Fast Thinking

A couple of weeks ago I read an article which was based on an interview with Professor Daniel Kahneman, Psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002.  Reading the article reminded me of a Horizon documentary I watched a couple of months ago called How You Really Make Decisions which was based on the work of Kahneman, who along with friend a collaborator, the late Amos Tversky, established a basis for common human errors which arise from biases.  At the heart of his work is the idea that when we think we use two systems; fast System 1 which is automatic, effortless and intuitive, and System 2 which comes into operation when we need to stop and think about more complex questions.  The problem is that System 2 is often lazy and will form mental shortcuts to simplify complex questions. The understanding of this led to the establishment of Behavioural Economics, the study of the effects of social, cognitive and emotional factors on the economic decisions of individuals and institutions, which is why Kahneman received the Nobel Prize for Economics rather than Psychology.

In his book, 'Thinking, Fast and Slow' Kahneman states that we are not rational creatures but instinctive ones and the decisions we make are fast and often innaccurate, based on systematic errors which recur predictably in particular circumstances without us being aware.  Therefore if we want to make better decisions, we should be aware of these biases. The good news is that we have the ability to reflect on our biases so that we can minimise their effect and overcome them.  It's important to realise that our beliefs are not always anchored in reason and we should know when to distrust fast thinking and use slow thinking to keep our natural impulse in check.

"It's far easier to identify and label the mistakes of others than to recognise our own"
Professor Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (2012)

Further Reading
http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/the-thought-father-nobel-prizewinning-psychologist-daniel-kahneman-on-luck-9199162.html

Mindsets

A while ago I came accross an article titled 'the right mindset for success' which was a transcript of an interview with Carol Dwek, a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University.  According to Dwek, people can be differentiated according to their views of where ability comes from.  Those with a 'fixed' mindset believe their basic abilities, intelligence and talents are just fixed traits, whereas those with a 'growth' mindset understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, teaching and persistence. 

Most people are not aware of their own mindset, but it is especially evident in their reaction to failure.  Fixed mindset individuals dread failure because it is a negative statement on their basic abilities, while growth mindset individuals don't mind or fear failure because they realise their performance can be improved and learning comes from failure.  According to Dwek, an individual's mindset impacts how they face and cope with challenges and can play an important role in all aspects of life. Dwek argues that the growth mindset will allow a person to live a less stressful and more successful life.

In the book 'How To Win' Dr Rob Yeung suggests that most people have parts of both the fixed and growth mindset, rather than believing that all attributes are 100% innate or trainable. His view is that your current beliefs are only a starting point and that you can shift your mindset by understanding it.

A mindset is an established set of attitudes that predetermine a person's responses to and interpretations of situations. It is not just confined to a fixed or growth mindset but can also relate to other views such as whether you have a positive or negative image of yourself and others, whether you view people as friendly or unfriendly, or whether you view the world is welcoming or hostile.

It's important to note that although your mindset can influence your personality, it's not part of it and is based on beliefs that are changeable. It's worth spending some time thinking about the mindset you have as it can distort your perceptions of events and can greatly influence your behaviour. 

You can challenge your mindset and decide which thoughts are constructive and which are destructive and choose the right mindset to approach life.

Further Reading

http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/01/the-right-mindset-for-success/

Control

In my last post I talked about choices, and at the heart of that is a sense of control.  It's natural to want to control where you are going, and to do that you need to have a sense of which direction you are heading.  If you start your journey with what you want you will always feel far off from your destination, but if you start with where you are now and what you have, you can gradually monitor progress.

There are plenty of things you can control, but it's also important to realise that there may be some things you can't.  Change constantly happens around you, sometimes things will happen that you don't understand and have no say over. It's possible to save yourself a lot of suffering if you accept this inevitability and learn from it as you go.

