WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.121 --> 00:00:02.980 you have that fallacy of people look at high performers 2 00:00:03.323 --> 00:00:05.460 and they see that they appear confident. 3 00:00:05.680 --> 00:00:07.220 And so they erroneously assume 4 00:00:07.341 --> 00:00:10.500 that the confidence preceded the high performance 5 00:00:11.065 --> 00:00:12.520 when it's actually the other way around. 6 00:00:12.660 --> 00:00:14.660 It's the high performance generates the confidence. 7 00:00:14.980 --> 00:00:17.420 There's other modern renditions of this too, 8 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:19.120 that like certain techniques or whatever 9 00:00:19.281 --> 00:00:21.600 that get peddled in those circles, I think. 10 00:00:21.620 --> 00:00:23.320 And there's some interesting research 11 00:00:23.381 --> 00:00:24.299 around some of these as well. 12 00:00:24.702 --> 00:00:26.800 So we have things like affirmations, visualizations, 13 00:00:27.161 --> 00:00:28.320 power posing even too. 14 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:32.840 So if we want to real quick just run through some of this research because it's kind of interesting, actually. 15 00:00:33.061 --> 00:00:33.899 Let's start with affirmations. 16 00:00:34.180 --> 00:00:34.315 Okay. 17 00:00:34.821 --> 00:00:41.180 So there's a study in 2009 that was the first to really seriously kind of test if affirmations work or not. 18 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:48.499 And so they gathered these participants and had them repeat, I am a lovable person, every 15 seconds. 19 00:00:48.860 --> 00:00:51.280 And they had them do this 16 times, I guess. 20 00:00:51.383 --> 00:00:51.500 Okay. 21 00:00:52.101 --> 00:00:57.139 What happens is that the exact kind of people who need this, actually, it doesn't work for them. 22 00:00:57.363 --> 00:00:57.738 Right? 23 00:00:57.901 --> 00:00:58.302 Basically. 24 00:00:58.322 --> 00:01:02.260 So if you have already have kind of a low self-esteem and you repeat to yourself, 25 00:01:02.400 --> 00:01:03.224 I'm a lovable person. 26 00:01:03.344 --> 00:01:04.027 I can do this. 27 00:01:04.208 --> 00:01:05.795 I'm, I'm, I'm going to be okay. 28 00:01:05.835 --> 00:01:06.900 I'm, I'm awesome. 29 00:01:07.220 --> 00:01:10.280 While you have low self-esteem, it actually makes it worse. 30 00:01:10.880 --> 00:01:11.001 Right. 31 00:01:11.021 --> 00:01:13.776 Because you, you sit there and you're like, wow, I'm such a loser. 32 00:01:13.876 --> 00:01:14.540 I have to repeat 33 00:01:14.620 --> 00:01:19.040 to myself that I'm lovable over and over and over again, which just makes you feel worse. 34 00:01:19.401 --> 00:01:22.880 And then if you do feel good about yourself, you're like, wow, I don't really need to do 35 00:01:22.940 --> 00:01:24.690 this because I feel good about myself. 36 00:01:24.710 --> 00:01:26.057 Exactly what they found. 37 00:01:26.339 --> 00:01:26.580 It's just 38 00:01:26.600 --> 00:01:28.549 cognitive dissonance is all it is, right? 39 00:01:28.749 --> 00:01:31.120 If you have beliefs about yourself that you are, 40 00:01:32.023 --> 00:01:35.760 you're not a worthy person or whatever, and you're telling yourself, I am a worthy person, 41 00:01:35.800 --> 00:01:39.075 or I am lovable, whatever, all it's doing is highlighting that gap. 42 00:01:39.457 --> 00:01:40.020 And it creates that 43 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:40.924 cognitive dissonance. 44 00:01:40.944 --> 00:01:43.637 And you have to resolve that cognitive dissonance in some way. 45 00:01:43.898 --> 00:01:44.320 And usually what 46 00:01:44.340 --> 00:01:45.926 it is, is making yourself feel worse. 47 00:01:46.167 --> 00:01:48.897 Your self has to be aligned in some way. 48 00:01:49.078 --> 00:01:49.540 You know, it has 49 00:01:49.600 --> 00:01:50.585 to be consistent. 50 00:01:51.007 --> 00:01:52.213 There's been some other studies around this. 51 00:01:52.234 --> 00:01:53.500 There's like a 2020 study that didn't 52 00:01:53.580 --> 00:01:56.131 quite replicate that, but they also just found no effect on it. 53 00:01:56.171 --> 00:01:57.577 So it's either no effect or a bad 54 00:01:58.200 --> 00:01:59.024 effect on this. 55 00:01:59.325 --> 00:02:02.620 If you are somebody who has a high level of like self-competence and self-efficacy 56 00:02:02.660 --> 00:02:05.794 and all of that, like your example, when you go and speak, right? 