Analysis Paralysis Is Holding You Back
Summary
TLDRThe video discusses analysis paralysis, a state where individuals become overwhelmed by the fear of making wrong decisions, leading to inaction. It delves into the science of neuroeconomics, explaining how the brain's loss aversion circuitry amplifies the fear of potential losses, while diminishing the anticipation of gains. The video offers strategies to overcome this paralysis, such as focusing on the first thought, extending the decision timeline to allow for intermixed losses and gains, and reducing stress to lower noradrenergic transmission. It also emphasizes the importance of emotional regulation and externalizing attention to mitigate the impact of loss aversion and facilitate decision-making.
Takeaways
- 🧠 Analysis paralysis occurs when our brain overthinks decisions, leading to intentional miscalculations about the future.
- 🔄 Our brain values potential losses more than potential gains, which is a result of evolutionary adaptations meant to protect us from mistakes.
- 🎯 The first thought we have is more influential in decision-making than subsequent thoughts, highlighting the importance of our initial instincts.
- 🕒 The longer we own or commit to something, the more its perceived value increases, making it harder to let go or change course.
- 🌐 Extending the timeline of our decisions can lessen the impact of potential losses, making it easier to take action.
- 😌 Emotional regulation techniques can help reduce the fear and stress associated with potential losses, leading to clearer decision-making.
- 💤 Reducing stress and noradrenergic transmission can decrease the power of loss aversion, facilitating easier decision-making.
- 🌍 Interoception, or being highly attuned to one's internal state, can make individuals more susceptible to loss aversion, so externalizing attention can be beneficial.
- 🛌 Simple actions like getting a good night's sleep can significantly impact our ability to overcome analysis paralysis and make decisions.
- 🎮 Gaming addiction can be addressed by understanding the psychological needs it fulfills and finding healthier alternatives to meet those needs.
Q & A
What is analysis paralysis?
-Analysis paralysis is a state where an individual is unable to make decisions due to overthinking or over-analyzing a situation. It often occurs when faced with important life choices, such as career paths, relationships, or major life changes.
How does the brain contribute to analysis paralysis?
-The brain contributes to analysis paralysis by making intentional miscalculations about the future, which are driven by a fear of potential losses. This fear is amplified by the brain's loss aversion mechanism, where the potential pain of loss is experienced more intensely than the pleasure of potential gains.
What is the science of loss aversion?
-The science of loss aversion is a field of neuroeconomics that studies how individuals perceive losses more significantly than gains. It reveals that the brain values what is already owned more than potential gains and that the fear of loss can be amplified, leading to decision-making paralysis.
What role does dopamine play in decision-making?
-Dopamine plays a crucial role in the brain's reward system. It is released in the ventral tegmental area and is associated with motivation, reward, and behavioral reinforcement. However, in the context of analysis paralysis, the potential gains do not activate this dopaminergic circuit as strongly as the fear of loss, leading to an imbalance in decision-making.
How does the duration of ownership affect the value of an object or decision?
-The longer an individual owns an object or is in a situation, the more its value increases in their mind. This is due to the brain's loss aversion circuitry, which amplifies the perceived value of what is owned, making it harder to let go or make changes.
What is the temporal bias in decision-making?
-The temporal bias refers to the brain's tendency to experience the pain of a potential future loss in the present moment, while the pleasure of a potential future gain cannot be experienced. This bias contributes to analysis paralysis by making losses seem more significant and immediate than potential gains.
How can one overcome analysis paralysis?
-To overcome analysis paralysis, one can rearrange their thinking to prioritize their natural desires, extend their time scale to consider intermixed losses and gains, and reduce stress levels to decrease noradrenergic transmission. Additionally, externalizing attention away from internal focus can help reduce the impact of loss aversion.
Why does the order of thoughts matter in decision-making?
-The order of thoughts matters because the first thought an individual has is more likely to influence their decision-making than subsequent thoughts. This is due to the brain giving more weight to initial considerations, which can be leveraged to overcome analysis paralysis.
How does emotional regulation help in overcoming analysis paralysis?
-Emotional regulation techniques can help reduce the fear and anxiety associated with potential losses. By calming the amygdala, which is hyperactivated in loss aversion, individuals can diminish the negative emotional impact and make more balanced decisions.
What is the impact of stress on decision-making?
-Stress increases noradrenergic transmission, which amplifies the pain of potential losses. This makes it more difficult to make decisions, as the fear of loss becomes more dominant. Reducing stress can help balance this impact and facilitate decision-making.
How does interoception influence susceptibility to loss aversion?
