Helpful Heuristics

Hack your heuristics.

Makes for a catchy click-bait heading, I agree. The idea, though, is quite useful for those of us making change happen.

Heuristics, a fancy word for our mental shortcuts, are something we use every day for making decisions and solving problems. Most save us time and mental energy, and produce a ‘good enough’ result to warrant continuing to follow them.

What about when we’re in the process of changing, pursuing a new goal or working on a new project? Might our regular mental shortcuts be keeping us trapped in the same thinking, and the same behaviours?

Thinking about our thinking can uncover some of the unhelpful heuristics that keep us doing what we always do, and keep us getting the results we always get.

I’m curious, have you ever thought about what’s hiding in your brain’s shortcut section, and how it is helping or hindering you in the change you seek to make?

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