Do you want to stop overthinking and start making better decisions?
Your psychology determines how you feel, think, and act. It influences your thinking and the decisions you make. And therefore, it influences how much success you achieve.
But did you also know that your psychology influences how you feel most of the time? It’s a big factor in how you perceive the quality of your life.
But what is psychology exactly?
Most people know that psychology is a science and involves the brain. But what most people don’t know is that it’s worth studying for everyone.
It’s like finance. Though you may not want to become an accountant, simple math and budgeting knowledge saves you from money-related headaches along the way.
Psychology works like that. Understanding the basics of what psychology is and how it works, benefits you in numerous ways. For example, you may find it easier to understand yourself, face challenges, and keep a positive attitude.
When you understand how this works, you develop the tools to stay calm and in control. Even when the emotions are running high. This not only makes you feel better but also allows you to choose a different behavior or decision.
Mastering your psychology is a skill that improves the quality of your life. Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. And to achieve success on the outside, you must first create it on the inside.
In this article, we bridge the gap between what psychology is and how to apply it to your life.
So let’s dive in!
What is Psychology
What is the first thought that comes up when you think about what psychology is? Many people think about the stereotype psychologist. The type that scans everyone in the room to spot incongruencies.
Of course, psychology is much more than that.
Psychology is the scientific discipline that studies the mind, its functions, and consecutive behavior. It has many sub-disciplines like behavioral psychology, cognitive psychology, and personality psychology.
What makes psychology interesting is that all humans deal with it. You cannot opt-out.
Everyone should have a basic understanding of how psychology works. It’s a fundamental skill in life that should be taught in any school.
Studying your psychology helps you to understand your thoughts, emotions, and behavior.
And when you understand those aspects of your life, you’ll find it much easier to manage yourself.
Why is Psychology Important in Your Life?
Think about how you feel on a day-to-day basis. What emotions do you experience most of the time?
- Inspired or frustrated?
- Hopeful or discouraged?
- Interested or indifferent?
- Positive or pessimistic?
- Joyful or sad?
If the majority of your answers sit on the left side of the list, you feel positive about your life. And if you picked more answers on the right side, you’re inclined to feel more pessimistic about life.
And you want to know something interesting?
The things that happen to you don’t shape how you experience your life. What shapes your experience is the meaning you attach to those events.
If your thoughts and attitude is positive, you’ll find the good in most situations. And that results in a more joyful life experience.
Please note that you should not suppress ‘negative’ thoughts or emotions. The goal is not to experience happiness all the time. Every emotion has its place and you should not avoid any of those.
Although you want to experience all emotions, you don’t want to get stuck in a lower state of energy all the time. And mastering your psychology lifts your life to higher levels.
How Your Psychology Influences Personal Success
Your decisions and behavior shape your future. It’s the driving force that determines your effectiveness and satisfaction in life.
And your psychology influences your decisions and behavior too.
Your unconscious mind makes decisions within fractions of a second. Here are some questions that your mind answers without you even realizing it:
- Do you believe in the possibility?
- Do you think you can do it?
- How do you feel about it?
The problem is that our brain is wired to keep us safe. And unfortunately, most impactful decisions are also the most difficult and scary ones.
So we take the easy route out.
You may not even notice this because it’s the unconscious mind that decides in a split second.
But you can overrule the automatic and unconscious programs that run unconsciously.
When you begin to study your mind, you gain self-awareness. And if you do that long enough, you begin to see those unconscious patterns. That’s when you can make a shift.
A better mindset and attitude leads to better decisions. And better decisions lead to a higher quality of life. So let’s have a look under the hood to understand how psychology works.
Goals of Psychology: the Perfect 4-Step Approach
The main goal is first to gain an understanding of your thoughts and behavior. This awareness then enables you to create the best life for yourself.
In the scientific field of psychology, 4 goals explain what psychology does. And these 4 goals of psychology provide the perfect 4-step approach for you to optimize your life.
- Describing improves perspective.
- Explaining increases awareness.
- Predicting helps your understanding.
- Changing improves self-control and behavior.
Let’s dive a bit deeper into each of these goals to understand how you can apply this to your life.
Step 1: Describing
The first goal in psychology is to observe and describe behavior so that you gain different perspectives and insights.
We often get caught up in the heat of the moment in everyday life. But when you self-reflect on past events, you no longer experience the same emotional turbulence. This allows you to see the situation from a different perspective.
Some great questions to reflect on are:
- What thoughts did you have?
- What were you feeling?
- How did you react?
There is a subtle change that happens when you start observing your behavior like this. Since you’re alone, there’s no need to defend yourself. This opens you up for honest self-reflection.
Step 2: Explaining
The second goal of psychology is to explain behavior. Why do people act the way they do? And what influences them to behave the way they do?
In this step, you make the connection between the pieces you observed in step one. And the more often you do this, the easier it becomes to discover the underlying patterns.
Let’s reflect further on your answers from step one:
- What do you think triggered the thought?