-Interoception, or the focus on internal bodily sensations and emotions, makes individuals more sensitive to loss aversion. Being highly interoceptive can lead to a heightened awareness of potential losses, making it more challenging to act without fear of negative outcomes.
Outlines
🧠 Understanding Analysis Paralysis and Loss Aversion
This paragraph introduces the concept of analysis paralysis, a state where individuals become overwhelmed by overthinking and are unable to make decisions. The speaker, a psychiatrist, explains how the brain's natural process of weighing pros and cons can lead to inaction due to the fear of negative outcomes. The discussion transitions into the science of loss aversion, highlighting that our brains may intentionally miscalculate the future, leading to paralysis. The speaker also promotes a guide to mental health that combines their experience as a monk and a psychiatrist.
🤯 The Neuroeconomics of Decision-Making
The speaker delves into the field of neuroeconomics, which merges psychology, neuroscience, and economics, to understand how the brain makes decisions. The focus is on the concept of loss aversion, where the brain values potential losses more than equivalent gains. The paragraph explains how the brain's fear circuitry, involving the amygdala and the ventral tegmental area, plays a significant role in decision-making. The speaker uses the example of a $5 bill and a $5 object to illustrate how the brain overvalues potential losses and undervalues potential gains, leading to analysis paralysis.
🔄 The Temporal and Interoceptive Biases
This paragraph discusses the temporal and interoceptive biases that affect decision-making. The speaker explains that the pain of a future loss can be experienced in the present, while the pleasure of a future gain cannot. This imbalance in the brain's perception leads to an overestimation of potential losses. The concept of 'duration of ownership' is introduced, where the longer one owns an object or holds onto a pattern of behavior, the more its perceived value increases, making it harder to let go and leading to analysis paralysis.
🎮 Gaming and the Dopaminergic Circuitry
The speaker addresses the issue of gaming addiction, explaining how games can trick the brain into substituting for real-life experiences. The discussion highlights the role of dopamine in reinforcing behaviors and the challenges of overcoming analysis paralysis related to gaming. The speaker suggests that changing the order of thoughts and externalizing attention can help in overcoming the paralysis and making decisions.
🌟 Overcoming Analysis Paralysis through Action
The speaker provides strategies to overcome analysis paralysis. The first strategy is to recognize the brain's tendency to overestimate losses and underestimate gains. The second is to reduce stress levels, which affects noradrenergic transmission and can lessen the impact of loss aversion. The third strategy is to externalize attention, focusing on the external world rather than internal signals, which can help in reducing the power of the loss aversion circuitry in the brain.
📚 Raising Healthy Gamers
In the final paragraph, the speaker briefly touches on the topic of raising children in the context of gaming. The speaker mentions a book, 'How to Raise a Healthy Gamer,' which combines neuroscience research with clinical practice to offer guidance on how to prevent gaming from becoming a substitute for real-life experiences.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Analysis Paralysis
💡Neuroeconomics
💡Loss Aversion
💡Dopamine
💡Amygdala
💡Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA)
💡Striatum
💡Emotional Regulation
💡Interoception
💡Temporal Bias
💡Stress Reduction
Highlights
Analysis paralysis is a common issue where individuals become overwhelmed by the need to solve important life problems, leading to inaction.
The mind engages in logical calculations, weighing pros and cons, but often fails to reach a decision due to fear of negative outcomes.
The science of loss aversion explains why people may intentionally miscalculate the future, leading to paralysis in decision-making.
Neuroeconomics is an emerging field that combines psychology, neuroscience, and economics to understand human behavior and decision-making.
The brain's ventral tegmental area and amygdala play significant roles in motivation, fear, and decision-making processes.
Loss aversion circuitry in the brain can be understood to overcome analysis paralysis by recognizing its impact on decision-making.
The duration of ownership of an object or activity increases its perceived value, making it harder to let go or change course.
Temporal bias affects decision-making by allowing the pain of future losses to be felt in the present, while future rewards cannot be experienced.
The brain放大s the perception of loss by a factor of two, while potential gains are reduced by half, leading to an imbalance in decision-making.
Intermixed losses and gains, such as playing multiple rounds of a game, reduce the pain of individual losses.
Extending the decision-making timeline can alleviate the fear of making the wrong choice, as it allows for more opportunities to correct course.
Emotional regulation techniques can help reduce the impact of loss aversion by calming the amygdala's response.
Reducing noradrenergic transmission, which can be achieved through stress reduction and better sleep, can lessen the power of loss aversion.
Interoception, or attention to internal states, can increase vulnerability to loss aversion, making externalizing attention a helpful strategy.
