Improve Your Thinking Process By Avoiding Mental Traps: Amplification

Mental traps lead to unproductive thinking.  You can improve your thinking process by avoiding them, but first you need to know what types of mental traps there are.  A previous post discussed the mental trap of persistence.  You persist when you continue to work towards a goal that no longer has meaning for you.  You amplify when you work harder or longer than necessary to achieve a goal that you value.  Both persistence and amplification are unproductive thinking processes because they waste time that could be spent more productively.

Amplification is like using a sledge-hammer to swat a fly.  There are easier ways to do it.  People tend to amplify for two reasons.  Firstly, they over-prepare for things because they want to avoid possible outcomes they see as unacceptable.  Over-preparing for a speech, or continually re-packing for a trip fall into this category.  While it is possible that one more run-through of the speech  will lead to an improved presentation, or that one more re-pack will bring to light something that has been forgotten, the law of diminishing returns make these outcomes less and less likely. 

Repetition, as seen in the above examples, is more likely when it's difficult to tell when the goal has been attained.  How do you know when you are rich enough, or famous enough, or truly loved by your partner?  In the latter case, no evidence may be sufficient so looking for more is useless. This is the time to learn to trust that you are lovable..  

In the case of wealth, fame or power, achievement of a goal may lead to setting a higher goal because you now compare yourself to different people.  The question to ask yourself is if you want to spend your life chasing an ever-expanding goal of wealth, power or fame, or if there are other ways you prefer to spend your limited time on earth.  Is "I am the richest (most famous...most powerful...most...?) person on earth" going to be the thought that sustains you on your death-bed, or are there other things you might achieve that would have more meaning?

In his book Mental Traps: Stupid Things That Sane People Do To Mess Up Their Minds, Andre Kukla goes into a lot more detail about amplification and the 11 other mental traps. He suggests that by being attentive to the present moment, people can break away from habitual thinking processes that lead to mental traps.  Thinking is replaced by attention to the moment until the moment requires thinking. The compulsive need to always be working on things in order to stay on top of a future situation is thus allayed.

Mental Traps: Persistence

Mental Traps, Andre Kukla's book on unproductive thinking skills, describes 11 forms of thinking that produce nothing of value, but sap our energy and waste time. It's not the content of the thoughts, but the way we think about the content that makes a mental trap.

Mental traps tend to stay around because people may be unaware of their thoughts, do not see their thinking as unproductive, or from force of habit. However, once a mental trap is recognized as such, it can be eliminated like any other bad habit. The outcome is generally less stress and more energy.

The first mental trap Kukla addresses is persistence, which he defines as continung to work on projects or be in situations that no longer have value for us. Persistence differs from perseverance where we pursue our aims despite obstacles. To persist is to stubbornly continue without enjoyment in a task or situation simply because we started it. Situations where we may persist range from boring television shows to daily routines, jobs, and relationships.

Why do we persist? Sometimes because we feel that stopping will waste the time that we have already put into an activity. But that time is irretrievable while the time we will save by stopping could be put to something more rewarding. Often though we persist becuase we fail to re-evaluate our goals or because we think that the alternative is even worse. We think that leaving a relationship will lead to being alone for life, or leaving a job will result in penury. Once we buy into our rationalizations we are tied into perpetual persistence, but being aware of the dilemma can lead to breaking free from inertia and making a change.

Persisting in things we are not doing is more difficult to recognize and to change. How long will we persist in not eating olives, which we once tried and disliked, or in not going skiing because we fell down so often on our first lesson? Doing an activity tells us whether it still has value for us, but when we refrain from doing something we cannot tell if the value has changed. Kukla suggests that we never give up on anything forever. Our likes and dislikes, courage and abilities can change over time, and we may be surprised to find value in something that once held no value for us.

To learn about the other mental traps read Mental Traps: Stupid Things That Sane People Do To Mess Up Their Minds or keep checking back here as the other traps will be covered over time.