Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Believed Versus Checked Facts: Why You Need to Know the Difference

Episode Date: March 14, 2022

The distinction between believed and checked facts is vital to good thinking. How many things do you know because of firsthand verification rather than secondhand instruction? The truth is many or even most of our assumptions about, well, just about everything are believed facts, not checked ones. While we only have time to check so many facts, serious problems arise when we can’t distinguish between believed and checked facts. When too many believed facts are misfiled as checked ones, and when we refuse to review and revise them no matter what we see or experience, or worse, when we carefully filter our observations and experiences to preserve our cognitive status quo, we can lose our ability to successfully navigate reality. There are various reasons we’re all prone to this thinking trap, but the desire to avoid uncertainty is likely a big one. “Yes” and “no” provide security and comfort whereas “maybe” and “probably” are slippery and treacherous. But they’re also a more accurate reflection of reality. And so if we want to interact with reality more effectively, we must strive to mentally interact with it more effectively, and that requires moving away from monochromatic thinking and toward polychromatic thinking. This cast of mind can be uncomfortable because it often entails accepting that we don’t know nearly as much as we’d like to think. But it also invites opportunity. Remember—there’s a word for the process of rethinking assumptions and reworking opinions: learning. Timestamps: 0:00 -  Please leave a review and subscribe to the podcast! 2:57 - My award-winning fitness books for men and women: https://legionathletics.com/products/books/ Mentioned on the Show: My award-winning fitness books for men and women: https://legionathletics.com/products/books/

The distinction between believed and checked facts is vital to good thinking. Consider for a moment how many things you know because of first-hand verification rather than second-hand instruction. The truth is, many or even most of our assumptions about, well, just about everything, they are believed facts, not checked ones. And there's nothing wrong with this, of course. We only have so much time to check so many facts. The art of life, Justice Holmes once said, consists of making correct decisions on insufficient evidence. Serious problems arise, though, and we can't distinguish between believed and checked facts, when too many believed facts are misfiled as checked ones, and when we refuse to review and to revise those

believed facts, no matter what we see or experience, or worse, when we carefully filter our observations and our experiences to preserve our cognitive status quo. That's how we can lose our ability to successfully navigate reality. Take something like climate change. Many inveterate alarmists and skeptics alike, they cite things they have heard from experts or worse from non-experts, but they haven't personally reviewed any of the research or any of the data cited by these people or studied any of the counter arguments, much less the most compelling ones. And so if such people were to take today's message to heart, they would acknowledge that they actually know very little about the subject and they would preface any

statements about it with, well, I don't know much, but here's what I've heard, or here's what I believe, or here's what I would like to believe. Believe is the key word there. Believed facts, not checked ones. And there are various reasons we are all prone to this thinking trap, but the desire to avoid uncertainty is likely a big one. Yes and no provide security and comfort, whereas maybe and probably are slippery and treacherous, but they're also a more accurate reflection of reality. And so if we want to interact with reality more effectively, we must strive to mentally interact with it more effectively. And that requires moving away from monochromatic thinking toward

polychromatic thinking. And this cast of mind can be uncomfortable because it often entails accepting that we don't know nearly as much as we'd like to think. But there's an opportunity because, remember, there's a word for the process of rethinking assumptions and reworking opinions. It's learning. If you like what I'm doing here on the podcast, then you're going to love my award-winning fitness books for men and women, which have sold well over 1 million copies, have received over 15,000 four and five star reviews on Amazon, and have helped that I know of tens of thousands of people build their best body ever. Because here's the deal, building lean muscle, losing stubborn fat, and gaining whole body strength isn't nearly as complicated as you have probably been led to believe. And my books are the shortcut. They

give you everything you need to build your best body ever without having to live in the gym, give up all the foods or drinks you love, or do long grueling workouts you hate. So if you are someone over the age of 40, man or woman, and if you are new to resistance training or relatively new to resistance training, you want to get my book, Muscle for Life. That is going to be the best one for you, and that is going to be the best program for you. And if you are a man under the age of 40, trying to gain your first 25 pounds of muscle, then you'll want Bigger, Leaner, Stronger. And if you'd also like a workout journal with an entire year's worth

of Bigger, Leaner, Stronger training that takes you from novice to expert, pick up a copy of the Year 1 Challenge for Men as well. And if you're a woman under the age of 40 trying to gain your first 15 pounds of muscle or lose your first 15 pounds of fat, you can lose more, of course. But if you're trying to lose that first 15 pounds, then my book, Thinner, Leaner, Stronger, will show you the way. And I also have a workout journal for you with a year's worth of Thinner, Leaner, Stronger training called the Year One Challenge for Women. So you might want to pick up that too. called the year one challenge for women. So you might want to pick up that too. And finally, if you are an advanced weightlifter with at least three years of proper training under your belt, I have a book and program for you too. It is called beyond bigger, leaner, stronger,

and there is a workout journal that goes with it called the beyond bigger, leaner, stronger challenge. Now you can find all of my books on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, Google Play, and there probably are a few others that I'm not thinking of, as well as in select Barnes and Noble stores. And I should also mention that you can get any of my audio books for free when you sign up for an Audible account. And that's a great way to make those pockets of downtime, like commuting, meal prepping, cleaning, more interesting, entertaining, and productive. And if you want to take Audible up on that offer and get one of my audio books for free, just go to buylegion.com slash Audible. That is B-U-Y legion.com slash Audible and sign up for your account and get one of my audio books for free.

Well, I hope you liked this episode. I hope you found it helpful. And if you did subscribe to the show, because it makes sure that you don't miss new episodes. And it also helps me because it increases the rankings of the show a little bit, which of course then makes it a little bit more easily found by other people who may like it just as much as you. And if you didn't like something about this episode or about the show in general, or if you have ideas or suggestions or just feedback to share, shoot me an email, mike at muscleforlife.com, muscleforlife.com, and let me know what I could do better or just what your thoughts are about maybe what you'd like to see me do in the future. I read everything myself. I'm always looking for

new ideas and constructive feedback. So thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon.