Jake Burhans explains how beliefs act as mental filters that shape what you notice. At Starbucks, someone who believes the world works against them misses the short line but fixates on a coffee mistake as proof. Your brain selectively finds evidence that confirms what you already expect.
What you believe, you will perceive. I want to give you an example of a person who believes that everything works out in their favor versus someone who believes that nothing works out in their favor. You're driving up to Starbucks, there's typically a 20-minute line. You zip right through the line, right? And this person believes that nothing ever works out in their favor. What happens? Their brain literally doesn't even recognize that there's not a 20-minute wait. It gets up to the counter, person messes up their coffee, puts in an extra cream, and they go, look, boom, I knew it. Nothing works out in my favor, versus the person who believes everything works out in their favor. They immediately recognize that there was no 20-minute wait, and then yeah, their order gets a little bit messed up, but they're like, yeah, whatever, I'd have to wait 20 minutes. So the point being is that our brain is literally a filtering mechanism to support our dominant beliefs. We believe the day is going to be easy. If we believe that we have enough time or don't have enough time, or that today's going to be tough or today's going to be easy, our brain is going to pick up on bits of information in our environment to support that dominant belief. So question your beliefs. Understand your beliefs are not facts, they're filters.
