FRIDAY, 25 FEBRUARY 2022
This morning I was reminded again of a good mind hack I learned a few years ago. If you accept responsibility for something for which a reasonable argument can be made that you really are to blame, it sends a message to the subconscious: “If something was your fault, you are capable of making such a thing happen. And if you were able to make it happen, you are quite possibly able to prevent it, or avoid it. Maybe you didn’t do it this time because you were silly or stupid, or irresponsible or reckless. But you are capable of it. And if you are capable of doing it, you have the choice to try harder next time, or to do better. Or you have the choice now to change your behaviour to avoid it next time, or to improve your skill to enable you to avoid it next time. You are capable.”
Consider the opposite. “It wasn’t my fault,” when a reasonable argument can be made that you were, in fact, at least partly responsible for it. It sends a message to the subconscious that you could not avoid or prevent it. You were a victim of a situation beyond your control, or of someone else’s behaviour. You were unable to improve the situation or minimise the consequences. You are not capable. You are, more or less, powerless.
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