Analysis paralysis can be mitigated by focusing on the first thought that arises, as it holds more motivational weight.
The key to overcoming analysis paralysis is not necessarily making the right decision, but rather achieving a state of mental well-being that allows for clear decision-making.
Gaming addiction is a complex issue that tricks the brain into using games as a substitute for meeting psychological needs.
Dr. K's guide to mental health offers a Choose Your Own Adventure format combining over two decades of experience as a monk and psychiatrist.
Transcripts
today we're going to talk about analysis
[Music]
paralysis as a psychiatrist I've worked
with a ton of people who get paralyzed
with over analysis so they're trying to
solve problems in their life really
important problems like what should I
major in in college should I stay in
this relationship should I quit this job
should I pursue my dreams or should I do
something that gives me a stable income
and as we're faced with all of these
problems our minds starts logic through
things it makes calculations it says
okay we could do this we could do this
here are the benefits here are the cons
and at the end of the day though the
Mind ends up warning us because what if
things go wrong what if you break up
with this person and you can't find
someone else what if you choose to study
this in college but then you can't find
a job so in all of these situations of
analysis paralysis we make calculations
and then our mind warns us of the
consequences and no matter how many
times we think through things
we can't seem to find an answer that
prompts us to action and the reason for
that is because our brain is making
intentional
miscalculations about the future that
end up paralyzing us and this is the
science of loss aversion hey all' if
you're interested in applying some of
the principles that we share to actually
create change in your life check out Dr
K's guide to mental health it combines
over two decades of my experience of
both being a monk and a psychiatrist and
distills all of the most important
things I've learned into a Choose Your
Own Adventure format so check out the
link in the bio and start your journey
today so this is super cool because this
research comes out of the field of
neuroeconomics this is part of the
reason why no one really understands
this because this is an emerging field
see we used to have psychology which
started with people like Sigman Freud
and Yung and stuff like that and now we
have things like psycho therapy and we
have therapists who understand all of
these things about human behavior and
then we have stuff like Neuroscience we
started doing brain scans but the people
who are doing brain scans aren't
actually helping human beings change
their behavior and then we have the
field of Economics which is about how
human beings make choices and so
something really cool has happened which
is that in the last decade or so these
three Fields have merged into something
called
neuroeconomics and the revelations from
neuroeconomics are fascinating and one
of the most important things that we've
discovered which a lot of therapists
don't understand we're not trained in
this stuff is about loss aversion so if
we want to understand how to overcome
analysis paralysis it turns out that
neuroeconomics gives us a really good
insight into how our brain makes
decisions and how there are certain
parts of the brain that will keep you
paralyzed because they are afraid of the
consequences the crazy thing is that
these parts of the brain actually make
incorrect calculations which is part of
the reason why we when you do something
that's really difficult right often
times you'll have this experience of
like oh it wasn't that bad after all and
if you stop and think about it for a
second how is it that you thought it was
going to be so bad and it turns out to
not be that bad after all that's because
your brain is making an intentional
miscalculation so let's start by
understanding the basic circuitry of
loss aversion and once we understand
this we'll understand why we end up in
analysis paralysis and what to do about
it so let's take a quick look at the
circuits of the brain that are involved
in loss aversion so the first is the
ventral tegmental area which is also
governed by dopamine so this is our
dopaminergic Circuit of the brain this
provides motivation reward and
behavioral reinforcement all right so
this is the part of our brain that tells
us to do it but when we make a decision
down here we also have another part of
our brain we have our amygdala our lyic
system this one is also NORAD energic
and this will become important later but
this is what gives us fear or predicts
losses okay so what ends up happening is
this Circuit of the brain and this
Circuit of the brain each generate a
response that then combine together into
some kind of calculation in the striatum
and then this results in some kind of
decision so let's just think through
this okay anytime we're trying to think
about the decision we think about the
reward we think about what's the
advantage of doing this this is done by
the VTA and then we also think about the
consequence okay like should I break up
with this person or not well let's see
like if I break up with this person
maybe I'll feel alone maybe I won't find
someone will I be able to find someone
and there's a lot of uncertainty here
and then what happens is we sort of end
up over here and unless this decision is
made in the right way or unless this
calculation is in the right way we end
up not making a decision so this seems
super simple right we think about the
potential advantages we think about the
the potential consequences and then we
result in the decision and the reason
that I'm paralyzed is because I don't
have enough information to make the
appropriate calculation so it feels like
in my brain I'm spinning my wheels I
think through the same stuff over and
over and over again but this remains a
