The-Anchor-Point

"Women are not good at math".

"She’s a born athlete".

"I'm just not confident".

"You can’t teach an old dog new tricks".

Or so goes the established train of thought in our culture. A culture that encourages short term performance but discourages long term learning and growth; our potential is biologically fixed. Once a brain reaches maturity, trying to change it is just a waste of precious time.

By shining our spot light on these beliefs, we risk leaving everything else in the shadows. We inadvertently send the message that the other factors don’t matter as much as they do.

Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fire is damped. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources.

So without further ado. Let us start to explore some of these most cognitive biases....

To help you understand, let me take you back to the medical field.

In medical school Doctors are trained to make diagnosis through a version of role playing. They are asked to diagnose hypothetical patients usually by reading a full list the patient’s current symptoms and medical health history, tedious right? , wait for it.

The skill requires a good deal of creativity. Diagnostic errors often result from inflexibility in thinking, a phenomenon called “anchoring”. In English, “anchoring” occurs when a doctor has trouble letting go of an initial diagnosis (the-anchor-point), even in the face of new information that contradicts the initial theory.

Although the patient in front of the physician is totally different, just like new situations we encounter everyday our brains are like single processors capable of devoting only a finite amount of resources to experiencing the world.

Because our brain resources are limited, we are left with a choice: to use those finite resources to see.

Is it because we are used to getting x all by itself in an algebraic equation? Come’ on, that doesn’t mean life will always present itself to us in that same way. Adjust your brain so that you can see the ways to rise above your circumstances.

You are probably thinking, “But experience is a master teacher”. There is no doubt this is true but you can’t rely on that every time (unless of course life repeats itself to you- which is not possible).

In language, while we of course can’t change reality through sheer force of will alone, we can use our brain to change how we process the world and in turn how we react to it. To acquire this requires what i call “the undoing effect”.

One biographer describes Darwin as someone who kept thinking about the same questions long after others would have moved on to different- and no doubt easier-problems.

Using the undoing effect, positive emotions can begin to open our eyes and minds to new solutions and ideas. This broadens our cognitive capacity and provides a quick and powerful antidote which improves our focus and ability to function at our best level. Don't be rigid. Open yourself up to new ideas.

Thanks so much for reading. Hope you found this article helpful. Remember to hit that subscribe button and hey; always KEEP IT REAL.