57 00:02:05.875 --> 00:02:07.020 Like you've done it before, 58 00:02:07.240 --> 00:02:08.064 you know, you can do it. 59 00:02:08.586 --> 00:02:11.940 You throw the tunes on, you say you're a rock star and it helps a little 60 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:13.246 bit just to get you over the hump. 61 00:02:13.307 --> 00:02:16.060 That's fine because there's not a huge gap between that and 62 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:16.964 what you've already done. 63 00:02:17.226 --> 00:02:20.280 There are techniques to pump up your emotional state in the short term, 64 00:02:20.641 --> 00:02:25.820 right so you list i listen to that song or norman minson peel like does his affirmations or whatever 65 00:02:26.522 --> 00:02:32.980 like the ending result of that is that it improves your mood very temporarily and once your mood is 66 00:02:33.060 --> 00:02:37.560 improved that can make you feel a little bit better about what you're about to do where things 67 00:02:37.640 --> 00:02:41.980 go amiss is this assumption that anything permanent is happening i've met a lot of people who swear by 68 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:46.360 affirmations and and i've it's funny i've been on a number of podcasts where people have like come at 69 00:02:46.420 --> 00:02:50.980 me and they're like i do affirmations every morning like why why do you tell people they 70 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:54.820 don't work and i'm like well hate to break it to you it gives them that little mood boost 71 00:02:55.723 --> 00:03:00.700 makes them feel better maybe you know at the beginning of the day for a minute five minutes 72 00:03:02.064 --> 00:03:08.300 and then they just kind of falsely think that that is carrying on through in a more permanent way 73 00:03:08.561 --> 00:03:12.960 throughout their lives when it's it's actually not the podcasters or whatever come at you they 74 00:03:13.060 --> 00:03:17.240 probably have a good track record of you know doing well and so telling themselves they're 75 00:03:17.240 --> 00:03:20.220 going to do well they're like oh yeah i'm gonna do well it's fine it works out and then they move 76 00:03:20.300 --> 00:03:24.880 on yeah like that's fine but if you're telling yourself i'm gonna do well and you're just a wreck 77 00:03:25.262 --> 00:03:29.080 no that's not gonna help you just telling yourself it's gonna work out is not going to help you 78 00:03:29.822 --> 00:03:36.940 okay clip that put it on repeat okay okay anyway anyway okay let's go on the next one a very 79 00:03:37.040 --> 00:03:41.020 related one though too is the visualizations right this is a big one you know vision boarding or 80 00:03:41.381 --> 00:03:41.742 whatever. 81 00:03:42.143 --> 00:03:47.240 There's this psychologist from NYU, Gabrielle Otigen, I think is how you say her 82 00:03:47.320 --> 00:03:49.210 name, has been testing this for like decades. 83 00:03:49.391 --> 00:03:51.040 And it's like really got into the weeds on this. 84 00:03:51.740 --> 00:03:57.260 Basically what she's found is that like positive visualization on its own, it's really interesting. 85 00:03:57.360 --> 00:04:00.435 It actually reduces the energy you want to put towards whatever goal. 86 00:04:00.455 --> 00:04:01.400 So if you're visualizing 87 00:04:01.480 --> 00:04:05.900 a goal you have, and you put a lot of like positive visualization of you attaining that goal, 88 00:04:06.703 --> 00:04:11.860 it reduces the the motivation you have for that goal it's like you've already consumed part of 89 00:04:11.920 --> 00:04:16.700 that goal you get a small hit of satisfaction right from so your motivation is decreased from 90 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:20.340 yeah like your brain kind of almost treats it as like oh you've already got the goal so i don't 91 00:04:20.360 --> 00:04:25.440 need to be as motivated towards it why bother so why bother at that point right one of the studies 92 00:04:25.520 --> 00:04:31.100 she found like women who fantasize more positively about uh losing weight actually lose fewer pounds 93 00:04:31.444 --> 00:04:32.600 like they don't lose as much weight. 