question mark there's no decision to be
made because I need more information
turns out that the reason that you can't
make a decision is because this guy over
here is intentionally
divorced from reality and this is insane
and if we want to overcome analysis
paralysis what we actually need to do is
re in this Circuit of the brain to be
more commensurate with reality and once
it is more commensurate with reality our
ability to act will become easier so let
me just give you all a simple example of
this right so anytime you have analysis
paralysis what it boils down to is you
can't act because what if someone
something goes wrong right that's the
essence of it so your brain is worried
about a potential loss all of this
effort without some kind of gain what if
I put in all of this effort resources
time energy and what if it doesn't work
out so your mind is predicting the loss
and if you sort of think about it that's
why you can't act right because there
could be a potential loss there could be
something that goes wrong and then all
my effort is wasted so if you really
look at what paralyzes you it's not the
calculation it's that there's a chance
that something could go wrong if I could
eliminate the chance that something
could go wrong or reduce the chance that
something could go wrong would it be
easier for you to act and if the answer
to that question is yes we're going to
show you exactly how to do that so this
is where we get to a couple of
experiments about
neuroeconomics and this is what's really
weird Okay so a lot of the stuff isn't
going to make logical sense because it's
not logical because our brain works in
an illogical way so the first principle
that we understand is that if I have $5
and I have an object that is worth
$5 these are not worth the same in my
mind literally what my brain does is
anytime I'm thinking about purchasing
something okay so I have the $5 in my
hand I want to buy a $5 object what my
brain does is thinks about all of the
possibilities of the $5 right I could do
this with $5 I could buy that I could
get a coffee I could get a digital
cosmetic I could to order a book on sale
I could do all of these things with $5
oh my God imagine all the stuff I could
do with $5 and then what happens is we
think about the object itself and what
what does the object do it can only do
one thing so then my brain decides okay
even though these two things are
technically worth the same my brain
values the $5 more now that may make
perfect sense but now this is when
things get weird so let's say I have an
object with $5 worth $5 sorry and I'm
thinking about selling the object so
then what happen happens is my brain
does the opposite it actually thinks to
myself oh my God I have this $5 coffee
mug this is the best coffee mug I enjoy
this coffee mug every single day it's
really crazy but like man I love this
coffee mug so much and if I sold it I
wouldn't be able to you know use this
coffee mug anymore and so now what we
sort of think about is the value of the
object and then we end up thinking a
little bit about the value of $5 so I
know it SS kind of weird but like
there's very little value in the $5 if
we already own the object so this is
what's kind of weird but the science of
loss aversion teaches us that that which
you already own is worth more to you
than a possibility of something else now
this may sound kind of weird but I want
youall to just think about this for a
second okay so anytime you're thinking
about let's say should I major in this
particular thing in college should I
study this in college so if you sort of
think about it in that moment what you
own is a lot of free time right so this
is your time you haven't committed to a
major what you own In This Moment is the
possibility of choosing the right thing
there are a lot of sort of things that
you own already I know it sounds kind of
weird but this is how it works and then
the moment that you commit to something
it's either it works out or it doesn't
work out but right now before you make a
choice you have all of these
possibilities available this is like
having the $5 and then the other thing
that's really weird about this is that
the duration of ownership matters so the
longer that you hold the $5 or the
longer that you own the object the more
it is worth to you and this explains why
this is really confusing but a lot of
people I work with Will let's say waste
their life playing video games they say
I've been playing video games for 10
years and oh my God people think that
logically if you've been wasting your
life for 10 years then that you should
be more motivated to do something with
it right so if it's like okay I wasted a
day like not that big of a deal but once
I waste a month I'll be more motivated
if I waste a year I'll I'll be more
motivated because I have all this
catching up to do but the science of
loss aversion teaches us that the longer
that you hold in a particular pattern
the longer that you engage in this dopam
energic activity the more it matters to
you the more that it be you become
attached to it and the harder it is to
give up so we literally value things
that we've been doing and things that we
own for a longer period of time so the
value of that which you own is worth
more to you than a potential possibility
and this explains some of our analysis
paralysis because if I'm in a
relationship let's say and the
relationship isn't very good good let's
say it's only a two out of 10 and I look
at the rest of the world and I think to
myself okay there's a lot of people out
there that I could have a five out of 10
relationship with the problem is that
once you already own this relationship
your brain amplifies this by two to
three times literally we sort of know
what the number is and this also changes
with the duration of the ownership so
the longer that you've been in a
relationship the more that your brain
values it even if objectively it is not
worth very much okay so now we begin to
see one calculation and this will fit in
more but that the duration of ownership
and what you own actually increases the
value of something in your mind even if
it is it objectively worth less we'll
talk about how to deal with that
information how to use it more
applicably but this is the first bias
that we need to understand the second
thing that we need to understand is a
temporal bias now this is going to sound
kind of confusing like a lot of stuff in
this video because a lot of stuff is not
logical because it's actually divorced
from reality so let's understand the the
temporal bias okay so remember we have
the ventral tegmental area which gives
us dopamine which gives us our
experience of a reward and then we have
our amydala which gives us our fear
which gives us our projection of loss so
here I am am trying to make a decision
about the future so I don't know if this
makes sense but when we make a decision
about the future when we're worrying
about the future the pain of a future
loss can be experienced today but the
dopamine reward from a future
accomplishment cannot be experienced
today this is screwed up so anytime you
sort of look at something that you're
doing right let's say I'm picking a a
major in college so the exhilaration of
graduating four years from now with a
degree doesn't give me any dopamine it's
just a possibility it doesn't activate
this part of my brain thinking about the
future thinking about how much fun a
game is going to be does not release a
surge of dopamine the thing that is
screwed up about our brain is that a
future loss can be experience today so
literally if you were stuck in analysis
paralysis and you're thinking about the
benefits and you're thinking about the
losses the pain of the loss can be
experienced in the present moment even
if you haven't lost anything and it is
that pain of loss right that you
experience over here this you get this
signal we get this one right so this one
actually comes in to our brain is like
ouch this hurts but we don't get any of
the perspective pleasure this remains
empty and what this results in is it
keeps us stuck and if only things were
that easy it turns out that things are
actually even worse than this so it
isn't just that you can experience a
future loss in the present which will
paralyze you from acting because it
hurts so much it's that the amount of
loss that you experience is two times
what it actually is okay so this is
literally what we know so when our brain
makes a calculation about the future it
cuts the reward in 50% or 1/2 and it
actually does doubles the size of the
loss so let's take a quick look at a
paper that sort of illustrates how
screwed up this is so while potential
loss had a significantly greater effect
on Choice than potential gain in both
adolescence and adults this is looking
at specifically adolescence but the key
thing here to understand is that we
value losses more than we value gains by
a factor of about two so I know that
sounds kind of bizarre but what that
literally means is anytime you are faced
with some kind of analysis problem is
your brain is actually doubling the cost
of what you're trying to do and cutting
in half the benefit of what you're
trying to do and if you've kind of gone
through life you've sort of noticed this
right you've noticed that okay you're
really worried about something going
wrong and your brain is like this could
go wrong and this could go wrong and
everything could fall apart and then you
end up doing it and you're like you know
what it wasn't that bad after all I see
this a lot even in children who are
getting vaccines or getting injections
where it's like okay the kid is
terrified of the shot oh my God the shot
is going to hurt so much but you get the
shot it lasts like less than 5 seconds
and then you kind of feel fine and
everything is okay and so it turns out
that because of evolutionary reasons our
brain has learned how to
amplify prospective losses in order to
protect us from making mistakes but the
world that we live in now has changed
drastically from when we were like
primates living in the wilderness and we
were like trying to figure out whether
we should try to hunt down this deer
when we also see tiger tracks so this is
the problem the world that we live in
today has a lot of uncertainty and in
all of this uncertainty there are a lot
of possible losses that you could
experience the challenge is that in your
brain all of those possible losses
literally activate your loss experience
in the brain they activate your fear
response Center they activate your
amydala and those things decrease your
motivation they make it hard for you to
act so not only is this temporal
component where we can experience the
losses of the future in the present and
we can't experience the gains but also
there is an amplification of this signal
so now the question becomes what on
Earth do we do about it and this is
where there's good news because in the
same way that our brain is kind of
screwed up there are other Revelations
that we have that can help us almost
trick the brain into overcoming analysis
paralysis and acting the first thing
that we need to talk about is order of
operations so I don't know if yall
remember this but if we kind of go back
up here we remember that that which we
own already is worth more than a
prospective gain right so if we kind of
go back to this idea of the $5 in our
hand versus the $5 object this is worth
more so in our brain literally the order
of our thoughts matters and I'll give
you a very very simple example of this
so you wake up in the morning and you
say I want to play video games and then
your brain says but I should work I want
to game but I should dot dot dot and if
you pay attention to your thoughts in
analysis paralysis what you will find is
some combination of this structure all
the time right I really don't want to be
in this relationship but I could be
alone forever I really do want to be in
this relationship but I have feelings
