bias for action and mindset shift
- Recently I find out a fascinating point that whether or not people decide to do one thing doesn’t depend on the benefit , but depends on the emotion .
- Just like I know running is good for me, but I am too lazy to go to the playground; like I know weight training can build up strength and confidence(maybe?), but I am too scared to go to the gym.
- Today when I am listening to the good life podcast I learn a new term bias for action , which means The action bias describes our tendency to favor action over inaction, often to our benefit . I am exactly the inaction-guy , before I do something I always tend to overthink and scare myself.
- Although I investigate my emotions, I can’t beat my fear if I don’t take action. It’s like a monster, saying nothing and watching you.
- I like what Jeff Su shared in his 100k celebrating video, “when I first started going to the gym, when someone said to me ‘Jeff, you should be looking at no one else but yourself unless you are trying to learn proper form or technique.’” I don’t understand this sentence totally until just now. Yesterday I only focus on the “focus on yourself” part, which is a solution for me to escape from my fear of what other people may think about me, but today I find the latter half-sentence is also helpful, the whole sentence combines to be an insight.
- The latter part points out what we can get from other people, we can learn movements or experiences from those who are better off than us in some field. In other words, we can look to other people for inspiration or motivation, but it becomes unhealthy when we start comparing ourselves to them. When comparing, we are easy to develop a victim’s mindset, why can’t I have that, instead of the growth mindset, what can I do to get that? Jeff said, “this mindset shift has really benefited me in developing my mental strength”.
2022/4/21 Update
- It’s seemly that bias for inaction also affects my decision-making process. When there are two options: one that I’m familiar with, another is new and strange to me, I would probably take the familiar one. I mean, maybe bias for inaction also has to do with how we make a decision——stay within the comfort zone or explore the unknown.
- I watch a film several years ago. Not remember the exact name but it has the
Yes
word(PS: the film is The Yes Man). It’s majored by Jim Carrey. The main character changed his life by sayingYes
to everything he met. Now looking back,saying YES to almost everything
is a way to overcomebias for inaction
and get out of thecomfort zone
.