Guess what number will turn up if I roll one die. Predict what number will turn up if I roll a pair of die. While the difference appears subtle, it produces significant effects. Guessing When you guess what number will appear when I roll a single die, the odds are…

The Neuroscience behind our beliefs and how they influence creativity — Are you creative? If you believe you are, how did that belief develop? Maybe it happened incrementally with parents and teachers lauding your efforts and commenting on your brilliant creative efforts. Perhaps your belief erupted suddenly from an unexpected comment. Sorting this out may surprise you. As a researcher of…

Do Beliefs Emerge or Erupt? Ponder this: If you label a behavior, does it become a belief? Five-year-old Zachary remembers daydreaming for what seemed like an eternity while waiting for his Grandma to get ready for a shopping trip. She said, “Thanks for waiting. Such patience you have Zachary.” Zachary claims that his Grandma’s remark…

We all experience defining moments in our lives. What events shaped your beliefs about yourself? What are your formative moments? Random events transform us. Beliefs about our abilities, confidence, and self-esteem often arise from unpredictable events. They may appear trivial to others while significant to us. Are you clever? How…

To see how our brains construct our interpersonal reality, let’s start with a simple illustration of how our brains continuously predict events in the concrete world. Concrete Events Imagine you’re blindfolded in your home and placed sitting at the foot of your bed. I give you a task: Make your…

Avoid empty praise and move toward prescriptive encouragement. Before you read further, choose from the four options below. What’s the relationship between self-esteem and school success? I define self-esteem as a person’s overall sense of personal value, self-worth. Option 1: The correlation is positive. When one increases, so does the…

Support or resign — Many on the left keep hoping that Republican members of Congress will call out President Trump. They shouldn’t, even if they disagree with him. To do so is disingenuous. If you hold elected office, you swore to uphold those you represent. If your constituents don’t reflect your views/beliefs, resign. Republicans attacking Trump make themselves hypocrites. It’s an act of deceit.

Watch for Surprises When you turn on your Meaning-Making-Moment radar, you become the architect of your belief system. While working on her poem at the kitchen table, Lauren’s father entered the room and commented, “You work too hard at your schoolwork.” The comment surprised her. She explained to her father, “This is the…

Just like the Indy racers — It’s socialized, not socialism. I get it. When you look at some failed socialist states, it stirs fear. Caution though, socialized concepts are not socialism any more than playing catch means you’re playing baseball. Let’s play catch. If you watch sports, game shows, American Idol, Survivor, you want the players…