94 00:04:33.702 --> 00:04:36.420 Another one she did on hip replacement patients 95 00:04:37.124 --> 00:04:39.860 and those who have these rosy recovery like goals 96 00:04:39.921 --> 00:04:41.740 are like, oh no, I'm going to be fine by next week 97 00:04:41.740 --> 00:04:41.998 or whatever. 98 00:04:42.181 --> 00:04:42.919 They did worse. 99 00:04:43.280 --> 00:04:46.920 Students who fantasize about job offers, 100 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:48.280 like, oh, I'm going to get this job offer. 101 00:04:48.700 --> 00:04:50.680 You know, I can see myself getting it and all that. 102 00:04:50.760 --> 00:04:52.780 They end up doing worse in their interviews 103 00:04:52.903 --> 00:04:53.539 and everything like that. 104 00:04:53.803 --> 00:04:54.600 Exam grades, all of this. 105 00:04:54.640 --> 00:04:56.360 She did this in all these different situations 106 00:04:56.562 --> 00:04:58.900 and found the same thing over and over again. 107 00:04:59.260 --> 00:05:06.486 So this is where we run into the manifestation crowd because you get a lot of people who are like, I manifested this, right? 108 00:05:06.566 --> 00:05:08.988 It's like, I dreamed about this and then I made it happen. 109 00:05:09.209 --> 00:05:22.720 When you do visualize something you want in your life, there's a usefulness in that it orients you towards, I guess, thinking more critically about how to attain that thing. 110 00:05:23.020 --> 00:05:27.025 You leverage your, your perceptual biases to like help you get it. 111 00:05:28.647 --> 00:05:40.520 But so maybe there's, there's like a, a fine line between simply like explicitly defining a goal for yourself and then like actively fantasizing, visualizing about it on a regular basis. 112 00:05:40.722 --> 00:05:42.640 She actually found kind of where that boundary is. 113 00:05:43.100 --> 00:05:50.740 Visualization isn't all bad, but the thing is, is that just like only visualizing the end goal, only visualizing having done the thing. 114 00:05:51.623 --> 00:05:52.440 That's what's back. 115 00:05:53.081 --> 00:05:53.460 Interesting. 116 00:05:53.620 --> 00:05:55.860 So visualizing the process of getting there. 117 00:05:56.161 --> 00:05:57.700 She calls it WOOP, W-O-O-P. 118 00:05:57.941 --> 00:05:58.639 First is the wish. 119 00:05:59.324 --> 00:05:59.539 Okay. 120 00:05:59.883 --> 00:06:00.860 This is something you want to attain. 121 00:06:00.940 --> 00:06:02.840 So that's the like the thing you want. 122 00:06:02.985 --> 00:06:03.160 Right. 123 00:06:03.603 --> 00:06:04.300 Then the outcome. 124 00:06:04.420 --> 00:06:06.740 So you do have to visualize the outcome, getting the outcome and all that. 125 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:10.100 But then importantly, the next two, I think are the most important obstacle. 126 00:06:10.962 --> 00:06:14.053 visualize the obstacles that you're going to encounter along the way. 127 00:06:14.856 --> 00:06:15.157 Okay. 128 00:06:15.398 --> 00:06:16.020 And, and really 129 00:06:16.100 --> 00:06:17.811 see like, okay, this is probably going to come up. 130 00:06:17.992 --> 00:06:19.360 I'm it's kind of like that stoic negative 131 00:06:19.440 --> 00:06:20.104 visualization. 132 00:06:20.144 --> 00:06:21.432 Something wrong is going to happen. 133 00:06:21.492 --> 00:06:21.733 Right. 134 00:06:21.834 --> 00:06:22.880 And I need to be ready for it. 135 00:06:23.501 --> 00:06:26.334 And then the last one is to have actually create a plan around it. 136 00:06:26.596 --> 00:06:27.560 So it's a whole visualization 137 00:06:27.942 --> 00:06:31.176 arc that you can use, but it's not really a visualization necessarily. 138 00:06:31.236 --> 00:06:32.060 It's more engaging 139 00:06:32.341 --> 00:06:33.304 in a process. 