for this other person so we have all of
these kinds of initial thought followed
by but dot dot dot so this is where once
again neuroeconomics teaches us
something really interesting whatever
thought you think first is worth way
more in your decision making than the
thought afterward the first thought is
more more likely to be what you go with
than the second thought and I've seen
this in my work as an addiction
psychiatrist so what I've noticed when I
sort of read this paper it sort of
clicked with me because when I work with
people who are addicted to stuff what I
noticed is that the order of their
thoughts changes hey I really want to
have a drink today but I shouldn't and
then eventually what starts to happen is
they wake up in the morning they say wow
I I really need to take care of X Y and
Z today I have this to do I have this to
do man it would be really nice to have a
drink so what starts happen is the
temporal order of their thoughts changes
and what neuroeconomics teaches us is
whichever thought you think first is
going to have a stronger motivational
impact so if you are trying to do
something I know this sounds kind of
weird but what we really want you to do
is think in the direction that you
naturally want to go first right so if
you're trying to struggle with gaming
addiction wake up first thing in the
morning and think to yourself this is
what I really need to accomplish today
right so start immediately thinking
about the direction that you want to
move in and then your mind will come up
with other reasons but I want a game and
I'm not saying that this is going to
work 100% there's more to it but we
actually know from studies of
neuroeconomics that if you can change
the order of your thinking it will start
to result in a motivational change and
can potentially move you in the right
direction the second thing that we're
going to talk about is intermixed losses
this one is huge so here's what we know
imagine for a moment that you are
playing one game of your favorite
whatever mobile FPS whatever you're
queuing up for one round of something if
that game is a loss how much does it
hurt right if you play one game a day
and you lose it hurts a lot and in fact
if you're like me you never just play
one game a day right if you only could
play one game a day and there are times
in your life where you could queue up
for one round you actually don't because
what if the game goes bad you don't want
to just play one game and lose but if
you have 10 hours to play You're Going
to queue up 10 times you can afford to
lose the first game it's not that big of
a deal so if we look at these two
scenarios and they're literally the same
right so I've played one game and I've
lost that one game but in one scenario
this is okay let's just queue up and
play another in the other scenario this
hurts a lot because things have ended so
this is another thing that we understand
about loss aversion when we set a
particular end point the possibility of
a loss hurts way more but if we have
intermixed losses and gains which means
we have some wins and some losses each
of those losses hurts way less so what
this practically means is if you're
thinking about picking a particular
major in college you sort of pick your
end point in your mind at four years and
you think to yourself at the end of four
years what if I've made a mistake oh my
God I don't know what to do what if I
picked the wrong thing and then I can't
find a job job because that's our
particular end point so the way that we
frame the end determines how much the
loss hurts and remember the more that
the loss hurts the more it activates our
amydala and the more paralyzed it keeps
us so let me give you all a different
scenario let's say I said okay you've
got 10 years to figure out what you're
going to do with your life you've got 10
years to sort out your career are you
willing to spend four out of your 10
years to go to college and get a
particular degree now just think about
how different that feels right picking a
major that will determine the rest of
your life versus you've got 10 years to
figure it out University or college is
an option you can spend four years doing
that and you've got 6 years left if
things don't work out just notice how
different that feels mentally and this
is because we are now utilizing
intermixed losses and gains so what we
want to practically do is if you are
paralyzed with some kind kind of
analysis chances are you are looking at
an end point and that end point if you
extend it further out instead of saying
is this the right person for me or not
should I break up with this person or
not break up with this person try to add
more time to the end of it try to really
think about things in terms of
intermixed losses and gains this may
actually particularly go wrong that may
happen you know there's no way we can't
predict we don't know that things aren't
going to go wrong but the more time that
we add to the end of our mental equation
the easier it is to act now remember
that the goal of this video is not to
say that you should act or shouldn't act
it's to help you overcome analysis
paralysis and one of the most powerful
things that keeps us paralyzed is a
particular conception of endpoint as you
extend that end point out it will be
easier to act and now we get to the
third thing so the third thing is
actually going to be a combination of a
couple of things and what we're going to
do is go back to our core structure
because we know that there are multiple
things that modify this core structure
Okay so we've got dopamine we've got
noradrenergic transmission over here and
now this is going to become important so
remember I said that there's a box over
here and then we end up with a decision
so now we're going to learn about how to
fix this system and what's in the box
okay so the first thing is remember that
this side gets Amplified by 2X and this
side gets cut in half okay so the first
thing that we can do is is sort of
