The Mindset Mentor - How To Think Clearly

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so you never miss another podcast episode. And if you're out there and you live in the United States or Canada and you want to receive motivational and inspirational mindset text messages from me, text me right now, 512-580-9305. Once again, 512-580-9305. Today, we are going to talk about what might be the most important skill for you to have, and that is clear thinking, to see things as they truly are. That is, without your beliefs, to see things as they truly are.

Starting point is 00:00:47 That is, without your beliefs, without your conditionings, without what you think the world should be or what you were told that you should have done. So we're going to talk about building up this skill. And yes, I believe that is a skill. It's something that you might not be very good at now, but it's something that's a skill set that you can build up, which is to how can I see the world more clearly? Because what happens is we have a subconscious mind that 95% of our processing happens in the background. And it's basically just fogging up the way that the

Starting point is 00:01:18 world actually is. And what we want to do is we want to be able to develop that skill set to see things as they truly are. And you might skill set to see things as they truly are. And you might think that you see things as they truly are, but I promise you this, unless you've been really working on yourself for a long time, you're probably not seeing the world as it is. You're seeing the world as you think it is. Everything that comes through your five senses is filtered through your filter of the world. Everything that's ever happened to you, everything in the past, and then your brain makes an assumption of the world or of a person or of

Starting point is 00:01:53 a belief system or of something that might happen. It makes assumptions all day long based off of the past and things that have happened before. And then it also labels everything. So we could put it into a box so it could feel, okay, this thing is done. I can cross this off. We go on to the next thing. And with everything that's happening in the world right now, and things just getting crazier and crazier and crazier, being able to think clearly is more important than it's ever been. And so clearly thinking like to sit there and to clearly, it really helps us see things as they are without the influence of our beliefs, of our upbringing, of our parents, of our social groups, any of those things. And so I want you to understand from a young age, we're influenced by many things.

Starting point is 00:02:38 And so like with me, I have a newborn at the house. And so with having a newborn at the house, at the house. And so with having a newborn at the house, I can see how he is not influenced at all. He is this blank canvas. And I'm thinking in my mind, how can I not get him brainwashed to think the same way that I think? How can I not brainwash him? How can I try to keep him as innocent and as clear as he possibly can be? Because I probably have beliefs that I don't want him to take. And what if I could just try not to give him those, right? Because from a young age, we're influenced by many things. Like we're influenced by our families, the way that our parents think, the way our parents talk, the way that they act in the world. We're influenced by schools. We're influenced by religions, by social groups. And these influences change how you see the world.

Starting point is 00:03:29 And I want you to understand that. They change how you see the world, which means if they change how you see the world, you're not seeing the world clearly. And so there's many different things that you can really start to think about. For instance, if you think of political views, right? different things that you can really start to think about. Like, for instance, if you think of political views, right? Many people's political views come from their environment. And it can come from a lot of people have the same political views as their parents. I wonder how that happened. Sometimes people have a completely different political view of their parents because

Starting point is 00:03:58 they were raised in their family and then they went off to college and they got friends. And now, instead of being influenced by their parents, they're influenced by their social group. And when we have a specific viewpoint, it leads to things being seen in a very biased way. You know, if you grew up in a family that supports a particular political party, you tend to adopt those views without fully understanding them or fully questioning them. You just take them on, right? Like if I ask anybody listening, what color is the sky? You're all going to say blue. The way that you just, that's just something that we were taught. And it seems so natural to us to say, yeah, blue. Well, the exact same thing happens to you as you're raised with

Starting point is 00:04:42 what you believe, what your thoughts are of the world, of yourself, of political views. And so a lot of people, we just tend to adopt these political views without fully understanding them or most importantly, questioning them. And when you just adopt something, it can really limit your ability to objectively evaluate everything. And that's the important thing is not to look at things subjectively, but to objectively evaluate everything and look at policies or look at candidates based off of merits rather than just their political affiliation. The key here is to question everything. And I don't really have, and nor do I tend to like to talk about, I don't really care

Starting point is 00:05:22 to talk about political views or any of that type of stuff. And I don't really stand anywhere. I see all kinds of things. And I like to challenge myself in the way that I think all the time. And so what I think everybody should do is I don't care what someone's political beliefs are. But if you're going to have political beliefs, you should question them. And you're either going to get more firm in your beliefs or you're going to go, huh, maybe I should change these beliefs.

