7 Ways to Believe Something New (part 4)
So we’ve already talked about three ways to believe something new: (1) put it in your mental filter and find evidence everywhere, (2) find things that are going well and use them as reference points, and (3) find the most damning piece of evidence and rewrite the story.
Today, way #4:
4: Break down your brain’s logic chain
Your automatic brain loves to jump to fully-formed interpretations of the things around you.
In a single instant, it can make a remarkable number of logical leaps and throw a big, scary conclusion at you all at once.
But unless you ask, it doesn’t give you all of its interim steps. It just slams you with the answer. So one way to wiggle out of your current belief is to go back and retrace your brain’s chain of logic.
Let me give you an example.
Recently, I read this HBR article about how beating yourself up isn’t effective. Immediately, I compared it to my own article on the same topic. And my automatic brain went into a complete frenzy.
“AHHHH!” my brain told me. “My approach to coaching is never going to sell!!!!”
Let’s just pause and look at what my brain did in that moment because it’s kind of remarkable.
In <1 second, my brain did a market overview, customer research, competitive analysis, and a strategy assessment. It took two pieces of data and came to an immediate and unshakable conclusion about the future of my entire business.
Who needs consultants when my brain can do all the work in an instant?
Now let’s take a look at the chain of logic my brain constructed in order to reach its conclusion. It was:
The HBR article is more tactical while my article is more theoretical.
People want tactical tips. People don’t have time for theory and thinking.
My articles are too theoretical.
Therefore, my approach to coaching is never going to sell.
I’m going to be poor and embarrassed forever.
Okay. That’s a theory.
Now if a first-year analyst presented these findings to his manager, how would it go?
Good try, smug-faced analyst guy. You did your best — you really did. But we’ll take it from here.
Part 5 ➡️
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Epilogue
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