cognitively recognize that right so
recognize just notice that your mind is
making things twice as bad as they
should be and that the gains are going
to be half as much as what you expect
unless you're on Wall Street bets in
which case it's all screwed up which is
why it's a beautiful corner of the
internet okay so now let's understand a
couple of things the more that you can
engage in emotional regulation the
easier this equation will be so this is
a problem that we run into with analysis
paralysis we turn to logic or
calculations right we think about a lot
of variables A + B plus C minus and
here's the loss aversion stuff but this
could go wrong this could go wrong this
could go wrong and then we don't know
what to do so the cool thing is that we
tend to think that if we logically think
through this equation over and over and
over again like we're some math
professor right who's working on some
famous equation that eventually we'll
figure it out that's not what we need to
do if we literally engage in emotional
regulation techniques we will diminish
the size of these variables and it will
be easier to act we've talked a lot in
our Channel about different ways to
regulate emotions and alexiy and all
this kind of stuff but literally if you
have analysis paralysis you don't need
more information you don't need to spend
more time calculating you need to calm
down your amydala so at least you can go
from a 2X to a 1x estimation which is
literally what we we know from the
science of neuroeconomics and loss
aversion if you can employ emotional
regulation strategies it will be easier
to make a decision because you're a
migdala will not be controlling you okay
and remember also that this is a rigged
game because you don't get any benefit
of dopamine from a hypothetical but you
do suffer from a potential loss A
hypothetical loss in the present which
is completely screwed up okay the next
thing that we can do is reduce our
noradrenergic transmission so let's take
a quick look at a paper that sort of
illustrates this LW aversion might rely
on a similar amygdala strial nor
adrenergic circuit in hu in humans
supporting this hypothesis positron
emission tomography essays essays of
neuroadrenergic activity have found that
individuals with lower adrenergic
transporter density presumably leading
to this is the key thing greater nor
adrenergic transmission are more levere
this is what this is the sentence that
we're looking at okay so I know it's
kind of like weird because I just read a
bunch of crap but I've deciphered this
stuff for you here's the the takeaway
the more adrenergic transmission you
have the more power loss aversion will
have over you so I want you all to
really think about this too okay because
this is weird so when you think
something is going to go wrong what I
want youall to understand is that the
way that your brain calculates what goes
wrong is not based on reality it depends
on the level of your noradrenergic
transmission so then the question
becomes how can we reduce noradrenergic
transmission and this is huge so stress
fatigue inability to sleep all of these
things increase your noradrenergic
transmission right so what we literally
know is that when you are stressed out
in some way your cortisol levels
increase your adrenaline levels increase
and then related to Adrenaline is also
noradrenaline so like we have
epinephrine we have norepinephrine so
all of this these kinds of stress
hormones will literally amplify the pain
of a potential loss as we amplify the
pain of a potential loss it becomes
difficult for you to act so let's kind
of come back to our example should I
major in this thing and if you look at
people in college you'll notice that
some of them you're like how the hell do
these people do this they just pick a
major and they seem to be excited in
life but I am not able to be excited I
am so worried and you look at those
people and they're happy go-lucky
they're chilling they're vibing they're
able to enjoy things and that's because
their adrenergic their noradrenergic
level is low they are less stressed out
and we seem to think that okay they have
figured everything out which is why they
are so Carefree we think that once I
figure everything out then I will be
carefree the beauty of what
neuroeconomics teaches us is it's
literally the other way around you be
carefree first and then it will be very
easy to make decision and you may say to
yourself but Dr K that's not going to
work because I can't be carefree until I
make this decision and this is exactly
the intervention that we need to talk
about that is factually incorrect what
we know from yogic principles of
Detachment and Vaga and all of these
other things is that you literally if
you decrease your stress level by yoga
or meditation or even sleeping a full
night or reducing your caffeine intake
or reducing your substance use intake is
that your stress level will objectively
go down anything that you can do to
decrease your noradrenergic transmission
will make you more Carefree the more
Carefree you are the easier it is to
make a decision and then we come to the
last thing which is where we are the
most screwed especially in this
community so the last variable to
consider is interception so the more
interceptive you are the more loss of AV
verion will hurt so what does
interception mean so generally speaking
if we look at human beings they pay
attention to two different things some
people pay attention to the outside
world and some people pay attention to
the inside world so if you know people
who pay attention to the outside world
they can be a little bit more
materialistic right there're they're not
so aware of what's going on in here
they're not focused on how the bag that
they purchase let's say I purchase some
designer bag and then that bag makes me
happy so some people are like wow this
bag is really great and then there are
people like me and probably like you
because you're here you pay attention to
in here wow look at this happiness that
