Why can it be so hard to change your mind—even when new information suggests an old decision no longer works?
In this Think Thursday episode, Molly explores cognitive dissonance and choice-supportive bias, and how the brain can begin defending decisions simply because we’ve already made them.
You’ll learn:
- Why we tend to see chosen options more favorably after making a decision
- How memory can subtly reinforce the choices we’ve already made
- Why beliefs about ourselves can become conclusions the brain looks for evidence to support
- The important difference between evaluating a decision and defending it
- Why a decision can have been right for you then without needing to remain right forever
Three questions to consider:
- If I were making this decision for the first time today, what would I choose?
- What evidence am I dismissing because it doesn’t fit the decision I already made?
- Can I allow the old decision to have made sense then without requiring it to make sense now?
Changing your mind doesn’t necessarily mean you were wrong. Sometimes it simply means you know something today that you didn’t know before.
Key takeaway: The goal isn’t always to be right. It’s to stay willing to notice what is true.
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What is Alcohol Minimalist: Mindful Drinking & Behavior Change?
Join coach Molly Watts on the Alcohol Minimalist Podcast to explore mindful drinking, behavior change, and mental wellness. This show offers science-based strategies to help you break drinking habits and overcome anxiety linked to alcohol use. Whether you're an adult child of alcoholics or seeking peace with your drinking, discover tools for lasting change without shame or guilt. New episodes every Monday and Thursday.
Becoming an alcohol minimalist means:
Choosing how to include alcohol in our lives following low-risk guidelines.
Freedom from anxiety around alcohol use.
Less alcohol without feeling deprived.
Using the power of our own brains to overcome our past patterns and choose peace.
The Alcohol Minimalist Podcast explores the science behind alcohol and analyzes physical and mental wellness to empower choice. You have the power to change your relationship with alcohol, you are not sick, broken and it's not your genes!
This show is intended for educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice. If you are physically dependent on alcohol, please seek medical help to reduce your drinking.