Analyze the problem
Changing your mindset can be seen as a problem you are trying to solve. Not to talk yourself into a problem, but to apply a problem analysis to it.
A problem analysis is the first step in solving a problem. While it is tempting to immediately think about possible solutions and start working on them, it is much better to think carefully about the problem first.
“If I had an hour to solve a problem, I would spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.”
~ Albert Einstein, the greatest physicist of all time
Important questions
Important questions in a problem analysis are as follows:
- What is the root of the problem?
- How did this problem come about?
- What are its symptoms?
- What is perpetuating this problem?
A problem analysis looks at the problem itself and not (yet) at its solution. Only after a thorough problem analysis can you determine which solution is best to tackle the core of your problem.
In this article we make a general problem analysis of a negative mindset. You can then make your own problem analysis on the basis of this example.
What is the core of the problem?
When you have a negative mindset, you have a lot of negative thoughts and feelings. It may therefore seem that your negative thoughts and feelings are the problem.
However, this is not completely correct. This becomes clear from the following story.
The White and Black Wolf
A group of Cherokee children gathered around their grandfather. They were filled with excitement and curiosity. That day, there had been quite a tumultuous conflict between two adults and their grandfather was called in to mediate.
The children were eager to hear what he had to say about it. One of the children popped a question to the grandfather that was puzzling him.
“Grandfather, why do people fight?”
“Well” the old man replied “we all have two wolves inside us, you see. They are in our chest and these wolves are constantly fighting each other”.
The eyes of the children had grown big by now.
“In our chests too, grandfather?” asked another child. “And in your chest too?” asked a third one.
He nodded, “Yes, in my chest too.” He sure had their attention now. The grandfather continued. “There is a White Wolf and a Black Wolf. The Black Wolf inside us is filled with fear, anger, envy, jealousy, greed, and arrogance. The White Wolf is filled with peace, love, hope, courage, humility, compassion, and faith. They battle constantly”.
Then he stopped. The child that asked the initial question continued. “But grandfather, which wolf wins?”
The old Cherokee replied…
“That’s simple… it’s the wolf we feed the most.”
The white wolf in the story is our positive thoughts and feelings and the black wolf is our negative thoughts and feelings.
How we feed our wolves
We feed our white and black wolf with the attention we give them. The more attention we give to our negative thoughts and feelings, the bigger they will become.
And the more attention we pay to our positive thoughts and feelings, the greater they become.
So the core of the problem is not the presence or absence of certain thoughts and feelings, but where we focus our attention. That is, which wolf we decide to feed. And this is determined by our mindset.
Confirmation bias
Your mindset consists of the assumptions and expectations you have about yourself, your life and the world. These assumptions and expectations are your core beliefs and determine where you focus your attention.
This is the result of our so-called confirmation bias. This is the tendency to seek, interpret, and recall information that confirms or supports our assumptions, expectations, and core beliefs.
So the problem is not the presence of negative thoughts and feelings, the problem is that you automatically look for evidence to confirm your negative assumptions and expectations.
By confirming the assumptions and expectations of your mindset, you become more and more convinced of them. That is, they become core beliefs.
Which wolf do you feed?
We cannot control our thoughts and feelings. But we can determine which thoughts and feelings we pay most attention to and which wolf we decide to feed more.
This analysis shows that the core of the problem consists of two elements:
- We have a negative mindset
- We continue to affirm our negative mindset
Examples of negative core beliefs
- I can not do it
- I am not worthy
- I am a failure
- I am defective
- Nobody likes me
- No-one can be trusted
- Everyone will leave me
- It never goes my way
Challenge
Find out which negative core beliefs you have
- Write down the negative core beliefs in your own words.
- Ask yourself in which ways you maintain and affirm these core beliefs.