140 00:06:33.605 --> 00:06:38.380 So most people just, they stop at, whoa, which is the wish and the wish and the 141 00:06:38.400 --> 00:06:44.120 outcome and the outcome and that's essentially just fantasizing whoa yeah whoa i wish it was 142 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:48.520 woo because that would be so perfect but yeah the obstacle in the plan that like that's actually 143 00:06:48.580 --> 00:06:53.400 where the rubber meets the road that that's what generates i guess the momentum or the velocity 144 00:06:53.641 --> 00:06:58.540 towards the outcome that's a very active engagement with i don't even know if i would 145 00:06:58.902 --> 00:07:02.840 call that a visualization necessarily but i mean there's visualization elements to it but it's more 146 00:07:02.900 --> 00:07:07.840 just like a an approach to something because you're you're creating a plan you're envisioning 147 00:07:07.880 --> 00:07:09.588 the obstacles, you're getting ready for them. 148 00:07:09.689 --> 00:07:11.960 And it's just a lot more realistic than do you, 149 00:07:12.100 --> 00:07:14.812 do you visualize like outcomes you want in your life? 150 00:07:14.892 --> 00:07:16.439 Cause like I do, I, and it's funny, 151 00:07:16.660 --> 00:07:17.806 I don't do it intentionally. 152 00:07:17.886 --> 00:07:20.840 I just kind of like, I'll just daydream about stuff I want. 153 00:07:21.100 --> 00:07:21.503 No, I don't. 154 00:07:21.543 --> 00:07:23.092 I guess I don't really do a whole lot of that. 155 00:07:23.233 --> 00:07:23.696 Interesting. 156 00:07:23.917 --> 00:07:24.380 Take me through your 157 00:07:24.400 --> 00:07:24.782 process. 158 00:07:24.943 --> 00:07:26.169 I've always done this naturally. 159 00:07:26.209 --> 00:07:27.214 I've never did it. 160 00:07:27.294 --> 00:07:28.540 I remember when I read visualization 161 00:07:28.580 --> 00:07:30.770 stuff, I was like, well, yeah, sure. 162 00:07:30.890 --> 00:07:31.252 Whatever. 163 00:07:31.453 --> 00:07:33.020 You know, like it just seemed like very obvious 164 00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:34.224 and kind of dumb to me. 165 00:07:34.384 --> 00:07:38.336 Like if I have a certain goal or something, I will just think about not 166 00:07:39.660 --> 00:07:41.934 only the outcome, but like the process of attaining that goal. 167 00:07:42.135 --> 00:07:42.397 Right. 168 00:07:42.457 --> 00:07:42.900 So it's like, 169 00:07:42.960 --> 00:07:46.175 I just kind of will mentally rehearse what it will take to get there. 170 00:07:46.396 --> 00:07:47.160 And also like some of 171 00:07:47.180 --> 00:07:50.660 the benefits of having it, like how cool it will be if I, you know, I don't know, whatever. 172 00:07:50.960 --> 00:07:53.291 I actually have started doing this more recently. 173 00:07:53.391 --> 00:07:55.340 One of them, um, I was just talking with you about 174 00:07:55.360 --> 00:07:55.782 this earlier. 175 00:07:56.084 --> 00:07:59.420 I've been getting into running, uh, like longer distances and more endurance stuff. 176 00:07:59.620 --> 00:08:04.624 And I have a good friend who does like crazy endurance stuff and he's kind of taking me under his wing a little bit. 177 00:08:05.044 --> 00:08:07.506 I start, I guess I did start kind of doing this a little bit with that. 178 00:08:07.687 --> 00:08:09.688 Oh, that'd be so cool to do these like crazy trail runs. 179 00:08:09.708 --> 00:08:14.312 These guys are up in the mountains, you know, middle of nowhere and like you're running overnight and stuff like that. 180 00:08:14.332 --> 00:08:15.213 I'm like, oh, that'd be crazy. 181 00:08:15.233 --> 00:08:18.335 So there's kind of the wish and the outcome to crossing that finish line or whatever. 182 00:08:18.675 --> 00:08:24.620 But what I really started doing lately was more of the, okay, the obstacles, the training is rigorous. 183 00:08:25.824 --> 00:08:30.160 and so I have to like really plan for that so he got me signed up for like a coaching app and stuff 184 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:34.500 like that from that you get a plan out of it too but the the obstacles I've really been thinking 185 00:08:34.620 --> 00:08:39.800 more around like almost like visualizing the the process yeah around it running by myself 186 00:08:40.482 --> 00:08:45.180 and the in the heat in the mountains or the the cold in the mountains even too I guess kind of 187 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:50.040 when I visualize or fantasize about stuff yeah it is both the positive and the negative are present 188 00:08:50.341 --> 00:08:59.600 Which I guess it's worth noting that Ottengen's entire findings are essentially that visualization is only useful if you include the negative thoughts. 