Do You Even Know What You’re Thinking?
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So we’ve talked about how thoughts (not circumstances!) cause feelings and actions and the different types of thoughts you can find yourself having.
The natural next step is to ask, “Great, so how can I change my thoughts?”
Before you do that — here is the case for really, really understanding what you’re thinking today, before you change anything.
There are two reasons to do this. First, just like with anything, you want to get really clear on what the problem is before you start implementing solutions.
If a client came to you and said: “We’re not profitable! We need to increase marketing spend immediately!”
What would you say? Probably something like, “Wait, hang on — are we sure that marketing spend is the problem? What’s actually causing the lack of profits?”
And second, you want to separate the signal from the noise. When you find yourself stressed out, anxious, angry, stubborn, resistant — your automatic brain, is sending up a package all at once, in an undifferentiated mass.
Your deliberate brain needs to open that package, sort through it, and decide what it wants to keep and what it wants to throw away. Because very often, your automatic brain sends up a box that’s 99% crappy feelings and cognitive biases — and 1% absolute solid gold insight, and you don’t want to throw that insight away.
Before you rush into changing your crappy thoughts — before you rush into feeling better — take a little time to hang out exactly where you are today.
Your automatic brain is doing its best. It’s sending you signals the only way it knows how. Open the package. You can throw it away or you can keep it — that’s your call. But you’ll never be able to decide until you look at what’s inside.