You do have a say over how the future unfolds and how you react to things you didn't anticipate.  Even if it doesn't seem like it, you choose the things you do every day, how you will interpret situations, and how you will react to them.  You can also decide at any time that you don't need to have all the answers, and you don't have to know and control everything. It's important to have realistic expectations - sometimes life is unfair and things will go wrong, but situations are only stressful if you allow them to be. You just have to trust that you know enough to take responsibility for now.

Choices

The other day I was at the supermarket, I needed some laundry detergent but my usual brand wasn't there. Suddenly I was confronted with a miriad of choices and felt quite overwhelmed, I stood there for far longer than should have been necessary trying to make a decision which should have been relatively easy, except it wasn't.  When I got home I wondered why it was so difficult and I remembered an article I came accross last year called 'the problems with too much choice'.  

In the article the author argues that while no choice can be constraining and make you feel powerless, too many choices result in paralysis, regret and unrealsitic expectations - it simply overwhelms your potential to make a decision and can lead to you giving up and not making a decision at all. The constant decisions we make every day are paralysing, distracting us from our lives.  

Life is about choices, but it's not the decision itself that causes the problem, it's the perceived consequences. The consequences that arise when choosing a washing power are much less significant than when it comes to making important life decisions, so no wonder it's difficult when it comes to the more significant choices. It's hardly surprising that making decisions is a common cause of stress on a day to day basis.  Logic can go out of the window and you get caught up in what you will miss out on if you choose one over the other, going over and over it so that you can't move forward.  The consequences seem more severe than they actually are and it can stop you from making decisions for fear of getting it wrong.

This has an effect in business, it's important to give customers control over their experience, but not so much that it overwhelms them.  Personally it helps to understand how the mind works when it is making decisions, if you gather all the information possible and accept that whatever choice you make will have consequences, including those if you don't make the choice at all.  If you get some perspective and try to remove the emotion it becomes easier, especially if you accept that you can deal with the consequences.

Life is full of choices, every moment of every day.  But not only do you make choices about day to day acivities, you also make a choice about your mindset and your attitude.  If you are in a situation you would like to change, then you have to make that choice to do so, no-one else can do that for you.

The consequences of not making that choice can be just as significant.

Further reading
http://linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130918095617-284615-the-problems-with-too-much-choice

Change

After thinking and reading a lot about goals and resolutions, there seems to be many different ways to approach them and make them last, but do any of these actually make us change?

I came accross an article which argued that while in theory everyone can change, in practice most people don't, and where there is change it represents an amplification of an already existing character.  And while some are more capable of changing than others, deliberate attempts to change are less effective than we think.  While a few of the arguments raised in the article made sense, in my view it represents a black and white, all or nothing way of thinking.

Sometimes change can feel impossible, but is it really?  It's easy to think our personalities are set in stone, but they evolve and mature over time.  The act of making a choice is in itself a change, and often it is our thoughts, beliefs and attitude that stands in the way. But it's difficult to recognise how things will feel on the other side of how they are now and it's easy to stay with the familiar.  When we experience change in our environment, the fight or flight response is triggered and fear pushes you into panic mode causing internal resistance.  Past experiences and beliefs help to prepare us for what to expect but it means we experience things as we anticipated it, whether it is actually that way or not.  The article mentions that the recipe for change involves building self awareness, changing a few behaviours and a lot of willpower. It doesn't matter how much willpower you have if you hold limiting thoughts and beliefs that create resistance that is just as strong, if not stronger, than the desire to change.  But simply being aware of what is happening means that you can circumnavigate it, and taking small manageable steps helps to reprogramme your expectations.

We think if we are not affecting major change in our life then it's not happening, but changing small things accumulate and it's often others who notice a change in us before we do.  The only way anything can change is one small piece at a time.  We can always choose our attitude, regardless of circumstances.  Even if you don't change overnight, the decision to work toward something better gives strength to make better choices in everyday life.  Thoughts, feelings, actions and the environment are all intertwined; a change in one creates a ripple effect in others.