189 00:08:59.820 --> 00:09:01.000 Yeah, you have to be realistic about it. 190 00:09:01.181 --> 00:09:05.900 If you block the negative thoughts and you're just focused on the... 191 00:09:05.961 --> 00:09:08.020 As soon as they come in, those are going to wreck the fantasy. 192 00:09:08.307 --> 00:09:08.440 Yes. 193 00:09:08.881 --> 00:09:10.680 It's a rehearsal for action is what it is. 194 00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:16.120 It's not a rehearsal for like, oh, I'm going to sit back and just enjoy all this because that's what's the motivating part. 195 00:09:16.301 --> 00:09:17.620 It's not a rehearsal for being awesome. 196 00:09:18.204 --> 00:09:20.139 It's rehearsal for accomplishing things. 197 00:09:20.220 --> 00:09:20.360 Putting the work in. 198 00:09:20.521 --> 00:09:21.157 Yeah, putting work in. 199 00:09:21.480 --> 00:09:21.620 For sure. 200 00:09:21.880 --> 00:09:21.960 Yeah. 201 00:09:22.405 --> 00:09:22.759 Okay, okay. 202 00:09:23.101 --> 00:09:24.540 Last one that I'm going to cover this time. 203 00:09:25.283 --> 00:09:25.720 Power posing. 204 00:09:26.147 --> 00:09:26.460 Oh, yeah. 205 00:09:26.563 --> 00:09:26.693 Okay. 206 00:09:27.204 --> 00:09:27.899 I remember this. 207 00:09:28.041 --> 00:09:28.859 Have you ever tried this? 208 00:09:29.228 --> 00:09:29.399 No. 209 00:09:30.061 --> 00:09:30.677 We'll get into this. 210 00:09:30.820 --> 00:09:31.260 We'll get into this. 211 00:09:31.300 --> 00:09:31.420 Okay. 212 00:09:31.580 --> 00:09:36.320 So in 2010, again, not that long ago, a study comes up. 213 00:09:36.764 --> 00:09:37.820 I remember this TED Talk. 214 00:09:37.940 --> 00:09:39.060 It was massive. 215 00:09:39.320 --> 00:09:39.958 It was everywhere. 216 00:09:40.081 --> 00:09:42.080 It was one of the most viewed TED Talks. 217 00:09:42.280 --> 00:09:42.880 But what it was based on. 218 00:09:42.900 --> 00:09:43.780 Tens of millions of views. 219 00:09:43.903 --> 00:09:44.020 Yeah. 220 00:09:44.120 --> 00:09:46.180 What it was based on was this 2010 study they did. 221 00:09:46.411 --> 00:09:46.560 Okay. 222 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:47.367 42 people. 223 00:09:48.041 --> 00:09:48.619 So already small size. 224 00:09:48.660 --> 00:09:49.040 Not many. 225 00:09:49.242 --> 00:09:49.620 As you see. 226 00:09:49.740 --> 00:09:49.900 Right. 227 00:09:50.081 --> 00:09:51.960 They had the high power pose and a low power pose. 228 00:09:52.060 --> 00:09:53.240 So basically, you know, the high power, like. 229 00:09:53.561 --> 00:09:54.119 Should we demonstrate? 230 00:09:54.461 --> 00:09:55.539 You should demonstrate this. 231 00:09:57.024 --> 00:09:58.240 Is this the high power pose? 232 00:09:58.240 --> 00:09:59.120 I don't know where you're sitting down. 233 00:09:59.240 --> 00:09:59.560 If it's very. 234 00:09:59.763 --> 00:10:00.078 Is this. 235 00:10:00.301 --> 00:10:01.720 Chest out, hands on the hip. 236 00:10:01.780 --> 00:10:02.920 Like that's the power pose, right? 237 00:10:03.061 --> 00:10:04.278 Wait, I got to suck my stomach in. 238 00:10:04.502 --> 00:10:04.637 Okay. 239 00:10:04.821 --> 00:10:06.218 Now I'm, now I'm confident. 240 00:10:06.461 --> 00:10:07.800 You look powerful, Mark. 241 00:10:09.004 --> 00:10:09.696 You look so powerful. 242 00:10:10.001 --> 00:10:11.540 I'm so confident right now. 243 00:10:11.700 --> 00:10:24.360 Their claim in this study, though, was that just doing that, that you would have measurable increases in certain hormones like raised testosterone, lower cortisol, which is a stress hormone, right? 244 00:10:24.641 --> 00:10:27.260 Not only that, but then they took more risks after this, too. 245 00:10:27.460 --> 00:10:31.780 So they had them perform tasks that involved some risk and the people who power posed would take more risks. 246 00:10:32.021 --> 00:10:34.640 That culminated in 2012 in this huge TED talk. 247 00:10:34.841 --> 00:10:37.340 And again, one of the most viewed TED talks out there. 248 00:10:37.541 --> 00:10:40.620 It was kind of just one of those fake it till you make it data points. 249 00:10:40.980 --> 00:10:42.182 Problem was it didn't replicate. 250 00:10:42.462 --> 00:10:48.028 In 2015, there was another set of researchers who did a pre-registered study of 200 people. 251 00:10:48.408 --> 00:10:52.732 They found no effect on testosterone, no effect on cortisol, no effect on risk taking. 