Starting point is 00:05:45 Really what it does, it helps you create a more solid foundation of what your beliefs are, and not just political, but in every single way, more than just like following the herd. And we will be right back. And now, back to the show. So that's one way that people tend to go into it. Another way that people tend to go into it is like religious beliefs. Like for me, I was raised Catholic and religion can give moral guidance to people, but it

Starting point is 00:06:11 can also create really rigid beliefs that stop us from seeing other perspectives that can be just as clear as your perspective. If we're taught that this one religion, this one thing holds all of the truth in the world, you might dismiss all other ideas without ever even considering any value that they might have or any teachings that might come in that might be able to help you. You have to understand, like, if it's a religious view, you can also question that as well. Like, if you really truly believe something, then it should be able to go through your questioning. It should be able to go through and hold weight on the other side of it. You know, political views and religious views and all that stuff. But there's many,

Starting point is 00:06:55 many beliefs that we've learned along the way or that we have adopted on our own along the way of, you know, who we're supposed to be, what we're supposed to believe, things like, oh, this gender is supposed to act this way. And really that's just like, who made that up? Like, can't you just, you could question those things if you want. You could question anything that you want. You can question the different roles, depending on gender roles of, hey, well, is it okay? I had a friend that brought this up one time and he's like, yeah, it was really interesting. He's like, I danced a certain way one time and somebody made fun of me for the way I dance and said, I dance like a woman. Then he thought,

Starting point is 00:07:32 he said like, well, why does that matter? Like, why is it only that this gender can do this and this gender can do this? It's just, these are all things that are just like places where beliefs are set in. And a lot of times we don't even question them. So it's like, hey, why can't a human just do anything that they want? You know, a lot of people are like, well, I'm from this country, and so I have to act this way. This is the way that we act in my country. Some people that I've heard before are like, well, I'm the child of an immigrant, so my

Starting point is 00:07:58 parents have told me I have to act this way. What it's about, I want you to understand, these are everywhere. All of these different beliefs and these constructs and these conditionings of the way that we're supposed to believe and the way that we're supposed to act. And really what I'm trying to get you to understand from this is how can I just see things more clearly and go, yeah, if I want to dance that way, I'm going to dance that way. If I want to act this way, I'm going to act this way. If I want to believe this thing, I'm going to believe this thing. But then you actually know that the things you want to believe are your truths and your beliefs versus beliefs that were put on you from other people. You know, and here's one thing that I was told one time years ago,

Starting point is 00:08:35 is if your beliefs come in a package, question them. And just to figure out what your beliefs are. So like, if your beliefs come in a package, right? So if someone says, you're this religion, this is what you're supposed to believe, you should question all of that. Not to say that all of it is wrong, but just to actually question each one of them. Oh, you're this political view, you should question it. If they come in a package, like, hey, this religion, question it. If they say this policy, political view, question it, right? The point is to find the truth behind all of it. Because when you're seeing things through different, you know, rose colored glasses, things are going to look a little bit more red. When you're seeing things through

Starting point is 00:09:14 yellow colored glasses, things are going to look a little bit more yellow. And so it's like, what does it look like if you actually just take the glasses off? What is your truth and what is the truth? And this, when you really start to do this, allows you, and there's many studies that have been found on this, of being able to actually start to see things clearly, allows you to make better decisions. It allows you to work on your personal growth more and have improved relationships. One of the reasons why it helps with personal growth is because it makes you more aware of yourself. And then you start to challenge your own beliefs and you start to see that, oh, maybe this isn't what I believe. Maybe this isn't who I am. And you start to look through and like really examine your assumptions

Starting point is 00:09:56 and recognize areas where, hey, you might be wrong. And if I'm wrong, maybe I should just open myself up to learning a little bit more. You'll have better relationships because one of the things that I always say is, is we think that we're in a relationship with another person. You're, you're rarely ever in a relationship with another person. You're in a relationship with the image that you have built of that person in your head. And, and so I'll give you an example of what I mean by that. You know, sometimes you're like, well, I want to say this to her and that's what you want to do. But then you go, well, I want to say this to her, but if I say this to her, she's going to react this way. And then once she reacts this way, then I have to react this way. And then it turns into a fight. And

Starting point is 00:10:37 then I end up, you know, not speaking to her for a day. And now you're, the thing that started was, I want to say this to her. And then you completely left all of reality and made an alternative reality based off the image that you have of this person in your head. And so your relationships will be so much better because you're going to start to question yourself when you find yourself going off into an alternative reality. This is the importance of seeing things really clearly. And there's been like many studies on how to actually do it. But one of the things that really deals with this is there's a thing called the anchoring effect. And I'm going to talk to you through how to develop clear thinking.

Starting point is 00:11:16 But with the anchoring effect, there's a study that was done in 1974. And they found, and this is why they say that it's really hard to change somebody's perception after a first impression and first impressions really matter is because what happens is what we tend to do in our brain is we tend to focus and anchor on the very first information that we get. And so when you first meet somebody, the reason why first impression is so important is because we anchor into that. And then the rest of that relationship with that person usually ends up being, we tend to look at that relationship and start to gauge it based off of the initial reaction, initial meeting that we have with that person. And so it's like, that's also the way that it works where we anchor our information based off of what we first learned.

