Where must I say NO to the things that are distracting me from my highest priorities?

The truth is that we cannot always achieve the results we want. Sometimes, we do everything correctly but, due to circumstances outside our control, we fail to achieve the results we were hoping for. On the other hand, sometimes we achieve good results while doing things wrong. For instance, let's say you're in sales, and you need to cold call people. You follow the script, do everything right but are still rejected. Now, you call another prospect, keep making mistakes, but sell a contract. Time to celebrate, right? In fact, I believe it makes more sense to reward yourself for having done the right things in the first call than for having done everything wrong in the second call. Become a traveling interpreter. Research jobs as a tour guide. Consider working for an international company that offers relocation services for its employees. Consider a position as a restaurant reviewer for a travel magazine. Research culinary schools in Europe. Start your own research company for people who want to live overseas and who need information on schools, job opportunities, or housing options. Become a travel writer reporting on restaurants from around the world. Become a courier for an international courier company. Teach English part time in a foreign country. Visit the library with a goal of uncovering 50 potential jobs that combine travel and languages. In article 1 we saw how this bias influenced students' evaluations of an article on capital punishment (Lord et al. Confirmation bias helps people preserve their worldview by sustaining a stable, consistent set of beliefs and attitudes about the world.

In this way, it provides an individual with psychological security. However, confirmation bias also often leads to inaccurate interpretations of new information. One reason that confirmation biases occur is that schemas activated in our mind can lead us to interpret ambiguous information in a schema-confirming manner. For example, in one study, participants watched a silent videotape of a woman being interviewed (Snyder & Frankel, 1976). They were either told that the interview was about sex or that it was about politics, and their job was to assess the woman's emotional state. When participants thought the interview was about sex, they rated her as more anxious than when they thought the interview was about politics. The videotape was the same in both cases, and the woman's reactions were ambiguous. But when participants thought the topic was sex, they expected the woman to be anxious over discussing such a personal topic, and they therefore interpreted any fidgeting they saw as signs of anxiety. This is because taking the correct action is critical to achieving your goals. Now, what is a right action? A right action is one you have 100% control over and that, when repeated over and over, leads to the desired outcome. While you cannot be sure you'll achieve the results you're after, you can always choose your right action. And you can keep repeating that action consistently, regardless of external factors. Think of it as your most effective action. Rewarding yourself for taking the right actions You should reward yourself for the actions you choose to take, not for the results you obtain. The more you reward yourself for taking the most effective actions, the more motivated you will be to take the same actions in the future. Let me give you another example related to the previous one. Like Debbie, Victoria was excited about all the creative ideas generated by the group. That's what happens when you brainstorm with others.

The best of humanity shines through. The natural desire to give, as well as the excitement of realizing that anything is possible, inspire people to show up for one another. As people feed off of each other's ideas, the energy of the group creates more. Not only does the person who is receiving the support get a whole lot of possibilities, they tap into the energy and enthusiasm of others and strengthen their belief that anything is possible. Now it's your turn. Once you've completed your brainstorming session, list ten action ideas here: Take Action! Create Your Action Plan You've heard the expression Seeing is believing; The text on the computer screen reads, You're right and everyone else is an Idiot. The cartoon reads, I trust this site to tell the truth. APPLICATION Confirmation Bias and Climate Change A second reason for confirmation biases is that people tend to pay more attention to information that fits the schemas they already have and ignore information that doesn't fit. As a result of these attentional biases, people can even misremember factual information in ways that support their preferred beliefs. Take, for example, the ongoing political debate on climate change and what, if anything, can be done to curtail global warming. With so much at stake, one might hope that only the motive for accuracy guides attention and memory. But studies show that confirmation biases sneak in. In one study, participants watched a documentary detailing the scientific evidence for climate change and afterward were tested for their memory of details in the film. Imagine you're absolutely terrified of cold calling people. You can either put pressure on yourself, hoping the call will go well, or you can focus on taking the right action: picking up the phone and calling a number.

Making a sale is largely irrelevant at this point because, if you can't force yourself to make the call, you can't generate sales anyway. Now, let's say you're scared of public speaking. What would be the right action for you? Perhaps, it would be standing in front of people and saying a few words. Alternatively, it might be recording a video or hosting a Facearticle Live. Again, you want to build momentum. And taking the right action for you is all you need to do. As you repeatedly do so and congratulate yourself for it, you will feel motivated to move forward. Once you have a list of ten ideas or more from your brainstorming session, review them and choose five action steps. If you feel nervous about moving forward, it's perfectly okay to choose easy steps. If you want a strong start, choose the steps that are more challenging (these are probably the ones that you'd rather not do). Whenever you embark on making specific life changes it's important to always put a simple action plan in place. This means choosing five items to get you started and putting them in writing to keep you on track. Make sure they are specific and doable. As you consider which five to choose, remember the litmus test: Look for those actions that make you feel a sense of excitement and nervousness when you consider taking them. When Victoria looked over her list of ideas, she chose the following five actions to get her started: Contact two international companies to see if they ever use traveling interpreters. Research jobs as a tour guide. Those who had a strong motivation to justify current economic practices and regulation were more likely to misremember evidence as presenting a less severe problem. As a result, they were less likely to believe that climate change is problem that requires economic intervention (Hennes et al.

When Objective Information Is Used to Justify Bias Could insidious schema-based confirmation bias actually cause objective information to do more harm than good? To find out, Darley and Gross (1983) had participants watch one of two versions of a videotape about a nine-year-old fourth grader named Hannah, showing her playing in a playground, along with scenes of her neighborhood and school. The videotapes made it clear that Hannah had either an upper-class or lower-class background. Darley and Gross reasoned that participants shared the common schema of upper-class kids as academically successful and the common schema of lower-class kids as unsuccessful. Half the participants (the no-performance group) were then simply asked to rate Hannah's academic abilities on a scale ranging from kindergarten to sixth-grade level. The other half (the performance group) were shown a second videotape, which was the same whether Hannah was earlier depicted as upper or lower class, before being asked to rate Hannah. This videotape showed Hannah answering a range of intellectual questions ranging from easy to hard. Remember, doing anything outside your comfort zone is a massive step forward and is often the beginning of something exciting. Never punish yourself for doing anything uncomfortable or scary--even if the result is a disaster. Whenever you challenge yourself, you're doing really well, regardless of what anybody else might say. So, encourage yourself because you truly deserve it. Take the right actions and forget about the results for now and you'll be surprised by how much momentum you can generate. Below are some additional examples of right actions. Note that a right action is always something you have total control over. Right action: talk to one person, ask for their phone number or make better eye contact. Right result (but wrong focus): have a great conversation, get the person's phone number or try to get them to like you. Right action: learn the script and practice accordingly, pick up the phone and call a number. Visit the library and research jobs that combine language and travel. Pick up several travel and food magazines for ideas and to see what kinds of articles combine travel and food, as well as to learn more about the writers.