Psychologist Explains How to Improve Your Mind

Summary

The script discusses transforming your mindset to change how you perceive and respond to the world. It emphasizes realizing your subjective view of reality is likely inaccurate. Continuously questioning assumptions and outdated perspectives allows psychological flexibility to see opportunities others miss. Intense learning refines mental models, enabling a finely tuned filter to focus only on valuable signals. Avoid distractions by ignoring 80% noise before considering affirmative steps. Loyalty to your future self, not present conditions, determines choices. Clarifying your thesis - the essence of your beliefs, goals and strategy - creates simplicity enabling rapid life transformation.

Takeaways

• 😀 Our perception of reality is inaccurate and subjective.
• 😮 Letting go of limiting old ideas allows for new ideas and opportunities.
• 🧠 Transforming mental models changes how you see the world.
• 📝 Journaling helps examine your life and see patterns.
• 💡 Question assumptions and strip complexity to clarify focus.
• 📚 Intense learning transforms worldviews and mental filters.
• 🤔 Awareness of biases improves decisions and problem-solving.
• 🚀 Connect to your ambitious future self as the filter for decisions.
• ❌ First focus on avoiding noise before considering opportunities.
• 📑 Clarify a simple, focused thesis of your beliefs, values and strategy.

Q & A

What does the quote 'We don't see the world as it is we see the world as we are' mean?

It means that we all perceive and interpret the world subjectively, through the lens of our own experiences, assumptions and biases. We don't see reality objectively.

Why is it important to examine your own thinking and assumptions?

Examining your own thinking and assumptions allows you to identify limiting beliefs or biases that may be distorting your perception of reality. This self-awareness allows you to revise your mental models over time.

What is confirmation bias?

Confirmation bias is the tendency to interpret new information in a way that confirms your existing beliefs or assumptions. People often avoid or dismiss evidence that contradicts their internal narrative.

How can journaling help transform your mind?

Journaling allows you to track how your perspectives change over time. Noticing how your views differ from your past self can build self-awareness and psychological flexibility to update your beliefs.

What is a mental model?

A mental model is an internal explanation or framework you use to interpret information and experiences. Transforming your mental models involves revising your core assumptions and beliefs about how the world works.

What is selective attention?

Selective attention refers to how we train our minds to focus on certain information while filtering out other data based on our interests and priorities at the time.

How did Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger develop unique perspectives?

They continuously upgraded their mental models through intense, lifelong study across multiple disciplines. This gave them higher-level views to see opportunities others missed.

What should you focus on first according to Charlie Munger?

Charlie Munger believed you should first focus on what to avoid, what not to do, before considering affirmative steps. Identify and filter out noise before determining the signal to focus on.

Why transform your mental models?

Transforming your mental models allows you to shift your perceptions, assumptions and beliefs over time. This leads to clearer thinking, wiser decisions, and seeing possibilities you couldn't see before.

How can loyalty to your future self guide your decisions?

Letting your vision for your future self guide today's decisions, rather than sticking to old habits or perspectives, empowers you to make short-term sacrifices for long-term rewards.

Outlines

00:00

😃 How our subjective perception shapes our reality

Our perception of reality is inaccurate and subjective. We see the world through our own lens, not objectively. Transforming our mindset requires recognizing this and becoming aware of our mental models. Letting go of limiting old ideas is key to adopting better perspectives.

05:01

🧠 Constant learning transforms worldviews and mental filters

By constantly learning, we can transform our worldviews, assumptions and mental filters. This allows us to see opportunities others miss. Masters like Charlie Munger study extensively before acting to develop perspective.

10:02

🔎 Focusing on avoidance and the future self for flexibility

Charlie Munger's exhaustive analysis focuses first on what to avoid. Questioning assumptions and being aware of differences from our past selves builds psychological flexibility. Making choices loyal to our future selves raises our standards.

Keywords

💡Perception

Perception refers to the way individuals interpret and understand the world around them, heavily influenced by personal experiences, beliefs, and cognitive biases. In the video, perception is highlighted as a subjective lens through which we see the world, underscoring that no two people perceive things in exactly the same way. This concept is crucial to the video's theme because it sets the foundation for understanding the importance of examining and potentially transforming one's perceptions to improve decision-making and personal growth.

