One of the biggest challenges to change is something called cognitive inertia.
It’s just like physical inertia—where a body at rest stays at rest.
In the case of cognitive inertia, though, it’s our ideas, the stories we tell ourselves, our beliefs that stay at rest.
If you’re trying to create change, and it’s one of those beliefs or ideas or stories that someone’s telling themselves that’s getting in the way, then the instinct would be to move it, right? It’s staying still, so let’s get that ball rolling.
Except that’s not actually how the brain works.
When it comes to challenging a belief, cognitive inertia actually works against you in two ways.
Number one, it’s a brand-new belief. It’s not something that somebody believes right now. It’s not something that they want right now, which means they probably won’t even pay attention to it. It will be very, very difficult for them to understand why they should care or even why they should believe.
But let’s say they do. Let’s say you’re successful in getting them to pay attention. Cognitive inertia still works against you.
Why?
Because you’ve introduced this new baby belief or desire that suddenly has to do battle with this giant 800-pound gorilla of a belief or desire, the one that somebody already has and isn’t moving.
So instead of challenging people’s beliefs, exchange them.
Go looking in their belief system for something that’s even bigger, even stronger than the belief that’s standing in the way.
Where do you find those even bigger, even stronger beliefs? They’re pretty deep down.
They’re things like
“do unto others as you would have them do unto you,”
or even,
“a body at rest stays at rest.”
When you do that, when you find something even stronger than the belief that’s standing in the way, two things will happen:
- You’re going to find something that both you and the person you’re talking to share in common. So instead of a combative relationship where you’re trying to convince someone to believe something new, you’re saying, because we both believe this thing, we can move forward.
- It makes cognitive inertia work for you rather than against you. You’re using that deep-seated belief as an anchor for a new change.