psychologist & author
We’ve all encountered someone who speaks with confidence and charisma, drawn in by what they say. Whether it’s listening to a podcast or meeting someone in person, there are those people who are just utterly convincing, so much so that we’re almost bewitched by their words. But why?
The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to have taken hold of our inner most fears, accelerated recently by the introduction of ChatGPT. But do these recent leaps forward in AI mean that we are all doomed? Recently a number of the leaders I work with have been asking my view, as a psychologist. This is not as crazy as it may sound after all psychology is the scientific study of human behaviour, cognition (aka intelligence), and emotions.
The difference between knowing something and doing something is like the difference between reading a recipe and cooking a meal. You can read a recipe all day long, but until you actually gather the ingredients, follow the steps, and put it in the oven, you won’t have a delicious meal to enjoy.
As an organisational psychologist, I hope the answer to this is ‘Of course, we all want to grow and develop, tell me how?’ But is my viewpoint biased? The answer is yes.
We mirror the people around us all the time, even though most of the time we are completely unaware that we are. It is a fundamental aspect to how we learn. You could even say that it’s the most effortless way of learning because it’s what our brain does unconsciously.
Did you know that 80-92% of our efforts to change behaviour fail? That means that when you say you’re going to eat more heathy food, cut out alcohol, exercise more, be less grumpy with your partner, most of the time most you won’t actually do it.
You can’t fail to miss the approaches that currently espouse habits as being the core to self-improvement. And because we humans like things to be simple it’s appealing to consider habits or other ‘life hacks’ as a straightforward way of making our life better. But while habits are definitely a part of who we are, they are only a very tiny part in a complex jigsaw puzzle.
I believe that everyone deserves access to the knowledge, tools and support that will help them to understand themselves better, so that they can fulfil their potential. Ultimately that means living a happier and more fulfilled life. One of the fundamental elements of this is being able to understand and respond more effectively to negative emotions.