💡Metacognition

Metacognition is the process of thinking about one's own thinking, essentially reflecting on how one understands, processes, and uses information. The video discusses metacognition as a significant step towards self-improvement and awareness, emphasizing its role in recognizing the limitations of one's current perspectives and fostering a mindset open to growth and change.

💡Mental Models

Mental models are frameworks or beliefs that individuals use to understand the world and make decisions. The video stresses the importance of being mindful of one's mental models, as they can significantly impact what we focus on and how we interpret information. By examining and updating these models, individuals can let go of outdated beliefs and adopt new, more beneficial perspectives.

💡Psychological Flexibility

Psychological flexibility refers to the ability to adapt one's thoughts and actions based on the current situation, rather than being rigidly guided by past experiences or future fears. The video links this concept to the idea of continuously updating how we view ourselves and the world, highlighting its importance in personal development and the ability to embrace change.

💡Selective Attention

Selective attention is the cognitive process of focusing on certain information while ignoring other stimuli. The video discusses how training our attention can help us concentrate on specific, beneficial aspects of our environment, while inattentional blindness leads us to overlook other details, emphasizing the need to fine-tune our mental filters to improve focus and decision-making.

💡Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. The video relates this concept to the idea of inconsistency avoidance tendency, illustrating how people often resist information that contradicts their current views, which can hinder personal growth and learning.

💡Worldview

A worldview is the overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world. In the video, the concept of a worldview is tied to the notion of mental models and frames, suggesting that by transforming our core perspectives, we can develop more refined and effective mental filters. This transformation enables individuals to focus on more meaningful and impactful opportunities.

💡Reframing

Reframing involves changing the way one thinks about or interprets a situation, event, or idea. The video emphasizes the power of reframing, especially in the context of learning from past experiences and adapting one's perspective to foster a more flexible and growth-oriented mindset. It's portrayed as a method for overcoming limiting beliefs and enhancing psychological flexibility.

💡Continuous Learning

Continuous learning is the ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. The video advocates for constant learning as a means to transform one's mental models and worldview, thereby improving one's ability to identify opportunities and make informed decisions. It's presented as essential for personal development and achieving success.

💡Future Self

The concept of the 'future self' is about envisioning who one wants to become and making decisions in the present that align with that vision. The video discusses this idea in the context of using one's future self as a filter for current choices, promoting a forward-thinking approach to personal growth and decision-making. It highlights the importance of being loyal to one's future aspirations rather than being constrained by past behaviors or present conditions.

Highlights

Your view of reality is inaccurate, that is a really healthy place to start

It's not the getting new ideas, it's actually the letting go of the old ones that stops the new ones

Continuously recognize how you see things differently than your former self

Your worldview is a frame, a reference frame, a set of models and ideas you've collected over time

People want their behavior to be consistent with their identity

Transforming your mental models allows you to filter for and find unique opportunities

Upgrade your model to filter out noise and not get caught up in distractions

Let your future self be the filter and frame for the choices you make

Hard decisions, easy life. Easy decisions, hard life.

You can't focus deeply if you're all over the place with your attention

Intensely learning raises your standards filter to stop letting old trash in

Clarify your vision and strategy on a single page

Simplify complex systems by stripping away the non-essential 80%

Put your focus on the single bottleneck that matters most

If you can clarify your focus, it's incredible how quickly you can transform

Transcripts

in this video I'm going to share with

you a few big ideas about how to

transform your mind and by transforming

your mind you can change how you see

things what you say yes to what you say

no to and ultimately you can focus on

better and better things my name is Dr

Benjamin Hardy I'm an organizational

psychologist let me start with a first

quote from Dr Steven rvy cvy said we

don't see the world as it is we see the

world as we are so we see the world

through a subjective lens we don't see

the world accurately none of us see the

same thing the same way we all see it

through our perception and as Charles

Munger said I'm going to share with you

a really crazy cool idea from Charles

merer I've learned so much from Charles

Munger he was the partner of Warren

Buffett but Charles Monger said that our

cognition cognition being our thinking

comes from our perception perception is

the more meta the more macro uh even

there's a concept called metacognition

which is thinking about your thinking

and that's a really big idea by the way

even Socrates said the unexamined life

is not worth living the first really

important thing here is to realize that

your view of reality is inaccurate that

is a really healthy place to start most

most people they never actually get

there they think that their view is

objective they think that what they they

think that their view is right and i'