- What feeling did that thought trigger?
- How did this feeling influence your behavior?
- And what new thoughts were triggered?
When you answer these questions, try to find a pattern that’s connecting each of those points. How do your thoughts, feelings, and behavior influence each other?
For example, you may experience stress every time that you have to speak up in front of a group of people. And that causes you to speak twice as fast as usual.
Or what about the example of social media? Many people feel more depressed about their life when they scroll through their Instagram feed. And maybe this feeling then causes you to grab the cookie jar.
The pattern isn’t always that obvious. So stay open-minded. The more you practice self-reflection, the more pieces of the puzzle you gather. And after a while, those pieces fall together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Step 3: Predicting
The third goal of psychology is to predict when behavior might happen in the future. With practice, you can anticipate when the pattern repeats itself.
Why is it important to predict your behavior?
When you make good ones it means that you understand the pattern. And that’s when you can interfere with it.
What’s a pattern that you’ve discovered so far? Use that pattern and explore these questions:
- What situations trigger the pattern?
- How often does it trigger?
- When will it likely trigger again in the future?
Even if you’re unable to predict this pattern, there’s a more important benefit to this.
Higher levels of self-awareness.
At this point, you’ve made great efforts into gaining insights into your psychology. Depending on how long you’ve been practicing for, the result is that you notice when the pattern triggers.
And that enables you to make a conscious shift in your behavior and change the outcome of your future.
Step 4: Changing
The final goal of psychology is to make positive life-lasting changes. To stay calm in heated situations and make the best decisions.
Though this step shapes your future the most, it’s also the easiest one once you’ve mastered the previous steps. Seeing when the pattern emerges allows you to react immediately.
That’s when you can make a conscious decision to change your behavior.
For example, how do you feel when someone blames you for something you didn’t do? That’s quite annoying, right? You might want to scream. But would that have a positive effect?
Instead of allowing your emotions to run the show, you stay calm and grounded. Then you ask them to clarify their point with an example.
Once you can interrupt the pattern and change your behavior, some things happen.
- You can better manage your emotions at that moment;
- You can make a conscious decision on how you react or behave;
- And you increase your influence and effectiveness.
Many doors open once you get a basic understanding of psychology. The result is a better quality of life, higher effectiveness, and more personal success.
Psychology Deep-Dive
The steps above are a great starting point to develop an awareness of your psychology. With the 4-step process, you become more aware of your thoughts, emotions, and behavior.
But there’s much more to discover about specific topics that you may struggle with a bit more than others.
Here’s a brief introduction to the most important guides.
Deep-dive into Limiting Beliefs
Beliefs are your truths about life. The combination of your beliefs determines how you see the world. And this often triggers automatic actions and behavior.
Most beliefs are great to have. Like the ones that keep you away from real danger. Unfortunately, you also adopted self-limiting beliefs. And those aren’t in your best interest.
There are many degrees of self-limiting beliefs. Some are more harmful than others. And it’s a good idea to self-reflect and spot if any of those are holding you back from living your best life.
Some big ones are the limiting beliefs of;
Not feeling good enough;
Not being smart enough;
Or not being worthy of love.
Self-limiting beliefs influence your thoughts, attitude, and behavior. It has a big impact on the quality of your life and your potential.
Learn how you can identify and change your self-limiting beliefs.
Deep-dive into Emotions
Another big topic is understanding and managing your emotions. Why is that important?
First, so you can better navigate yourself through life. Though most people view negative emotions as something bad, they’re not. Instead, these provide great insights into what to do.
Unfortunately, most people tend to avoid negative emotions. And if we experience negative emotions, we often find short-lived and destructive solutions. Like binge-watching tv, drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, or taking drugs for example.
Higher emotional awareness and self-management allow you to enjoy all colors of life. Even when you experience sadness or frustration. And it also improves your effectiveness in social circles.
Learn more about understanding your emotions.
Deep-dive into Mindsets
Your mindset determines your attitude and actions. And many successful people attribute this to being crucial to their success.
Though there is an infinite number of possible mindsets, there are specific traits that are worth adopting. The most famous one being the growth mindset. But also important is having a can-do attitude, openness to new ideas, and positivity.
Those who think they can and those who think they can’t are both usually right.
– Confucius
The quote above sums it all up. When you decide to develop your mindset, it can become your biggest asset in life.
Learn why your mindset is important for success.
Final Notes on Psychology
Working on my psychology made the biggest change in my life. It changed my thinking and behavior. And it led me to make radically different decisions that resulted in a more joyful life.
Psychology is a massive factor in how you feel and behave.
Becoming aware of how your mind works helps you to feel good. That leads to a better attitude and more confidence. And that helps you to unleash your inner child again.
Once you’re less afraid to try stuff and make mistakes, that leads to rapid growth and self-development.
The result?
More success and greater life experience.
If you want to learn even more, check out these best books about psychology or these books about the growth mindset.