If there's one thing that's constant in life, it's change and it often happens without us noticing it.  Nothing ever stays the same but it can be looked at differently if you consider it as an opportunity to let go of the way things were and find possibilities in the way things are.  The article questioned if we could really change our personalities but does that even matter?  Why fight with who you are when you can always change what you do.  We all change, we just have to make that choice.

"Whether you think you can or can't, you're right" Henry Ford

Further Reading:
http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/12/if-you-want-to-change-dont-read-this/

Resolutions

New year is traditionally a time for making resolutions for the year ahead, and we begin to look forward and set goals.  There's no escaping the New Year, New You articles at this time of year but it's equally important to look back over the last year so I made a list of all the successful things that happened in 2013 and reviewed it to consider what actions I'd like to take in 2014.

Recently though I've been reading about mindfulness and living in the present and the idea that if you live in the present, the future will take care of itself.  So I felt conflicted, is it possible to be present while setting goals for the future?

In my search for an answer, I came across an article by Steve Pavlina who says "You can only achieve anything in the present moment and you can only enjoy those achievements in the present moment.  You can't achieve anything or enjoy anything in the past or future because you're never there."  The point he makes is that the only value in goal setting is that it improves the quality of your present reality, not a future imagined reality.

In a previous post I talked about the benefits of letting go which is also important in goal setting.  Instead of continuously thinking about the desired future state, plan then let go and as it unfolds step back to see how things are going and make shifts where necessary.  Sometimes things just take time, but if the goal is one that improves your present reality in some way, then you know it's the right one.

It's possible to live in the present and help shape the future

Happy goal setting


Further Reading
http://stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/08/how-to-set-goals-you-will-actually-achieve/

In Bruges

Nothing puts you in the festive spirit quite like a Christmas market, and where better to visit than Bruges, a fairy tale city in the flemish region of Belgium.  A UNESCO world heritage site, it's as if this city was designed for Christmas, with picturesque cobbled lanes and canals which link market squares lined with beautiful historic buildings. Like Stockholm and other canal based cities Bruges is also sometimes referred to as the venice of the north, a charming town filled with incredible history, beautiful scenery and friendly locals.  Horses and carts are more common than cars in the city centre, where the main market square sits in the shadow of the spectacular 13th century bell tower.  This is the hub of the city, particularly during the festive season when the Christmas market sits against a backdrop of medieval buildings.  It's beautifully atmospheric and like a picture postcard.

On arrival in Bruges, I'm met with a smiley face at the reception of the hostel, then we head over to the market square.  The city is relatively small with about 20,000 people living there, but it's incredibly busy at this time of year when tourists often outnumber locals.  We take a look around the market and climb the 365 steps to the top of the tower and take in the view.  We then wander around the canals taking in the sights, a few of which we recognise after watching the film 'In Bruges' in which two hitmen are holed up in the city.  Colin Farell's character in the movie found the city boring but there is plenty too keep us occupied in the short time we are there and we throw ourselves into the tourist experience, visiting a chocolate museum and visiting a few of the many chocolate shops, a beer brewery tour and a snow and ice sculpture festival before getting the train for the 50 minute journey back to Brussels.

When we arrive, we head straight for the Grand Place - the stunning central market square, beautifully lit up by the nightly sound and light show which highlights the beautiful architecure of the surrounding buildings.  The centrepiece is an impressively large Christmas tree which adds to the festive atmosphere.  The city celebrates the end of the year with a large Euorpean Christmas market called 'Winterwonders' which spreads through the cobbled streets and squares. The size of the market is impressive with some amazing food and we try out the traditional frites with mayonaise then take a wander around where we come accross another smiley face - the smileoke bar!

The next day we take a bus tour to take in the sites and stop at the Royal Palace then head back to the city centre to check out the rest of the market selling everything you can imagine and I find another smiley face at one of the stalls.  No visit to Belgium would be complete without some waffles so we stop for some on our way back.

Both Bruges and Belgium are beautiful cities - particularly during the festive season.  Plus I found the perfect Christmas gift - some smiley faces.