I've dealt with so many people like this

where they just won't change their mind

even with better perspectives better

evidence they just won't change their

mind and it's really hard to deal with

people like that really big beautiful

idea that's related to this and in a way

that's helpful and and some of what I'm

going to teach you in this video it's

going to be a very brief simple video is

how to start to become Mindful and aware

of your own mental models of your own

ideas and ultimately how to start

letting go of the ideas that are holding

you back uh I love the quote from John

mayard Kan he's a really famous

economist but he basically said it's not

the getting new ideas it's hard it's

actually the letting go of the old ones

that stops the new ones if you're trying

to learn new ideas but they're

inconsistent with your more meta more

macro level models and views of the

world those ideas are just going to go

in one ear and out the other so one

really helpful idea is obviously just

the recogn that you're not your past

self and I think that it's very powerful

to journal this comes with the whole

idea of the unexamined life is not worth

living very powerful to continuously

recognize how you see things differently

than your former self how you would do

things differently than your former self

not just 5 years ago even five weeks ago

or five days ago that's part of framing

Framing and reframing and actually

shaping your view of of the world your

worldview by the way is a frame it's a

reference frame it's a worldview it's a

set of models and ideas that you've

collected over time and learned and

really attached to one really important

Point here is that you're not your pelf

and that you see things differently than

your pelf and actually that's one way of

creating what's called psychological

flexibility is just continuously

referencing and recognizing how you're

seeing things differently than your past

self so I'm going to go ahead and read a

short quote from Charles monger and then

ultimately I'm going to give you a big

idea something that ultimately Charles

Munger Warren Buffett used to have such

a unique view of the world which

ultimately allowed them to filter for

and find really unique opportunities

that most people didn't see there's a

concept two really related Concepts in

Psychology one is called selective

attention selective attention means that

our attention is trained we train our

attention to look for something very

specific the connected idea to that is

what's called inattentional blindness

William James the father of American

psychology he was a Harvard psychologist

he said that there's millions of things

going on outside which I don't even

notice why because they have no interest

my experience is what basically is

relevant to me so that's the whole idea

of fine-tuning your filter but you can't

fine-tune your filter until you go

Upstream a little bit and that's

transform your o overarching models or

your frame of reality your frame which

is your core assumptions your views your

your knowledge your beliefs those things

shape your mental filters and once you

get really good at shaping your filters

then you can actually find and focus on

really really powerful things so I'm

going to share with you three big ideas

from Charles Monger in his book poor

Charlie's Almanac the first one is what

he calls inconsistency avoidance

tendency basically this is the same

thing as confirmation bias but it's the

idea that we do not want want to be

inconsistent and there's a lot of

research on this by Dr Robert chalini

he's very famous in his research on the

fact that people want their behavior to

be consistent with their identity and

and so people ultimately try to avoid

inconsistencies at all cost it's very

rare for people to deal with Paradox

actually in Psychology they call that

dialectical Truth where you can actually

agree that two things conflicting can

also be true or right most people they

can't handle that most people they will

do anything and everything they can to

avoid inconsistencies so if any

if they learn anything or if they're

dealing with anything that conflicts

with their current model their view of

reality they'll immediately just dismiss

it so the next big idea from Charlie and

ultimately as well from Warren Buffett

is just the constant transforming of

their their worldview their mental

models and they do this honestly through

intense study so let me go ahead and

just share two quotes because the

intense study and constant learning is

how you ultimately transform your models

you you actually develop very high level

views of the world and that allows you

to see things differently think about it

very few people are just learning

machines where they're constantly

learning where I can powerfully say I'm

not the same person I was a week ago

because I know so many things my P off

didn't know so if you are constantly

learning and if you're intensifying your

learning that's how you're going to

change your frame and your model and

ultimately you're going to develop very

highlevel perspectives that allow you

then to see things that other people

can't see to analyze situations other

people can't analyze so ultimately what

you want to do is you want to

continuously transform your core model

or your core mental models but your core

frame your core perspective and that

then allows you to have a much finer

