“The first principle is that you must not fool
yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”
– Richard P. Feynman
Fake News as a term has emerged as one of the phrases of the current time. Usually associated with politics it has increased awareness massively around clarifying the source and credibility of information.
But what about the fake news we can tell ourselves?
These are the inner assumptions, beliefs or judgements we make about our ability, the situations we’re in, and the people around us – positive and negative.
Often our inner fake news is just that, fake. Yet we act as it it’s true.
Getting in touch with reality i.e. what’s really going on, is the mark of a true achiever and a great leader.
It usually involves digging into the pain point and getting diverse and hopefully, contradictory points of view.
Our egos like to be right – which is our Achilles’ heel when it comes to getting to the truth.
Here’s an experiment:
1. Think about something that’s annoying or worrying you.
2. Write down what you believe/feel about the situation.
3. Ask yourself this question ‘How do I know what I believe/feel is true? i.e. where is the actual evidence?’
4. Ask yourself this question ‘What can I do to really test that belief?’ (e.g. speak to someone directly, check the facts, get a diverse opinion.)
5. Take action on the answer.
I remember speaking to a smart leader in a very large organisation who had made a big assumption based on the remarks of another leader. That assumption distracted them hugely for 3 months which resulted in a large drop in results.
When they did the above exercise, the action was to talk to the person and clarify the comments made. Turned out they didn’t mean what the person heard.
That conversation took 10 minutes – which if done sooner would have saved 3 months of stress and time wasted.
Getting in touch with reality isn’t always easy – but it is a high return on investment.
What’s annoying or worrying you…?
Shane
ps – one powerful way to get more in touch with reality and use it to transform your results is to improve your inner clarity – my Clarity Program evening course below hits that mark.
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Book: Inspire Me – ‘Life Wisdom To Pass On’. Buy UK/IRL, North America
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Topics include:
- State Of Mind: Improve The Key To Better Results In Busines And Life
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