252 00:10:52.933 --> 00:11:00.140 The only thing that survived was that people did report feeling a little bit more powerful, a little bit better, a little bit more confident in themselves. 253 00:11:00.500 --> 00:11:00.740 State pump. 254 00:11:01.921 --> 00:11:03.473 Just like before you go on stage, right? 255 00:11:03.796 --> 00:11:04.360 Same type of thing. 256 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:05.747 This is not confidence, people. 257 00:11:05.807 --> 00:11:08.160 This is a momentary state pump. 258 00:11:08.381 --> 00:11:12.777 The lead researcher, I think the senior researcher on this in 2016, finally retracted. 259 00:11:14.062 --> 00:11:15.540 And she said, this was Dana Carney. 260 00:11:15.861 --> 00:11:18.900 She said that she doesn't believe that the power pose effects are real. 261 00:11:19.501 --> 00:11:21.880 She even walked through all the flaws in this study. 262 00:11:22.340 --> 00:11:23.020 Good credit on her. 263 00:11:23.060 --> 00:11:23.960 I'm sure she had a lot of pressure. 264 00:11:24.020 --> 00:11:24.360 Good for her. 265 00:11:24.521 --> 00:11:25.079 Good for her, though. 266 00:11:25.100 --> 00:11:27.440 Honestly, more researchers should do this. 267 00:11:27.580 --> 00:11:28.860 She noted the tiny sample. 268 00:11:29.080 --> 00:11:31.980 There was participants who dropped they didn't include in this. 269 00:11:32.401 --> 00:11:35.560 They had a whole bunch of measures that they took that they didn't report even to. 270 00:11:35.621 --> 00:11:37.860 So they were cherry picking big time out of this. 271 00:11:38.462 --> 00:11:41.320 And it was just this one small study and outlier effects that they saw. 272 00:11:41.860 --> 00:11:43.001 You know what this reminds me of? 273 00:11:43.382 --> 00:11:50.167 I remember back when I was like 20 years old, I read this, but there was a book, I think it was called The Book of Body Language. 274 00:11:50.567 --> 00:11:52.208 And it had all this research in it. 275 00:11:52.328 --> 00:12:03.016 Like I remember there was one study supposedly where people in an audience, if they cross their arms, they're less likely to agree with the lecturer or something. 276 00:12:03.056 --> 00:12:07.900 Whereas like people who like put their arms by their side and opened up their body were like more receptive to the information. 277 00:12:07.981 --> 00:12:08.756 Closed poses. 278 00:12:08.777 --> 00:12:08.899 Yeah. 279 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:10.622 All of it turned out to be bullshit. 280 00:12:10.983 --> 00:12:14.207 And I actually think the lead researcher, I think it was a Dutch guy. 281 00:12:14.227 --> 00:12:17.010 It turned out he was just like making up a lot of data. 282 00:12:17.271 --> 00:12:24.580 All this is to say is that this sort of like nothing burger has been around for a long time. 283 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:32.473 This is kind of pointed at as one of the poster childs of the replication crisis that happened in psychology that I think we're kind of starting to come out of a little bit like people were aware of it. 284 00:12:32.673 --> 00:12:36.740 The late 2000s, mid 2010s, there was just this whole like, oh, shit, we can't. 285 00:12:37.022 --> 00:12:37.779 Like nothing's replicated. 286 00:12:37.860 --> 00:12:38.842 And this was one of them. 287 00:12:39.223 --> 00:12:41.567 And it had a TED talk behind it, right? 288 00:12:41.587 --> 00:12:42.729 That blew up at everybody. 289 00:12:42.749 --> 00:12:45.514 I mean, people still probably watch it today and believe it. 290 00:12:46.436 --> 00:12:48.900 This was the poster child for the replication crisis. 291 00:12:49.520 --> 00:12:50.024 Affirmations. 292 00:12:51.657 --> 00:12:52.040 Bullshit. 293 00:12:52.180 --> 00:12:52.260 Yeah. 294 00:12:53.100 --> 00:12:54.120 Visualizations mixed bag. 295 00:12:54.922 --> 00:12:57.700 You need to visualize the obstacles and the problem solving. 296 00:12:57.720 --> 00:12:59.473 Which I would argue isn't really visualization. 297 00:13:00.760 --> 00:13:01.238 But anyway, yeah. 298 00:13:01.441 --> 00:13:02.200 News alert, everybody. 299 00:13:02.360 --> 00:13:03.219 Planning works. 300 00:13:03.580 --> 00:13:06.480 Power posing, body language, embodiment stuff. 301 00:13:06.580 --> 00:13:06.758 Right. 