Hindsight is 20/20?
Our willingness to accept new, complete, and updated information is part of having a Growth Mindset. Whereas holding onto our thoughts and beliefs and dismissing the facts laid out before us is a Fixed Mindset.
Why do human beings sometimes hold onto these thoughts and beliefs? Here are just a few reasons:
Recently my daughter needed to have a sports physical for school which included an eye exam. She was told she has 20/20 vision in one eye and 20/15 in the other to which the doctor exclaimed, “that’s even better than 20/20!”
I didn’t believe them at first, because for my entire life I’ve heard that 20/20 is perfect vision and if 20/20 is perfect could there be anything better? Apparently, yes. We go around saying, “hindsight is 20/20” when we can see more clearly after an event.
So, I’ve been contemplating, how many of our thoughts and beliefs are incorrect, incomplete, or even obsolete?
Our willingness to accept new, complete, and updated information is part of having a Growth Mindset. Whereas holding onto our thoughts and beliefs and dismissing the facts laid out before us is a Fixed Mindset.
Why do human beings sometimes hold onto these thoughts and beliefs? Here are just a few reasons:
Sunk-cost Fallacy: occurs when we are unable to cut our losses due to the past money or time we have spent on an activity; (and I would add thought or belief.)
Belief Perseverance: the tendency to cling to one's initial belief even after receiving new information that contradicts or disconfirms the basis of that belief.
Power Dynamic: for example, we don’t like our annoying neighbor and therefore will never believe anything they say; or believing our parents don’t know anything; or believing that we are the parent and therefore we are correct.
But guess what, acknowledging we don't know, or indeed need to know everything about something before attempting it is liberating. Letting go of the need for perfection is liberating. Because now we can do the thing we’ve been waiting to do until we know everything about it and it’s perfectly ready to launch.
What have you been waiting to do or create? How can doing it now instead of continuing to wait change your life?
Maybe it’s writing a book, opening a business, becoming an artist or learning a new hobby.
Go for it! Do it now! You can change your mindset by being willing to learn new things, ask questions, try, fail, and try again, and again. Doing so will move you closer and closer to the life you want. So yeah, do it now!
Let’s let hindsight have that pesky 20/20 vision. Right now, today, in this moment let’s use our 20/15 vision to take action and design the life we want, shall we?