Achieving Mental Harmony

Striving for mental harmony between our thoughts and actions is a common pursuit. It becomes unsettling when what we think and what we do are not in sync.

Cognitive dissonance, a psychological concept, occurs when our beliefs clash with our behaviors. It's the discomfort we feel when our actions don't align with what we strongly believe.

The principle of cognitive consistency underscores our innate desire to reconcile our thoughts and actions.

To alleviate cognitive dissonance and regain cognitive consistency, we have three avenues. First, we can align our thoughts or actions to restore harmony. Second, we can seek new information challenging our conflicting thoughts. Last, we might justify our behaviors by adopting a different perspective.

For instance, if we aspire to save money but find ourselves accumulating debt, cognitive dissonance arises. We can rectify this by changing our behavior: budgeting wisely and spending within our means. Alternatively, we may justify our purchases by convincing ourselves they are essential for our family's immediate needs, rather than saving for the future.

Although it's common to rationalize behaviors that conflict with our beliefs, we can work on changing these behaviors to eliminate cognitive dissonance and the discomfort it brings.

However, it's often more challenging to alter behaviors than thoughts. But repeatedly avoiding these behavior changes hinders progress towards our goals.

Therefore, the Systems and Habits Approach to Improvement focuses less on mental models and more on actionable steps. Prioritizing action over contemplation allows us to address behaviors incongruent with our beliefs.

Taking small, consistent steps in the right direction helps reshape ingrained habits, gradually aligning our behaviors with our thoughts. Instead of compromise, it's about fostering improvement – a key to achieving cognitive consistency that drives growth, rather than just easing discomfort.