green filter or selective attention you

can then see things that other people

can't see and that's ultimately what

allowed Charles monger and Warren

Buffett to make very few big bets they

were able to see things that most people

couldn't see and they were able to

detect signal where most people saw

noise and they were also able to avoid

most of the noise and that's part of

having a very finely tuned filter is is

that your your mental filter is mostly

about what you don't see that's the key

and that's actually crucial to what

monger and really high level thinkers do

even if you study for example Nim TB

with antifragile most things are fragile

most things are noise and so you want to

continuously learn develop really epic

powerful models of the world very

powerful perception very high level

learning and that then allows you to see

that most things the juice is not worth

the squeeze most things are are to

filtered out most things are irrelevant

most things are a distraction

fundamentally and so the purpose of a

filter is that you stop seeing and stop

noticing most of the things that are

ultimately distracting you think about

it if you do not have a a quality filter

what that means is that you're letting a

lot of stuff into your life that you

don't ultimately want you're letting a

lot of trash in a low-grade filter lets

a lot of trash in so the purpose of the

filter is to block out and stop most of

the stuff from coming in only the signal

comes in and the way you fine grain your

mental filter your selective attention

is by continuously transforming your

model and by upgrading your model you

will filter out most of the noise and

not need to get caught up in all the

distractions think about it we live in a

distraction world most people they are

lost on the internet and their filter is

so bad that they let in so much nonsense

and by letting in all that nonsense I I

love the quote your input shapes your

outlook and so they're letting in just

trash their filter is not refined it's

not cleaned and their worldview is is

not welldeveloped it's like eating a

candy diet you can't have a powerful

filter without continuously improving

your overarching Freeman models so

here's the quote and the big idea

Charlie's exhaustive screening process

requires considerable self-discipline

and results in long periods of apparent

inactivity this habit of committing far

more time to learning and thinking than

to doing is no accident it is a blend of

discipline and patience PA exhibited by

true masters of a craft often as is the

case Charlie generally focuses first on

what to avoid that is on what not to do

before he considers the affirmative

steps he will take in a given situation

so the main point here is that Charlie

has an exhaustive screening process he's

not just being quick and lazy and sloppy

with his decisions if he's going to do

something and by the way you studi them

they did not make small bets they

studied studied studied and this is by

the way very counterintuitive because a

lot of people they say you should throw

a thousand spaghetti against the wall

That's not how they do things they say

if you're overly diversifying it means

that you don't know what you're doing if

you're unclear in your decision it means

you didn't study well enough the habit

of spending way more time thinking

analyzing than doing is no accident

that's the key to Mastery is

transforming the model and also becoming

aware becoming aware of your own biases

becoming aware and you do that a lot of

times Honestly by journaling but also to

the idea of Socrates the unexamined life

is not worth living being aware of when

you did things that you could have done

them better even just thinking about

today not to necessarily beat yourself

up but just thinking about how could I

have done that differently that then

allows you to kind of see the patterns

in your life the second part though and

this goes from frame to filter is is

that as you become a lot more exhaustive

and thorough and studying and really

beginning to develop a very powerful

profound view of reality and of the

world you then start to have a Lot F

finer grained filters and as Charlie

said he first focused is on what to

avoid that's also really crucial and

this fits by the way with Elon musk's

thinking Elon Musk talks a lot about how

a lot of Engineers and things like that

they just do what they're told rather

than question assumptions that's

actually one of the keys to continuously

reframing is questioning your

assumptions and you can even do that by

the way for reframing a trauma you can

question your assumption about the event

The Experience about the other person

about their motives but questioning your

assumptions questioning your view is a

really powerful thing and then what Elon

Musk says is before he adds anything new

he strips things out he strips away the

things that don't matter from the 8020

perspective strips away the 80% that's

exactly what Munger does as well he

first focuses on what to avoid on what

to ignore I've heard it said that most

people spend 80% of their free time

entertaining themselves and maybe 20%

educating themselves if you flipped that

if you spent 80% of your time educating

yourself and 20% of your time

entertaining entertainment is important

taking breaks but if you're spending 80%

of your time learning and reframing your

view and and developing new and Powerful

models of the world those models allow

