The Thinker and Prover

In the last blog I touched upon how we define ourselves and our abilities, and asked if that’s always helpful, and I introduced the idea of “The Power of Yet.

Being self aware is part of personal development, but if we hold fast to certain definitions and beliefs about ourself and consider them inherent and fixed, then we are most likely to unintentionally limit ourselves……we might also create a self fulfilling programme. In life we can tend to get what we expect.

In all of us there is a thinker and a prover. We constantly look for evidence to support or prove what we believe about the world. It’s like a kind of filter through which ideas pass, and are unconsciously assessed : but rather than everything being in flux and open to doubt or change, the tendency is toward confirming what we think.

Following patterns which have kept us safe in the past are, we quite logically believe, the best way to interpret the world and keep us safe in the future. It may be a case of “what works” run through an unconscious programme, but the question is, does everything stay constant and does this work for us ad infinitum?.

Perhaps it doesn’t , if it closes down doing something which might expand our horizons and take us into new territory with more opportunity,

The thinker and prover effectively reinforces the perceptions and ideas you have of yourself and your world: it heightens your awareness of the “perception” so that you notice it more… and in doing this confirms and reinforces that idea.

However, it also ignores or even deletes information that doesn’t fit in with your belief, be it about yourself or something else. That is, alternative perceptions.

All of this is done without us knowing too much about it, such are the number and rate of thoughts going through our minds every hour of the day.

Emotional health is real and we all have our personal experience of it ; but for example those who think life sucks will increasingly look for evidence to support that And the biggest example I can think of that is “ why does that always happen to me” person: instead of random occurrences we can see patterns and think our life is typecast and pre written around some truths that…..well, we may just kind of made up . Or the “I cant do that” person who sure enough finds that they aren’t able, the first few times anyway, and give up.

The same applies to our perception of fortune favouring our lives. Studies show that people who consider themselves as lucky generally are because mindset has a tendency to show up as what we look for. Luck is a matter of perception, just like a state of mind whether it be lonely, happy or anything else. It can change and alter and it means different things to different people. For our own sense of security we might want to hold on to what we believe and you will certainly have to confirmed by outcomes you are more likely to notice that which supports this.

So, basically what you expect is what you get: and it never disappoints: that might be an upside to the pessimist in that 9 times out of 10 you are likely to be right: but it’s a strange “win”!