Happy Free Thoughts Thursday, people.

Let's get right into it this week.

3 Things I’ve Learned:

1. We prefer bad news over uncertainty.

A part of our brain called the striatum acts as a sort of "action center" whose sole purpose is to guide our behavior towards positive outcomes and away from negative ones.

When we're uncertain about a situation (aka when the odds of a positive or negative outcome are 50/50) our striatum goes into overdrive.

It recruits our sympathetic nervous system (our fight or flight system) to ensure we do something that will steer us towards a positive outcome or away from a negative one.

When this happens we feel stressed and enter a sort of restless state that feels uncomfortable as our mind and body prepare to take action.

This is good for survival and improves our overall performance.

But it's mentally and physically taxing—more taxing than knowing something negative is coming.

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2. Most decisions matter less than we think.

From Gurwinder Bhogal:

"The more similar two choices seem, the less the decision should matter, yet harder it is to choose between them. As a result, we often spend the most time on the decisions that matter least."

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3. Attempts to remove unpleasant thoughts do not work.

When we tell ourselves not to think about something our brains set an explicit goal: don't think about X.

The problem is when our brain sets a goal it also monitors its progress.

As a result, it will periodically check in and ask: "Am I not thinking about X?"

Thus reintroducing the thought and starting the process all over again.

A better approach, rather than trying to avoid unpleasant thoughts, is to focus on pleasant ones.

You'll find more success telling your brain to think about your upcoming vacation than you will telling it not to think about your ex.

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2 Questions for You:

1. Are you putting enough effort into your relationships?
2. What small change can you make today that will have a big impact?

1 Quote:

"I learned a long time ago that worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere."—Erma Bombeck

Writing today's newsletter was a grind.

I have a lot on my mind but will cover more of it next week.

For now, I'll leave you with one thought and one idea from others below:

Live your life to the fullest,

Chris

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P.P.S. Creating a shareable link is proving more difficult than I thought. If anyone knows how to do it please let me know.

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