#mindtraps

Our minds set up many traps for us, which, unless we are aware of, can seriously hinder our ability to think rationally, leading us to make bad decisions. These are usually preconditioned things that are engrained in our subconscious (often referred to as our inner chimp) that exist due to passed experiences, our values and beliefs, and our outlook (optimist etc). Some of the most common are:

The Anchoring Trap: Over-Relying on First Thoughts. The Status Quo Trap: Keeping on Keeping On The Sunk Cost Trap: Protecting Earlier Choices The Confirmation Trap: Seeing What You Want to See The Incomplete Information Trap: Review Your Assumptions The Conformity Trap: Everybody Else Is Doing It The Recall Trap: Not All Memories Are Created Equal The Superiority Trap: The Average is Above Average

I’m a pretty rational person, always very logical, always ‘thinking with my head’ rather than ‘thinking with my heart’, and while I know I have a very strong set of beliefs that influence my thoughts, my logic tends to override these traps. Well, I thought it did, and maybe it’s just my current enhanced emotional state, but I’ve found myself slipping into them a little more. Catastrophising (thinking the worst will happen following any event / thought) is probably the mind trap that I least have to worry about, but today I found myself falling into it:

I’ve been looking into some jobs down here, and today saw one that I thought would be perfect - lead guide for a Offroad, 4x4, Quad, Dirtbike company (I know, sweet huh). But the requirements include a ‘P Licence’ which is required to drive paying customers as passengers in any vehicles. I looked into it thinking a test or two would suffice, only to find that one can’t even apply until one has held a New Zealand driving licence for two years. What resulted from this information was a pretty rapid deterioration into the Catastrophising mind trap; “Well that`s it, i can’t get that licence, I can’t get that job, i’m not going to be able to get any jobs that I want, this is a disaster, I won’t be able to afford to live, I might as well go home!!!”

It took me about half an hour before I realised quite how much of a douche I was being and what my mind had done. In reality all those kind of jobs were going to have some sort of requirements that the corporate world had failed to give me (Not a lot of grade 3 rapids in consumer goods - figurative ones excluded of course!), I was never going to walk straight into a job that would fulfil all my adrenaline induced desires and pay me handsomely, I could still go and chat to the guys and find out a) what the options are for getting around it and b) what other jobs might exist, while I’m there I’m sure I can use just a little of the charm I’ve been storing up and convince them to take a shot, if not there will be other jobs, if not there are about three million other options - the world at your feet remember, plus I thought the whole point of this trip was that it’s supposed to be a challenge, etc, etc, etc….!

Cleaning out my room and I've found countless crap over the years.