Starting point is 00:12:02 And so if we're anchoring all of our beliefs off of what we first learned, we should be challenging them. And so I'm going to give you a couple of tips of really how to think clearly and how to start to, you know, pull away your conditionings, pull away your beliefs, and really start to find your truth more than the truth that quote unquote truths that you've been given throughout your life. The first thing I want you to do is start getting, and this takes time and it's more tedious, but start writing things down. There's a thing that's called cognitive reflection. There was a study that was done in 2005 and the research found that people who reflect on their thinking make better decisions. And so clear thinking means that you reflect and you question your initial thoughts, your whatever pops up in your head. So what you want to do is you want to say, okay, well,

Starting point is 00:12:50 I'm thinking that this person's going to say this if I say that. So I'm going to write this down. What ends up happening is you really start with cognitive reflection. You actually start to see where there are holes in your belief that you weren't able to see before writing them down. Another thing is when it's on paper, you really actually get to see it. And a lot of times is you might think that your belief is so correct and so true and so strong until you end up looking at it on a piece of paper and you're like, oh, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And so sometimes just seeing it on a piece of paper, your brain just reacts differently to it. The second thing I want you to do, which this is super important, and this is really going to help you out is this is going to be hard for everyone's

Starting point is 00:13:34 ego is to stop trying to be right. In fact, try to prove yourself wrong. So if you say, oh, this political party is this way, well, try to prove yourself wrong. Oh, this religion is this way, try to prove yourself wrong. Oh, this gender is supposed to act this way, try to prove yourself wrong. Oh, this person from this country is supposed to act this way, try to prove yourself wrong. And just try to prove yourself wrong as much as you possibly can. Now, this hurts the ego because the ego never wants to be wrong, but what I want you to do is I want you to start trying to prove yourself wrong.

Starting point is 00:14:06 Imagine that your beliefs that you've had your entire life are one side of the debate table that you've been on your entire life. I want you to go to the other side of the debate table and try to prove yourself wrong. Question your beliefs and just regularly start to ask yourself, like, why do I believe that? Is that something that I actually truly believe, or is that something that my mom taught me when I was a kid? Are my beliefs based in facts, or is that just what I've been told? And what I want you to do is actually start to try to prove yourself wrong.

Starting point is 00:14:37 Once you're going to find out, the more that I do this, the dumber I find I am. I don't know anything, right? That's what I've come to find. The older I get, the more that I know this, the dumber I find I am. I don't know anything, right? That's what I've come to find. The older I get, the more that I know, I know nothing. And the more that you challenge your beliefs, the more that you realize your beliefs hold almost no weight. It's just something that you think is really like solid, firmly in the ground. It ain't. And you're going to find that out. So that's the second thing. The third thing that I want you to do is I want you to actually seek different views. Listen to people with different opinions.

Starting point is 00:15:08 This will also piss your ego off, right? If you're really hardcore into one political party, go listen to the other political party. And instead of being like, fuck them, they're wrong. Why don't you listen to them and see if there happens to be any truth in what they're saying? Wouldn't that be interesting? Because sometimes when you're in one political party, you're hearing another one, you're immediately like, fuck them. They're wrong. They don't know what they're talking about. You're not even hearing what they're saying. The same way that like, I was just talking to my friend

Starting point is 00:15:34 and trying, I was like, oh, here's that, that movie that was made by the guy. And he's like, fuck that guy. I was like, all right, cool. I was just, I was just talking about the movie, but you know, so, so seek different views. Go and listen to other people. Because when you go onto Instagram and all of those places, they're just an echo chamber. They're going to give you exactly what you interact with. Go outside of your echo chamber. It'll broaden your understanding of the world.

Starting point is 00:15:58 You know, if you're a Democrat, go talk to a Republican. If you're a Republican, go talk to a Democrat. And then don't try to judge them. Just try to see the world from their point of view. You know, if you think your religion is correct and all the other ones are bad and all the other ones are wrong, talk to someone with deep beliefs in the other religions and you'll realize, wow, there's a lot of wisdom that's in that religion as well. And then that's really what it boils down to is just to get yourself to start thinking outside of the box because we basically get in like this mental straitjacket of I can only think this way. I can only think

Starting point is 00:16:29 in this pattern. And when you only think in one pattern, your mind becomes numb and it doesn't see things the way that they truly are. And ultimately the skill set that we're all trying to build more than anything else is how can I see things as they clearly are and not see things based off of my beliefs or based on my assumptions, but see the world as it clearly is so I can make better decisions for myself, for my family, and basically for everyone else around me as well. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it on your Instagram stories. Tag me in it, RobDialJr, R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. Also, if you love this podcast, you'll definitely love more than anything else, Mindset Mentor Plus.

Starting point is 00:17:05 It's something that I launched about two months ago that takes every single one of these episodes and helps you deepen your knowledge in each one of them. For every single episode that comes out, you're gonna get multiple page detailed worksheets that go really in-depth in these podcast episodes. There's journaling questions that come with it. You can underline, you can highlight it.

Starting point is 00:17:23 There's assignments that come from it. There's's q a sessions that i do every single month next week i have my q a session with everybody where you can ask me questions directly i can answer your questions and there's just a whole lot more other stuff that comes with as well so if you want to learn more about it just go to mindset mentor.com there's a video that explains it all there once again mindset mentor.com and with, I'm gonna leave the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make someone else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.

The Mindset Mentor - How To Think Clearly

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