So for this week, more on brain busting, and a lesson from choral singing.

Last week I talked about cognitive dissonance, that thing where conflicting thoughts and beliefs makes your head explode.

I said that if your brain gets to go around unsupervised then it will attack the new beliefs, the ones that serve you, because that’s the easiest thing to do. Well, there’s more to the story.

Your brain isn’t doing it to hurt you, or because it’s stupid, or flawed or anything like that.

Your brain is working as designed. When you aren’t managing your brain, it follows its default programming.

A foundational piece of your brain’s default programming is to go for the easy answer. That means that your brain will have a tendency to search for, remember and interpret information that supports your preexisting thoughts and beliefs.

That’s called confirmation bias. It happens all the time, right? We see things through the lens of what we already think and believe.

When we are in charge of our brain, that can be intentional. (In can also be one of our blind spots, but that’s a topic for a different day.)

When we let our brain run around unsupervised, when we aren’t managing our thoughts, it’s unintentional. It’s the opposite of mindful! And our brain will use confirmation bias to take a jackhammer to any new thoughts and beliefs that might conflict with your old ones.

And that, my friends, is what self sabotage is all about.

I just thought you might want to know a little more about how it happens and why.

I want to reiterate that when it happens, you’re not broken. You don’t need to be fixed. You just need to take charge of your brain. You might need to learn how to do that. You definitely need to practice.

Here’s the lesson from choral singing:

PRACTICE MAKES AWESOME.

And remember: in all things – progress, not perfection!