40+FAB Blog

Keep communication open

It happens to the best of us, when we misread situations or we misread the actions of others based on our past experiences that may not have been so pleasant.

The human brain is wired to recognise patterns and so it kind of jumps to conclusions when it takes in a few bits of information, from what is seen or experienced, and matches it to the database in your mind. You can identify most objects you are used to in an instant, but something that is new takes a lot more effort to consider. This is how magicians trick us, because our mind recognises what is familiar to us and we are then blind to new things happening around us.

Have you falsely accused someone before? Have you misread a situation that made you want to quit a job, or relationship? Maybe your mind has played tricks on you and has brought up patterns of a past situation where you were hurt and so you judge new situation on that basis.

The thing to do to overcome the pattern recognition bias is to take a closer look at the situation at hand, then open up communications with the parties involved. It will surprise you how much just one conversation can set in order, the things that looked like they were falling apart.