302 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:07.394 Bullshit. 303 00:13:07.822 --> 00:13:09.255 Have you ever tried the power posing? 304 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:10.240 I tried all this shit. 305 00:13:10.383 --> 00:13:10.497 Yeah. 306 00:13:10.721 --> 00:13:11.520 I tried all this shit. 307 00:13:11.745 --> 00:13:11.857 Yeah. 308 00:13:12.241 --> 00:13:17.599 I mean, I got really into all this stuff in my teens and in early 20s. 309 00:13:18.180 --> 00:13:21.220 I remember doing the whole thing, like looking at myself in the mirror and telling myself things. 310 00:13:21.381 --> 00:13:22.260 I felt ridiculous. 311 00:13:22.300 --> 00:13:25.760 I was like, this is so stupid, right? 312 00:13:25.840 --> 00:13:28.940 Like if I actually felt these things, I wouldn't have to look in the mirror and say them. 313 00:13:29.140 --> 00:13:33.440 You know, the visualization stuff, like I have a very active imagination and I visualize 314 00:13:33.603 --> 00:13:34.540 a lot of things very easily. 315 00:13:34.621 --> 00:13:36.900 So like I never understood that. 316 00:13:37.080 --> 00:13:40.680 And then the power posing thing, it's funny because I remember back when I was a day in 317 00:13:40.760 --> 00:13:43.380 relationships coach, a huge emphasis was put on body language. 318 00:13:43.400 --> 00:13:44.240 Body language, yeah, sure. 319 00:13:44.280 --> 00:13:48.120 And it was interesting because it was body language was, first of all, a huge component 320 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:53.540 of just physical attractiveness is body language and posture and, you know, standing up tall. 321 00:13:53.780 --> 00:13:57.460 It was interesting because it's like when you do correct people's posture and body language, 322 00:13:57.560 --> 00:13:59.879 like you do, there is a noticeable kind of. 323 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:01.300 Oh, there's a state change for sure. 324 00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:03.600 There's a little emotional pump that happens, right? 325 00:14:03.660 --> 00:14:07.960 And they do feel a little bit like, yeah, yeah, I'm, I got this, right? 326 00:14:08.361 --> 00:14:12.420 A useful question is like, is there anything from this that is salvageable from. 327 00:14:12.580 --> 00:14:12.697 Okay. 328 00:14:12.740 --> 00:14:12.850 Yeah. 329 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:16.280 Let's call it the mainstream corpus of self-help advice. 330 00:14:16.383 --> 00:14:17.040 You've tried it all. 331 00:14:17.080 --> 00:14:17.616 So you tell me. 332 00:14:18.020 --> 00:14:22.524 The only person that I will like give a little bit of credit here is Tony. 333 00:14:22.784 --> 00:14:29.189 What most classic self-help people do is they just state pump you endlessly, right? 334 00:14:29.229 --> 00:14:34.554 Like you just go to one of these seminars or you read the secret and it's just like you are just getting bathed. 335 00:14:34.574 --> 00:14:42.280 You're getting showered in positive affirmation and just being like told that you are fucking amazing in the center of the universe for for hours. 336 00:14:43.142 --> 00:14:50.320 and that feels really good for a short period of time i think tony's a little bit more sophisticated 337 00:14:50.581 --> 00:14:56.140 in what he does he still does the state pumping like a lot of his methodology is really like if 338 00:14:56.160 --> 00:15:00.500 you look at what he does in his seminars it's like very driven by like state pumping people 339 00:15:01.022 --> 00:15:05.940 he's a little bit smarter and that he recognizes that people are a little bit more open and 340 00:15:06.040 --> 00:15:11.680 suggestible when they're in a good mood so like when you're feeling like shit when you haven't 341 00:15:11.880 --> 00:15:16.580 slept when you're cranky and you're angry you had a big fight with your mom or your sister or 342 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:20.920 whatever like you don't want to listen to anybody's advice your focus is very narrow yeah you're like 343 00:15:21.101 --> 00:15:26.660 dude don't tell me right what my morning routine should be like fuck you right but like if you're 344 00:15:26.660 --> 00:15:31.840 in a great mood and you're just like vibing and you're