You’re here because you want something to change. Maybe it’s your job. Maybe it’s your health. Maybe it’s the constant nagging feeling that you’re capable of more, but somehow stuck exactly where you are. Whatever it is, reading this tells me you’re serious about making it happen. Good. That’s the first step. Now here’s the…
Nine out of ten owners say their cats prefer it. That’s the tagline. That’s what sells cat food. Not “one in ten cats don’t like it,” even though statistically that’s exactly the same information. Same data, different frame, completely different response. Previously in the foundation course we talked about the Affect Heuristic and how emotion…
If any positive changes in your life are to happen, it’s about time you started thinking about where you are right now in your life. Not where you were. Not where you wish you were. Where you actually are, today, in this moment. To help you do this I’m going to introduce you to a…
A paradox is a strange thing. It’s a statement or a situation that seems to contradict itself, yet might still be true, and it turns up far more often in ordinary life than most people realise. Take the old liar’s paradox as an example: what would happen if Pinocchio said “my nose is going to…
The thing is you might already know what you need to do. Let’s be honest about this. You know you need to exercise more. You know you should stop scrolling through social media at midnight. You know that job application isn’t going to write itself. You know exactly what needs to change. The problem isn’t…
By now I hope you accept that the majority of our automatic day to day decisions are affected by cognitive biases. In this lesson we’re going to discuss the effect that our perception of comfort and safety has on our lives, because here’s something most people don’t realise. Comfort and safety are not the same…
“The map is not the territory.” Alfred Korzybski wrote this early last century, and it’s one of those phrases that sounds obvious until you realise how completely most people ignore it. They confuse the description of reality with reality itself, the menu with the meal, the guidebook with the journey. And then they wonder why…
How Substances (Legal and Otherwise) Keep You Stuck There’s a concept I call the Drug Mis-Influence Tendency that distorts our perception of the world. When this happens, we become vulnerable to harm, often without realising we’re at risk. Things like drugs and alcohol are the main culprits. You just need to witness the carnage in…
Previously, we discussed primary gain, which is the tendency for people to seek reward and avoid pain. The ‘primary’ in primary gain refers to the fact that the behaviour, or the thing that person does or doesn’t do, is giving them a direct benefit. You eat chocolate because it tastes good. You avoid exercise because…
Why You Keep Taking the Same Road and Expecting a Different Destination I’d like to talk about stubbornness for a moment. Stubbornness can work for us or against us. I often see people disadvantaged by a stubborn tendency, people who carry on doing what they’ve always done yet possibly expecting a different result. I also…