What gets over me? Why I can’t think straight? This is the problem with many of us that we can’t seem to arrive at a rational decision.
But you are not the only one.
It’s innate to behave irrationally so not being able to think straight is not surprising. But it doesn’t mean that you should settle with your irrational nature.
You can uncover what ticks us to be irrational and dig down the reasons. Then work on strategically overcoming them.
Sounds like a lot of work? Don’t worry, you will find all the tools here.
So without further ado, let’s dive!
Why I can’t think straight? Reasons for Irrationality.
1. Emotional Reasoning
This is the biggest and the strongest reason for you to struggle with rationality. We as humans are very emotional creatures. That’s why it’s so important to control your emotions.
In primal edge, our ancestors relied on emotions to connect with the tribe, navigate the environment, and form relationships. That makes us heavily influenced by emotions.
But emotions tend to cloud our vision, making us see what is not real. Making us believe in something not true.
When we are emotionally high, we are influenced very heavily by our emotions and our judgment becomes clouded.
Like when we are angry or fearful, we begin to act impulsively without considering the consequences.
We can’t see clearly and under the influence of emotions, end up making choices we regret later on.
2. Confirmation Bias
Have you ever seen someone ask you for feedback on their plan? You review it and give your honest review about what you didn’t like.
Rather than paying attention to what you said and considering it, they will ask someone else for feedback and keep doing it until they find who will affirm their idea.
That’s confirmation bias – one of the biggest contributors to our irrationality.
We tend to seek evidence that confirms our pre-existing beliefs and ignore the one which contradicts it.
So rather than basing our decision on concrete facts and figures, we incline towards an illusion and end up being irrational.
3. Conviction Bias
Another bias!
If someone delivers his point and is very assertive in his manner and delivers it with a lot of conviction, you can’t help but be impressed by him.
It doesn’t matter how much truth lies in his talk but mere the presence of conviction and energy will make you believe him.
If he is suggesting you some plan and is brimming with a lot of conviction, you are very likely to follow him.
You base your decision only on appearance and not on any facts and then complain ‘Why I can’t think straight’?
4. Group Bias
No short of biases, are we? Yet again another one to contribute to your irrationality.
Group bias in simple terms is multiple times amplification of emotions when within a group.
When you are with a group that’s feeling intense emotions like excitement when in a concert, you can’t help but feel the same very strongly.
You have a very strong tendency to get carried away with the emotions that the whole group is feeling collectively.
The reason why it happens is because it’s innate to have a strong desire to belong. It is very dominant during the war.
At war, everyone thinks of themselves as so right and the opposition so wrong that they are ready to die for it. But both can’t be right at the same time.
What’s happening is group bias is clouding your vision thus making you irrational. No wonder why we make bad decisions.
5. Anchoring Bias
Are there really that many biases? Yes, there are! And all of them are pulling strings and causing you to think ‘Why I can’t think straight?’
Anchoring in simple words is a tendency to rely too much on the first piece of information we receive when making a decision, even if that information is irrelevant or misleading.
Let’s say you are shopping for a new car, and you came across a luxurious car with a price tag of $150,000.
Even if you can’t afford that price, that car price is going to act as an anchor and set a psychological reference for you to compare the prices of the other cars.
You will end up overestimating the prices for your purchase and make an irrational decision.
5 Ways to Achieve Rationality
1. Be Skeptical About Your Irrational Nature
Only by admitting your shortcomings, can you take the initiative to overcome them.
And if you are willing to think straight, you should be skeptical as much as possible about your irrational nature and double-check your facts when encountering a situation.
Keep in your mind all the time that rationality isn’t something that comes naturally to us thus you have to strive to make it happen and nullify any tempts you may get.
Whenever you’re posed with a decision, remind yourself of your irrational nature and your blind spots to fall victim to biases and illusions then approach the situation with skepticism.
Being skeptical in decisions encourages us to question our own biases and challenge our approach thus making us less likely to take thoughts and opinions at their face value.
In addition to this, it also encourages us to seek out diverse perspectives of others.
Acknowledging our limitations encourages us to learn from others who may have different insights, therefore, making rational decisions.
2. Resist the Urge of Trusting Appearances
We talked about the conviction bias earlier how our brain jumps to conclusions based on what we see and how misleading can that be.
Appearances have great potential to deceive you, making you believe in illusions and thus prevent from making the right decision.
Next time you are faced with a situation and are tempted to believe in what you see, calm down.
By resisting the urge to trust appearances, you will be able to look beyond the surface and not be fooled by the demeanor, appearance, or reputation someone projects.
Instead, you will be looking for concrete facts and relevant information thus enabling you to make rational decisions.
3. Step Back – Gather Thoughts and Self Reflect
When your mind is occupied with emotional influence, don’t expect yourself to be rational.
Anything that you try to adopt in this sort of situation can be misleading as you don’t know up to what extent you are being influenced by the emotions in doing so.
The best thing you can do is simply step back and give yourself space and perspective to analyze the situation more objectively.
Taking a break can help you create distance between yourself and the situation, giving you time to gather your thoughts and self-reflect.
It also grants you an opportunity to tackle the situation from a broader perspective and identify the potential solution that you may have not considered earlier.
overall, stepping back will give you enough time for your emotions to wear off, and your vision to be cleared again enabling you to think straight and be rational.
4. Logical Reasoning – Ask Why When Making a Decision
This one will make you think rationally amid a crisis.
As we have been seeing how heavily influenced our decisions are by our emotions which cause us to behave irrationally.
And since this irrationality is innate, how can we make the right decisions amid emotional traps?
There is a way with a simple word, ‘why’.
Whenever you are confronted with a decision, and you feel tempted to reach a particular conclusion, simply ask yourself why.
It will help you go into self-analysis. Instead of making a choice based on the surface-level information available, you will be able to prioritize facts over emotional tenancies.
Asking ‘why’ can also encourage you to evaluate the possible consequences of your decisions.
You will be able to make choices that are better aligned with your goals and values and minimize the risk of negative outcomes.
In short, it will help you analyze whether there is a concrete fact present, if there is then go for it otherwise don’t.
5. Elevate Your Perspective – Consider Long Term Consequences
Who doesn’t love shortcuts? We all do, right?
Quick rich schemes, gaining popularity or growing business overnight are very attractive or even seductive to us.
We can’t help but surrender everything and rush on these shortcuts only to sabotage ourselves later. The irony is we repeat the same mistakes over and over again through the course of our lives.
But why does it happen? The answer is we are bound to be short-sighted. We love quick gains and instant gratifications but in doing so we forget about the long-term consequences.
We fail to see what lies behind these glimmering promises.
You should understand one fundamental thing. Life is all about trade-offs. You always pay a price in some form whether apparent or hidden.
Whenever you are faced with some situation, analyze how the situation can turn out to be. What are the potential setbacks?
Event A will to Event B which will lead where? Elevate your perspective and practice looking at situations from a critical angle.
Make this your motto: Expect the best but prepare for the worst.
Conclusion
So far, we have seen different biases, tendencies, and illusions that cause us to ask ‘Why I can’t think straight?’, or ‘Why do I make bad decisions’?
But we don’t realize the underlying tendencies of our psyche that cloud our judgment, preventing us from thinking straight and then ending up with negative outcomes.
Then we dug down different strategies and approaches that you can use to minimize falling victim to your blind spots and help yourself have a clear, strategic, and rational mind.
If you have any queries, feedback, or suggestions regarding the content you can tell us in the comments below. We will get to you promptly.
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