Let’s use that confirmation bias, shall we?

My niece was telling me about some studies that she found that I should include in this blog. She’s getting her  PhD in bio-chem, so she’s a smart cookie – I listen to her. The results of the studies basically showed that students will make most of the new information that they are presented with in a class fit into their pre-existing beliefs, rather than adjust their belief systems – even in an educational context when the whole point is to learn new ways to think!

This is confirmation bias, right? We all do it. Our brain is looking for the easiest, most efficient way to function. It doesn’t want to have to adjust all the structures that are already put in place, so it reinterprets the new information to fit our existing beliefs.

Beliefs are just thoughts that we’ve thought so many times that we have created neural pathways – the bias that we are constantly confirming.

And as I explained last week, that’s why we’ve spent the last few weeks charging up our talismans and turning our dreams into beliefs.

Now that we believe in our dreams, we are going to let confirmation bias work in our favor. We are going to give our brain a problem to solve: how to pick actions that will get us to the outcome that we now believe is possible. We call in our natural imagination and problem solving abilities.

You know how when you try to remember something, it seems to come to you out of nowhere in the middle of the night? Yeah, that’s your brain solving problems in the background – and it’s amazingly proficient at it. We just have to phrase the question the right way. We ask leading questions so we’ll get the answers we need.

Here’s the work this week. Keep daydreaming and charging up your talisman, of course, but add in the question, “What’s the best (or easiest or most fun) way to make this happen?” Make sure you’ve led your brain towards a positive answer – there are no if or but options allowed.

Then relax and let your amazing, imagination-fueled, problem-solving machine of a brain work on it in the background. I like to think that I’m giving my brain a homework assignment, and she works on it while I’m asleep.

We are opening the door for inspiration.

And remember: in all things – progress, not perfection!

Love and light, Maggie

*****

p.s. I still do 1 on 1 coaching. I’m focusing on using Color Thinking. If you’d like to try a free session or explore what coaching looks like, shoot me an email and we can set up a time to talk: maggie@maggiehuffman.com

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