Tim Arrigo explains how negativity bias makes us fixate on what we lack instead of what we have. He uses the example of noticing your new car everywhere to show how focus shapes what feels real. Shifting attention to where you're going and who you're becoming boosts motivation more than dwelling on past mistakes.
Negative information becomes the focal point because of biological inheritance. If a plant was poisonous, if an animal was dangerous, your brain had to download and quickly encode that information because it was necessary for survival. See, if you had had 10 experiences in the day, let's say 5 were positive, 4 were neutral, they weren't positive or negative, and you had 1 negative experience, which one do you typically think about before you go to bed? The negative one. Yeah, that's because negative information is the focal point in the mind. See, so much of the time in our lives, we're focusing on what's negative, what we lack, where we could be but we're not, where we should be but we're not, where we would be but we're not. And what we're not doing is we're not taking a look around at what we already have. See, the more I focus on something, the more I recognize how much it's there, right? How many times have you bought a new vehicle? You drive that vehicle off the lot, And within a month of owning that vehicle, you start seeing that vehicle everywhere on the road. Well, you start seeing it because your focus is on it. Your brain believes that what you focus on most is the most relevant information in your life. So my question for you is, where are you focusing? Are you focusing on where you could be, where you should be, what you should have done but didn't? Or are you focusing on where you're going and who you're becoming? If I ever wanted to get you excited about your recovery, I would never talk to you about who you were and what you've done as much as I would talk to you about where you're going and who you're becoming.