I feel from this bag our focus is not in
the outside world our focus is in our
internal environment and the more
interoceptive you are the more
vulnerable you are to loss aversion and
the amydala kind of gets hyperactivated
so people in our community especially
pay a lot of attention to themselves
right they're thinking a lot internally
they're feeling a lot internally they're
paying attention to their internal
signals it makes you awesome it's a big
advantage in spiritual growth because
the more inter receptive you are the
easier it is or the more tuned you are
to your internal environment the problem
is that generally speaking if we kind of
think about it right spiritual growth in
worldly success tend to be viewed in
some ways as opposite ends of the
spectrum and so as our interception
increases as we pay attention to more
internal signals and these can be our
thoughts they can be the logical ways
that we calculate through things they
can be our internal emotional
environment the more vulnerable we are
to all of this loss aversion circuitry
so the solution there is to externalize
your attention and the very practical
way to think about this is to simply
just do things that move your attention
outside of your head so if you are
struggling with analysis paralysis where
is the focus of your attention logic
calculation fear instead what you need
to do is have conversations collect data
and data is not reading random crap on
the internet right go and talk to people
explore things take a look at actual
data if you can right so the more that
you can externalize your attention you
can even do things like talk with other
human beings about other things you can
go for a walk you can play with a dog
you can go to a yoga studio you can go
out for a cup of coffee whatever it is
you can smell smell the roses right like
whatever you want to do the more that
you externalize your attention
literally what happens is this amydala
loss aversion circuitry in your brain
starts to become less powerful as that
loss aversion circuitry becomes less
powerful it becomes easier to act so
let's summarize so a lot of people today
struggle with analysis paralysis we have
all kinds of problems around gender
Dynamics and dating and professional
careers and inflation we have all of
these problems the world is filled with
uncertainty so when our brain is filled
with this and anytime we think about
acting we think about the pros and we
think about the cons cons the problem is
that anytime we think about the cons it
activates our negative emotional
circuitry as we activate our leg
negative emotional circuitry we feel the
pain of a hypothetical loss in the
present and that pain of the
hypothetical loss because it cannot be
balanced by the pleasure of a
hypothetical gain right so I can think
about what it feels like to get dumped
by my girlfriend or boyfriend but I
cannot experience the pleasure of a
hypothetical orgasm if I do not get
dumped this is a fundamental mismatch
with the way that our brain
experiences potential gains and
potential losses and since we have this
imbalance it biases us towards the loss
and so literally our brain experiences
more loss than gain when we're making a
calculation so what do we do about this
so our brain is kind of weird but there
are a couple things we can take
advantage of the first is that the first
thought that we have is worth more in
terms of motivation and action than the
second thought we have so literally
rearrange your thinking as best as you
can the second thing to consider is
intermixed losses and gains if we pick a
particular Endo that will hurt so much
more so instead what we want to do is
extend our time scale and give ourselves
more time for wins and losses because if
you really think about analysis
paralysis what is it that paralyzes you
it's this concept of if there is a
setback it's all over right if I break
up with this person I it's all over I'll
never find anyone ever again so really
pay attention to where is the end point
in your mind and the third thing is
really looking at sort of the
Neuroscience of that circuit and there
are three three things that we can do
emotionally reduce our fear and loss
aversion will get better secondly we can
reduce our stress level which affects
our noradrenergic circuitry which means
that if you are stuck in analysis
paralysis the most important thing that
you can do is to get a good night's
sleep remember that it's not making the
right decision that makes you chill it
is becoming chill first that allows you
to make the right decision and this is
also where people get so stuck right
because so many people I've worked with
assume that their mental well-being is a
consequence of the right decision that's
why you're so paralyzed because
if you make the wrong decision then your
life is ruined so it becomes so
important you're so stressed out about
it it's literally the other way around
become stressfree first vagia Detachment
check out our guides check out our other
videos we have lots of resources on that
and decisions will become easy the last
thing is y'all like me have an advantage
and disadvantage during the character
creation screen we picked interoceptive
interoceptive means you're thoughtful
you're careful you're spiritual but you
also amplify the negative signals of
loss aversion so the more that you can
externalize your attention the better
off you'll be so I'd love it if y'all
could give this stuff A shot and let me
know how it works for you hey Dr K how
do I get my kid to put down the game
without it being a fight every single
time the problem with gaming is that it
tricks our brain into being a substitute
for Life once we start to get our
psychological needs met through the game
that's when we become addicted how to
raise a healthy gamer combines the
latest in Neuroscience research along
with a decade of clinical practice check
it out anywhere books are
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