. Surely the next time you toss the coin, it's going to turn up heads, right? Wrong. The truth is, the odds don't change. They're still 50 50. The past 23 tales don't affect the probability of the next toss in any way whatsoever. Despite knowing this fact, you have the tendency to expect an irrational outcome based on past results.

The gambler's fallacy is based on this glitch in our thinking. But there's a simple solution use a mindfulness based approach. Here's what the approach involves pause. Take a deep breath. Taking a deep breath disconnects you from your irrational mental tendencies. It forces you to pause and reconnects you with your rational self. It creates some spaciousness in your thinking. Do this and you're much less likely to be seduced by your irrational thinking. Try it. I guarantee you'll be impressed.

3. You convince yourself that your bad decisions are good - Ever tried to convince yourself that buying that extra pair of shoes you didn't need wasn't such a bad decision after all? If so, you were hit by cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance occurs when you have two opposing ideas that you can't simultaneously hold in your mind. You want to think of yourself as an astute decision maker, and a lousy decision is directly opposed to this image. And so you end up convincing yourself that the decision was a good one to make it consistent with your self image. What's the best way to overcome cognitive dissonance? Be mindful of your tendency to rationalize bad decisions so you're more aware of when you're doing it and when you're aware that you're doing it. Make a conscious effort to accept that you occasionally do make bad decisions. And that's fine as long as you learn from it. Because you've let go of the idea of being an astute decision maker, you can now accept that you've made a bad decision. The last step is to resolve to learn from that bad decision.

So by using mindfulness, you've replaced your tendency to rationalize bad decisions with the ability to learn from them. Your decision making skills can only improve over time.

4. You pay more attention to information that matches your beliefs - Ever notice what happens when you buy a new car? You suddenly start seeing a whole lot of new cars on the road. This is because our brains passively seek out information that confirms our reality. Do you tend to gravitate towards people who share your worldview or away from them? I'm guessing most of your friends have beliefs that are aligned with yours. There's a term for it. It's called confirmation bias.

We are drawn to ideas and information that confirm our beliefs. And this means we become narrow minded human beings with limited thinking and stifled creativity. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you shouldn't have friends who don't share similar beliefs. What I am saying is it's important for us to accept that other beliefs are equally valid, even if we don't agree with them. The ability to accept opposing beliefs is rare. But stretching ourselves to embrace opposing beliefs is definitely worth it. It's essential for creativity and growth. It also means you don't have to be stuck looking at things in the same way all the time. If you want to overcome the limiting constraints of confirmation bias, then use mindfulness to become aware of this tendency.

5. You confuse selection factors with results - Do top universities like Harvard produce brilliant graduates because they have an awesome program? Or is it because they only select the smartest people to go through their program? See, my bet is that the high achievers Harvard recruits would be successful regardless of the university they studied in. But it's likely that you incorrectly attribute Harvard graduates success to the institution rather than the selection process to get into the institution. Harvard only accepts high quality graduates who are going to be successful no matter what. Ralph de Belly says that professional swimmers don't acquire swimmers physiques because of rigorous training. It's the other way around. They become professional swimmers because they were born with physiques suited to swimming. In other words, their physiques are a factor for selection and not the result of their training. So why is this a problem? Because you attribute success to the wrong factors and incorrectly expect to succeed. Here's another example. Seeing a skinny model on TV drinking a calorie packed drink leaves you with the impression that the contents are good for you. But we all know that nothing could be further from the truth. And yet those images on the TV screen influence you to buy sugary drinks that will only take you further away from that perfect body you have been taught to crave. So what can you do to counter this? Don't take things at face value. Be mindful of the messages that are coming at you every day. More importantly, be mindful of how these messages impact your behavior.

6. You allow your perception to be manipulated - Ever bought a car at a 20% discount from the advertised price? What about that pair of jeans that you saw advertised at $100 yesterday? But that is on sale at $50 for today only. Bargain. Now, what if I told you that the pair of jeans was actually worth $20? Still a bargain? Not so much. You've just fallen victim to the anchoring effect. The anchoring effect is a cognitive bias that gets you to rely too heavily on the first piece of information you receive. It assigns that first piece of information as the reference point. The anchor stores use it to convince you to buy all the time. Imagine this you walk into a clothing store. You're greeted by this big sign which reads, Sale. All our shirts are reduced from $100 to $40. Hurry Sale ends today. And you think to yourself, wow, I wasn't exactly in the market for a shirt. But this is such a steal that's over 50% off.

After all, well made clothes last longer than cheap ones, so you buy it. The thing is, if the shirt had originally been priced at $40, you probably wouldn't have felt like it was such a good deal. But when you saw it marked down from one hundred dollars to forty dollars, that got you interested. You were subconsciously influenced by the first $100 price tag you saw presented to you by the store that was trying to sell you the shirt. We're wired to make estimates based on comparisons, and in the absence of any other information, we unconsciously lean towards the first value we heard. So how do you overcome this tendency? Be mindful of the anchoring effect. Be aware of this tendency to be subconsciously influenced by the first price you see. Be aware of where that first piece of information is coming from. It all comes down to paying careful attention to what is happening in the present moment. And that, essentially, is what mindfulness is all about. Being fully in the moment will help you focus on all the relevant factors right here and now. And this is bound to improve your decision making abilities.

7. You don't take control of your overwhelm - Have you ever faced a situation where you had too many choices and ended up not making a decision at all? Welcome to the paradox of choice. When we have too many options before us, we often shut down. We get overwhelmed and walk away from the situation altogether. At other times, we simply choose anything just to get the process over and done with. In today's world of information overload, this is increasingly a problem. The solution narrow your options down systematically eliminate choices that are clearly not relevant to you. Before you start feeling overwhelmed, pay more attention to what you want to get out of the situation and less attention to the choices that you're faced with. It helps to be really clear on your objectives.

A great way to do this is to revisit your goals regularly. Be clear on what you want to accomplish each day, and make a targeted to do list. Do this and you'll realize that a lot of the choices that are presented to you in the form of advertising aren't relevant to you at all. You'll spend more time on doing things that matter to you and pay less attention to the distractions that don't really matter.

Here's an analogy I use to explain mindfulness. Imagine yourself sitting on a beach watching the waves. Your thoughts on the ocean, your mind. You're watching the entire ocean, including the waves as they rise and fall. It's really peaceful and expansive. Sooner or later, your attention gets caught up in one of the waves. You begin to identify with that one wave, one thought, and in that moment, your awareness contracts. You've lost sight of the big picture. The moment you become aware of this fact. You gently bring your attention back to your breath and broaden your focus. So you're watching the entire ocean again. Doing this consistently is mindfulness practice. I see it as meditation in action and as your awareness grows, you'll become more conscious of your limiting thought patterns. You will become a lot more productive and live a better life.

The real secret to overcoming your brain's tendency to make mistakes for the next six months, focus on creating a mindfulness practice.

Using a breath as an anchor.

Watch your mind and its mental patterns in the present moment.

Pay attention to what is happening in the here and now.

Do that and you'll be amazed at how many of these seven mistakes you overcome through self awareness.

If you want to be free of the invisible chains that bind you, then commit yourself to a mindfulness practice. Become aware of your mental patterns, and then free yourself from those shackles that hold you back forever.

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