Cognitive Dissonance

“I have said before. Truth is nowhere to be found on a map. Your truth is different from... mine. At first, you may think that this is truth, but later you discover another truth and then the former truth is denied- but you are closer to truth.” Bruce Lee

One of the advantages of being married to a beautiful and brilliant wife is she teaches me large words like cognitive dissonance. After you learn of it you start to see it everywhere in your life. Cognitive dissonance is the feeling of mental discomfort that arises when your beliefs are counter to your reactions. The classic example is a smoker believing smoking leads to cancer, yet they continually smoke to give them instant relief. The dissonance they feel is the conflicting emotion that arises to continually do something that they cognitively disagree with. After dissonance is increased in an individual the mind tries to mitigate this feeling. At this point the individual needs to decide to change the behavior/action or irrationally rationalize a narrative to cure their feelings of cognitive disharmony. 

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There are studies showing that humans are great at outweighing their personal bias over concrete factual information. One study gave misinformation about a political candidate, and later gave the correct information, but the previously established bias given to the participants outweighed their ability to change their mind on the candidate.  Humans will therefore decide to irrationally rationalize their way out of discomfort instead of facing the mirror and perform the required change that is necessary to put them on the true path of progress.  

This carries directly over to health. Everyone desires to be healthy, but often we eat unhealthy foods and don’t make exercise a priority. Then we rationalize an excuse [i.e. lack of time] or create a narrative to justify our poor habits. “A common way to reduce dissonance is to increase the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and decrease the attractiveness of the rejected alternative. This is referred to as “spreading apart the alternatives.” [source] The fear of not eating the treat and enjoying ourselves today –YOLO- becomes more attractive than the thought/joy of extending our health and time on this beautiful planet.  

Being honest with yourself and taking action is the pathway to progress. The evidence is clear that the grater majority of America is over nourished, under muscled, over stressed, overweight, and under rested which are all problems that can be solved with a boring plan, taking action, and being consistent. The term YOLO [you only live once] never made sense to me... You only live once so take your health and long-term future self and throw them into a garbage disposal. Instead, YOLO should mean you maximize your time and adventure on this earth and make the largest impact you can in the short time we have been given. Look into the mirror one day when you are by yourself. Ask yourself if you are proud of the father/mother or spouse that you see. Does your exterior representation to the world match the virtues that you say you live by? Your health is an accumulation of your habits. If the mirror causes you to have dissonance you can create short term relief and make a new narrative or long-term joy by being honest with yourself and making a change to your life which will lead to a longer, stronger, and healthier life and continue to make progress!