All you need to do to understand the power of your mind is look at an athlete who’s competing at the highest level of their sport and ask yourself how they got there. They didn’t just get there overnight; most were putting in the hard work at practice, on the field, and in the gym for years before their hard work paid off.
This kind of hard work requires more than just physical strength — it requires mental strength as well, including self-confidence and determination to never give up no matter what happens.
How The Brain Saves Energy
The human brain makes up only 2% of our body mass, but it consumes 20% of our energy. So how does it do it? That’s still a bit of a mystery. Scientists do know that, unlike most other organs in our bodies.
It doesn’t rely on glucose for fuel (meaning your brain could technically go without food for up to 3 days). Instead, it relies on ketone bodies — fats made by breaking down fatty acids — which is why fasting isn’t as bad for your brain as you might think.
The brain is an energy hog. Consuming 20% of our resting metabolic rate, it accounts for a huge chunk of our body’s calorie expenditure. So, while most people associate body fat with weight gain.
Excess poundage can actually be caused by what’s happening between your ears — particularly if you think less (less thought = less energy). One way our brain saves energy is by judging sensory information before it has even reached our consciousness.
At Stanford University, researcher Marc McLeod found that when participants read words on a screen, their brains filtered out letters that didn’t make sense. Our brains are so sensitive to making predictions about what we think.
We know — and so quickly — that they often jump to conclusions before all of a piece of information reaches awareness, McLeod told Science Daily.
Implicit Bias and the Brain
Implicit bias refers to attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. It’s not something people consciously choose; it influences our behaviors and beliefs without us realizing it.
Implicit bias is a result of how we learn from a young age that shapes our perceptions of different races, cultures, religions, and ethnicities. One example of implicit bias can be seen in how people associate words like articulate with European American males versus African American females.
It has more to do with experiences in life than anything else. The longer one holds onto these biases over time, they are even more difficult to recognize, but becoming aware can help mitigate their effect on behavior.
Most of us are familiar with implicit biases from the study of how stereotypes can affect our behavior without our even realizing it. But did you know that implicit biases can also have a tangible, physical effect on our bodies?
Neuroscientists have discovered that implicit bias can actually change how we process experiences and information in ways that negatively impact some groups over others.
An unfortunate truth is that we all hold implicit biases. Implicit biases are rooted in unconscious social cognition — in other words, we aren’t aware of our bias, but they still impact how we behave.
Every single one of us holds biases toward people who differ from us in the race, gender, religion, and more. These unconscious biases are baked into our brains thanks to decades of priming by movies, TV shows, and cultural norms.
The That’s Impossible Filter
Over time, we start to believe that we are not capable of many things. In fact, psychologists have named a specific mental filter that’s impossible, and I think it’s one of the most dangerous filters of all.
The term was coined by Timothy Wilson in his book Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering The Adaptive Unconscious. It refers to our tendency to ignore unexpected successes in our lives and discard them as flukes or just plain luck.
Once you believe something is impossible, it leads you down a certain path of action that usually ends with a self-fulfilling prophecy. Don’t stop yourself from accomplishing your goals because you don’t see an immediate path to success!
The one area where many of us get tripped up is when we use our own inner critic to evaluate how likely we are to succeed. We convince ourselves that it’s not possible based on a laundry list of reasons and justifications.
What’s important here is not to take these thoughts at face value, but rather challenge them, just as you would if a friend told you they didn’t think something was possible.
It’s a problem all humans have: we are more likely to notice and remember evidence that contradicts our deeply held beliefs. It’s a survival mechanism — it’s better to overestimate your enemy than underestimate him — but it can hold you back from becoming your best self.
If you think, deep down, that you are not capable of achieving something remarkable, you may be limiting yourself in ways you don’t even realize.
The Monkey Trap
If you’ve ever worked in sales, you may have heard of a buying signal. A buying signal is an unconscious body language gesture that lets you know when someone is willing to buy what you are selling.
It could be a slight tilt of their head or body language that implies interest or agreement. People don’t always do it on purpose; they do it because they are interested and engaged in your presentation.
When people are given a long series of binary choices — heads or tails? Coke or Pepsi? Mac or PC? — they fall into a pattern that is actually very easy to predict. But why do we make these predictable choices, and what can we do to overcome them?
This post will explore a few reasons why, and offer some strategies for making better decisions in your daily life.
There’s a famous story about a group of monkeys who were placed in a room with bananas hanging from strings. The monkeys quickly figured out if they worked together.
They could pull on one string and set another string swinging, which would cause a banana to fall into their cage. At first, they only ate when food was available — but soon enough, they learned to work as long as necessary to ensure that food kept coming.
Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself
At its core, your self-image is nothing more than a collection of beliefs. For example, if you believe you’re capable of doing X, Y or Z — your actions will almost always reflect that belief.
And if you don’t believe it? Well, your actions will (likely) support that belief as well. So before making any decisions about anything — you need to check in with yourself and make sure your thinking is clear, positive, and honest.
When faced with an important decision, imagine two doors — one labeled positive and one labeled negative. Know what to do next? Go through the positive door!
One thing we have to remember when we’re trying to improve ourselves is that humans make mistakes. It’s okay, there’s no need to beat yourself up about it or think you’re a failure for making a mistake.
Because it happens! Next time you realize you’ve made a mistake or something didn’t go as planned, just think of yourself as being human. Then move on and learn from your mistake!
Do you ever feel like your mind is holding you back? It’s easier than ever to be harshly self-critical. Part of that is what psychologists call upward social comparison, in which we look at others and compare ourselves (usually negatively) to them.
This often leads us to beat ourselves up for our failures, big or small. The good news? It turns out that being hard on yourself can actually keep you from reaching your goals — but there are ways around it.
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