Where in life are you sticking your head in the sand?

You are likely familiar with the “Ostrich Effect” psychological phenomenon.

This common cognitive bias is what drives people to avoid information that they perceive as unpleasant or distressing – hence the vernacular adoption of an ostrich fruitlessly burying its head in the sand to avoid imminent danger. At some level in our lives, we will ignore certain data or situations to reduce our anxiety and stress…because delicious ignorance is bliss!

Want to know how to mitigate this human tendency?

Take a 5 minute break….

INSIGHT
(what we need)

Our ability to confront risk and loss aversion often has to do with setting up simple structures to reduce complexity and overwhelm.

It doesn’t feel good: thinking about all the things in your life that you are avoiding or pretending are not an issue. Humans are notoriously good at burying our heads in the sand on those projects that will support us in the long term in favor of the short term wins that give us immediate gratification.

Unfortunately, this avoidance behavior can often make things worse — incurring costs and stagnation that we might not have had to deal with if we just faced things head on. You know the drill: not checking your monthly balance and spending more on indulgences than is wise, not tracking your fitness metrics and being shocked your body comp hasn’t shifted; and even collectively on those macro issues like ignoring climate change goals and researching information on political candidates before voting. The overwhelming severity and complexity of some things make our heads want to explode…so managing our reluctance with ignorance just plain feels better. With long term goals (ie. investment portfolios, personal health, decluttering the house), it’s far easier to put these off as a trade for short term distraction or small wins on things within our control and capability. 

Humans are notoriously risk and loss averse. The pain we feel from loss is far greater than the pleasure we get from an equivalent gain. And our ‘myopic loss aversion’ creates a short-sightedness around our fear of losing: even creating narratives to support less meaningful excuses in the present. Being biased towards the positive also makes committed action challenging, as we build up walls to feel any pain or acknowledge negative information that would forecast a pessimistic future. These end up developing into countless other biases like the sneaky Self-Serving Bias (blaming negative results on external factors unrelated to our character) so that we can make an even stronger case against changing. Change often happens when the pain of staying where we are begins to exceed the pain to face the negatively perceived unknown. At which point, our situation may be too far gone. Or…we can get ahead of that breaking point and take a few small steps to remove the overwhelm. 

The key is in mitigating the overwhelm. To plug the holes of our ostrich tendencies: we can set up some structures that are simple and non-negotiable to support our behavior change. These science-backed productivity principles can support any kind of goal you might be working towards:

• Committing to a singular goal to reduce complexity.

• Visualizing what achieving it would look like. 

• Aligning the goal with your identity and values. 

• Creating a container (or physical and psychological environment) to reinforce your new habits with ritual and intensity.

• Optimizing the behavior with specificity around the actions.

• Tracking and measuring to reinforce habituation and progress.

• Building in accountability with social witnesses to help you follow through.

• Establishing hard deadlines to take out open-ended ambiguity within a timeframe of which you have control. 

With these in place, we reduce our sense of loss aversion because we’ve set guard rails on a goal that starts to feel easier to understand and accomplish within clear parameters. Without them, it’s harder to get ahead rather than burying them into that cozy hole in the sand. Hiring coaches to hold us accountable is a wonderfully effective way to manage this human tendency — but that can be an expensive long-term option for some.

INSPIRATION
(what we want)

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA): a peer-to-peer fellowship support organization that practices a 12-step program to sobriety.

One of the most well-known programs on the planet because of its successful track record over 80 years. Chapters exist all over the world and are free of charge to members. 

• Built around a common personal experience of struggle all working towards one goal: sobriety from alcohol disorders and addiction.

• Anchored in the same 12-step process all over the world as practical steps any person with any background can follow.

• Designed around the revelations that we are not alone and can be guided by one’s own version of a higher power with the support of others going through relatable experiences.

• Acknowledges that everyone is also living their own complex situation that is individual: however, committing to recovery, changing the way one thinks and changing the way one operates, will lead to new behavior.

• Program is set with deadlines and tokens for measuring days without drinking, sharing stories of specific actions that support behavior change, and visualizing the freedom that comes from sobriety.

INNOVATION
(what we wish for)

Just One Metric (JOM): a free online peer-to-peer accountability group via rolling monthly meetups to move the needle on a single behavior.

• Structured program built from the science-backed principles of behavior change which relies more on a system, rather than will power.

• Participants follow the same four phases: 

  • Enrollment - to commit to group terms and higher self

  • Declaration - specifying a 30-day goal

  • Accountable Action - weekly check-ins on actions

  • Measurement - tracking of singular metric

• Removes the second guessing what you need to focus on.

• Avoids being constantly distracted by variety and newness.

• Prevents yourself from falling into paralytic perfectionism.

• Facilitated by an ai coach to hold space for the group and take them through simple steps of the process.

• Participants are given 3 “Show Up” points — which are taken away if they miss meetings (and hence become barred from the process).

• Those who retain their points and have gone through at least a year of JOM are able to become volunteer peer group coaches.  

• Extended personal coaching available to those who want to deepen their process and continue on a 1:1 basis.

• Participation is essentially free-of-charge upon successful completion. Each member pays $100 to enroll — which is refunded only by successful completion of the commitment (or offered as donation).

• Run by a fellowship of coaches and funded by donation.

Want to move the needle on your fitness?
These guys understand the power of singular meaningful metrics too: