I care about my readers. Sometimes, that means I will address bad habits or plain ole’ human nature problems that many people struggle to overcome. Today’s post deals with the latter. Unfortunately, the picture below describes it well.
When confronted with facts that require a person to take action they may consider abnormal, the majority of people simply rationalize ignoring those facts, or altering them in such a way that they do not have to deal with them. They create a mental environment where everything feels normal, despite the fact that reality is very different. This phenomenon is called “normalcy bias.” And it can siphon off a great deal of your true wealth.
People progress through four stages of awareness when a situation arises or facts present themselves that should cause them to take action. Those stages are summarized as follows:
- Awareness. You have a check in your spirit. You have the feeling that something isn’t adding up. Your senses become sharpened and you begin to pay more attention to the information you are taking in.
- Acceptance. You accept that something indeed is wrong in how you perceive a situation, but you have not yet identified what it is. You begin to analyze the situation in more detail in order to identify the source of your uneasiness.
- Identification. You have identified the source of that is distracting or blinding you.
- Action. You have made your decision that you must take action to change your course.
These stages can take place in a matter of seconds when danger arises quickly and unexpectedly, or they can take place over a period of years if the source is not overtly dangerous and seems benign.
Normalcy bias enters the picture somewhere after step one and before step four. It causes people to deny that they are missing anything, and the progression to action slows or stops altogether. They then often find themselves with not enough time to properly react. They can succumb to danger, or simply miss out on a very important opportunity.
Has this happened to you? It has to me, more times than I care to admit. I have succumbed to normalcy bias in the following ways:
- Busyness distracted me from recognizing the changes around me. I dismissed the changes so that I could focus on the task at hand.
- Facing facts would have required me to confront a situation in a way I was not comfortable with, nor did I feel prepared for.
- I didn’t trust the source of the facts that were presented to me.
- I recognized the change, but did not feel a proper sense of urgency to understand or address it.
Normalcy bias can cause hardship, or it can simply mean you miss out on “best” and settle for “mediocre.” The key is being aware that you suffer from it. For many, that creates a paradox. You have to overcome normalcy bias in order to see it.
Let this article cause you to reflect on your life. Look into yourself and be honest. Do you suffer from normalcy bias? If so, change your course! Don’t miss out on the opportunity for your’s and your family’s “best!”
The post How to Recognize and Overcome Normalcy Bias appeared first on DougTjaden.com.