you to see what other people don't see

intense learning allows you to see the

opportunities and to see the pathways to

incredible things that other people

wouldn't see you could also just also

just learn how to deal with people how

to find Opportunities how to make money

whatever it is massive learning massive

models but also becoming aware of your

limiting assumptions becoming aware of

the things that are ultimately stopping

you your perception is stopping you it's

it's slowing you down that is crucial

and then ultimately raise in your floor

as a person which your floor is

ultimately your standard and filtering

everything else out beginning to say no

to things that your past self said yes

to even your past self a week ago this

is so powerful and you can make this a

continuous part of your process you can

develop incredible psychological

flexibility it does take humility

there's a lot to be said that most

people will not change unless one of two

things happen either a trauma like an

extreme event usually they say it's only

an extreme event that will finally force

people to change I think that that

should not be the case um certainly uh

extreme trauma or what some people would

say is Extreme grief yes those things

certainly can lead to finally letting go

of bad ideas or old ideas Etc and

finally making new changes but you can

have instead kind of what Socrates would

say the continuous process of analyzing

your life of observing your life of

observing and framing how you're

different from your past self I love the

whole idea that it's not the past that

determines the present mentally it's

always the present that shapes the

meaning of the past another obviously

powerful frame is getting connected to

the frame of your future self and

letting your future self uh and scaling

that up massively letting your future

self be the filter and the frame for the

choices you make in the present being

your identity in the present you go from

being to doing to having and just doing

what your future self would do but you

really can develop a lot of flexibility

where you're no longer worried about

being inconsistent with your past self

far more powerful to be consistent with

your future self to be loyal and

Allegiant to your future self rather

than to your present conditions to your

present situation if you let the future

be what is the filter for what you do in

the present if you let the future be

what you are loyal to yes in the short

run you're going to have to make some

hard decisions but there's that great

quote you know hard decisions easy life

easy decisions hard life if you're

operating from your future self from

that frame and you're continuously

observing and journaling and thinking

about how you're different from your

past self also if you're just doing

intense learning and raising that filter

you can really know you've raised your

filter when you stop letting in the same

old trash when you stop letting things

in your filter became more intense and

it doesn't let that stuff through that's

when you can really start to deeply

Focus I love the book cal newport's book

uh deep work related book of his so good

they can't ignore you you can't become

so good they can't ignore you if you are

all over the place with your attention

if you if you're if you're not focused

but the point is is that the quality and

the depth of your focus comes from your

view of what is valuable and if you

aren't intensely learning then you're

going to be focused on stuff that

ultimately probably isn't that valuable

obviously we all have our own subjective

views but as you learn more as you gain

more perspective as you gain more wisdom

you'll then filter out more of the

things that are non-essential and you

will then focus on higher and more

powerful and more meaningful and more

useful things and the deeper you focus

the more and the faster you will

transform we all have a thesis uh a

thesis is a business term it's also an

academic term but we all have a thesis

and that thesis is essentially your

model it's your view of reality it's

your why you're what and your how it's

your goal your it's it's your it's

essentially your beliefs your values

your goals and your strategy and so we

all have a thesis I actually think it's

really powerful to clarify your thesis

on a single page I sometimes ask leaders

for example share with me your vision

and if they have like a five seven page

Vision that means that they're not clear

as Steve Jobs would say it takes a lot

of work to strip away the complexity and

make things simple and if something is

not a simple model then you can't

transform it um you always want to take

a a complex system and you want to

simplify it and you simplify it and the

only way to simplify it is to strip away

the to strip away the stuff that doesn't

matter strip away that 80% and

ultimately frame things down so that you

can clarify the single bottleneck of

focus that's the core thing you want to

put your attention on your focus on and

boom if you can do that it's incredible

how much you can transform your life and

how quickly you can transform your life

go to future self.com if you want a free

Kindle version of my book future self be

your future self now also if you go to

future.com sl10 xfree uh links down

below you can download the free kle

version of 10x is easier than 2x the

third book in my Trilogy with Dan

Sullivan have an amazing day