having a great time and you're meeting all 345 00:15:31.860 --> 00:15:37.220 these cool people right and then you get hit with a piece of life advice of like hey you should try 346 00:15:37.300 --> 00:15:42.038 this like you're going to be much more receptive to that advice and so i think he uses it as a tool 347 00:15:43.022 --> 00:15:46.900 he's he still sells it as like we're going to make you confident we're going to make you feel 348 00:15:46.980 --> 00:15:50.840 good about yourself we're going to unleash the giant within right that's his whole that's his 349 00:15:50.860 --> 00:15:57.140 whole thing it is a means to an end in in his program at least so like so i'll give i'll give 350 00:15:57.160 --> 00:16:02.040 a like a half like i guess half credit there yeah i just think a lot most of this stuff is feel good 351 00:16:02.100 --> 00:16:05.800 bullshit what do you think about anything though like uh like limiting beliefs or anything like 352 00:16:05.820 --> 00:16:06.041 that. 353 00:16:06.061 --> 00:16:10.080 I don't know if this is the same category or not, but you know, we just did the episode on 354 00:16:10.160 --> 00:16:15.280 change and I get, I think you could, you could kind of think of limiting beliefs as adaptations 355 00:16:15.601 --> 00:16:20.940 that we talked about in that episode where it's like a layer of your identity almost that you buy 356 00:16:20.980 --> 00:16:21.362 into. 357 00:16:21.382 --> 00:16:23.694 I don't know if that's a different category though, maybe. 358 00:16:23.956 --> 00:16:24.076 Yeah. 359 00:16:24.097 --> 00:16:24.700 We're going to talk about 360 00:16:24.800 --> 00:16:26.687 beliefs quite a bit in the next chapter. 361 00:16:26.707 --> 00:16:30.520 I, I, I do think there is a lot more credit around the 362 00:16:30.640 --> 00:16:35.860 belief stuff because you do beliefs really do create kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy right 363 00:16:36.221 --> 00:16:41.100 like that's further downstream and you're it takes some work to get to them and yeah it will and it 364 00:16:41.160 --> 00:16:45.960 is tricky right so i mean we will talk about this but like if you go back to the example of like me 365 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:50.800 backstage about to go on you know talk in front of a bunch of people my belief about myself in that 366 00:16:50.920 --> 00:16:57.580 moment and my ability to deliver a good talk matters a lot if i believe i'm not capable of 367 00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:03.180 delivering a good talk, I'm going to struggle and suffer a lot more than if I do believe 368 00:17:03.501 --> 00:17:04.503 I'm able to give a good talk. 369 00:17:04.804 --> 00:17:10.279 This is where maybe a little bit of moderate delusional thinking can 370 00:17:11.122 --> 00:17:12.146 sometimes be beneficial. 371 00:17:12.327 --> 00:17:15.120 You're not going to change a belief with an affirmation necessarily. 372 00:17:15.340 --> 00:17:19.500 That's what you're saying or a visualization or anything like that or a power pose. 373 00:17:19.661 --> 00:17:19.862 Yeah. 374 00:17:20.103 --> 00:17:24.060 To sum up, everything we've been told about confidence from the affirmations, 375 00:17:24.703 --> 00:17:28.760 the body language the positive thinking the rah-rah stuff it's essentially been built on a 376 00:17:28.820 --> 00:17:34.000 mistake which we call the peel fallacy which is this idea that you need to feel a certain way in 377 00:17:34.080 --> 00:17:39.460 order to perform a certain way and that is not the case not only is that not the case but it's also 378 00:17:39.721 --> 00:17:45.800 not useful because you can't really just gin up confidence out of thin air ultimately confidence 379 00:17:45.940 --> 00:17:53.680 is built by evidence it's built by experience it's built by being in situations and coming out 380 00:17:53.700 --> 00:17:58.700 the other end okay and therefore knowing that you can handle other situations like that one 381 00:17:58.941 --> 00:18:03.700 in the future congratulations you made it to the end of this clip this is actually part of a larger 382 00:18:03.801 --> 00:18:07.380 podcast episode and you can get access to the full episode right here 383 00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:25.018 Thank you.