Issue#14

Hey all,

preparing for my Brazilian Jiu-Jjitsu tournament I came across an interesting quote this week:

"Athletes will often overemphasize or overestimate an opponent's ability based on the introduction they have."

Social psychology often provides some fascinating insights into the human mind with their experiments.

In an interesting one at a college in the united states a large group of students came into the lecture hall and in front of them was a person standing on a stage. The person was introduced to them as a local professor. After the introduction, the students were asked to estimate the professor's height and the average estimation in the room after the results had been collected was around five foot ten.

That class left. And another class came in.

The same guy was on the stage but now scientists introduced him as a Nobel prize winner and a world authority on the subject; one of the greatest in history.

His height was estimated at six foot five.

We can see that people's perceptions of reality can be severely impacted by prior beliefs that they hold. By Impressions that they have of a given person.

Once again, this shows that beliefs and perceptions are just inside our heads. They don't reflect reality. Belief is the root of our way of thinking and in our normal life, we don't often question this.
We take it as it is. This belief filters and shapes our perception of reality.

Attitude is how we act or react. This action is based on our perception and our beliefs.

More often than not it is helpful to be aware of our beliefs. Awareness controls all three levels: belief, perception and attitude.

With this in mind, we can better reflect and adjust our filter so we don't let a reflex action from the subconscious level go directly to our action.

Have an awesome week everyone!

All the best,
Florian