12.24.07
Is Cognitive Dissonance Stealing Your Success?
Why, when offered proven systems that will dramatically reduce their risk and overhead, while at the same time boosting their profits exponentially, do many entrepreneurs reject the offer outright? Why would someone who is offered a guaranteed method to achieve financial retirement in one year, when they have categorically stated that they want it more than anything else, refuse to entertain the offer?
Cognitive Dissonance is psychological discomfort caused by inconsistencies between a person’s attitudes, beliefs, and/or actions. We all naturally avoid discomfort, so we seek out and select information and input that mirrors and supports our dominant beliefs. Someone who believes that you have to work hard for many years in order to retire, and who has been conditioned to accept this, finds it hard to understand the freedom available through Joint Ventures.
Aronson’s Principle of Effort tells us that the more effort we have invested in a behavior, the more dissonance. Someone who has studied for many years to get a job and invested years in that job or business, finds it hard to admit that they can make ten times more money without the need of any formal education. The rut is hard to climb out of.
“I’ve spent five years in financial planning and I cannot accept that it was all a waste.” “I have spent thousands to learn from my cult - how can I accept that it was a waste of money and five years of my life?” Their role contamination has kicked in. “Don’t take my crutch away! Don’t steal my security blanket!”
We will do more to avoid pain than to gain a benefit. We justify our mistakes in order to avoid embarrassment. Emotions and conditioning are not rational. The ego is seldom flexible. The words that escape the mouths of those suffering from Cognitive Dissonance are frequently, “It’s too good to be true - it’s a scam - it’s heresy…” So we break the mirror, shoot the messenger, and willingly, even eagerly, return to slavery, suffering, and a life of quiet desperation, frustration, and passive aggression. This explains a violent attack on a pregnant, anti-abortion demonstrator. It tells us why people reject lucrative, life-changing offers, and remain in mind-numbing mystical cults or abusive relationships.
Cognitive Dissonance prevents women from escaping abusive husbands, parents from chastising their hooligan children, and employees from firing their demanding bosses. It keeps people locked into torturous mental and emotional prisons. Yet is it not necessary. Confront your fear, and you will overcome it. Create a support group of successful, open-minded, free people, and escape your comfort zone one step at a time.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
