Have you ever found yourself stuck in a way of thinking that you knew deep down wasn't serving you?

Maybe it was an assumption about someone, maybe a stubborn belief or an emotional reaction?

The good news is that our minds are built for self-correction if we know how to use them.

Hello, friends.

My name is Erick Cloward and welcome to the Stoic Coffee Break.

Stoic Coffee Break is a weekly podcast where I take aspects of stoicism and do my best to break them down to their most important points.

I pull from modern and ancient wisdom, as well as neuroscience, psychology, anything that I can find that can help you to think better, because I believe that if you can think better, you can live better.

This week's episode is called The Inner Watchdog: Building a Self-Correcting Mind.

If anyone can prove and show to me that I think or act an error, I will gladly change it for I seek the truth by which no one was ever truly harmed.

Marcus Aurelius.

We all like to think that our perspective and worldview is the correct one, and that the way that we see things is how things truly are.

But in my many years on the planet, I found that I've been wrong about a lot of things.

I've discovered that my map of the world, my beliefs, assumptions, and ideas, has often been incomplete or simply wrong.

Sometimes it was out of ignorance or misunderstanding of something, but other times it was because I didn't challenge my thinking around something.

Often this unwillingness was because of fear.

Fear that I was wrong, fear that I would have to let go of some of my beliefs or ideas that I held so dear.

And deep down, I think that I feared that in changing them, I would end up changing myself.

Now, stoicism is centered on aligning thought with truth and virtue.

The ability to recognize and correct errors and thinking is essential for living a virtuous life.

Think of your life as a shift's journey.

Regardless how good of a sailor you might be, you're never going to chart a straight path to your destination.

You'll be off course for a good deal of your journey.

There'll be storms and swells and cross currents that can easily send you off in another direction.

If you simply go wherever the tide takes you, there's a good chance you'll end up on some random shore or maybe even be smashed up against the rocks.

The most important thing to remember is that constant course correction is necessary to reach the destination as Epictetus reminds us.

Very little is needed for everything to be upset and ruined, only a slight lapse of reason.

So why does self-correcting thinking matter?

Well, cognitive biases, unchecked emotions, and rigid beliefs lead to poor decisions and unnecessary suffering.

Self-correcting mechanisms keep us aligned with reason and virtue.

As an example, let's talk about confirmation bias, confirmation biases.

When we have a preexisting belief or judgment about something, we seek out and clinging to information that proves our belief and discard anything that might disprove our belief.

And this is something that we all do.

We like to be right and we dislike being wrong.

So anything that bolsters our ego feels easier to believe and to hold onto.

The problem is that this leads to blind spots.

In our assessment of things, warning flags are ignored because they don't align with our preexisting beliefs, and often we aren't able to course correct at the appropriate times.

To make no mistakes, okay?

As plu tar reminds us to make no mistakes is not in the power of man, but to learn from their errors and mistakes.

The wise and good learn wisdom for the future.

So how do we find faults in our own thinking?

How do we recognize these errors?

Well, if our own minds are the reason we're thinking incorrectly, then won't we simply repeat the same mistakes?

This is where the importance of self-awareness comes in.

We need to get those thoughts out of our heads in order to be able to examine them a little more closely.

So I remember years ago I read about a professor at a university, I think it was MIT, and I'm sorry, I can't remember the professor's name.

But he would only allow his students to sign up for office hours to discuss a problem with an assignment they had after they had tried explaining it to the plant outside of his office.

The mere process of trying to logically explain the issue out loud often helped the students more times than not to discover what they were missing or not understanding.

Personally, when I'm trying to discover where I might not be seeing things clearly, one of the best things that I can do is to write out what I'm thinking.

Sometimes just the sheer act of putting things down on paper helps us to see the flaws in our own thinking.

Getting things down on paper also gives us a record to reflect back on later to see what our thinking was like at the time.

It can be helpful for spotting, repeating patterns when things don't go as planned, and it's also helpful since our memories are never as good as we think they are.

And often we remember things to our benefit and forget the parts that we got wrong.

Journaling also helps us to examine our thoughts critically and dispassionately.

Sometimes we might be passionate in the moment, and it's only when we look back later with a little more calm and objectivity that we can see those errors in thinking, as Seneca reminds us, faults of the mind are like wounds of the body.

After all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up.

Still there will be a scar left behind.

So what are some techniques for self-correction?

So the stoics were very big on self-correction.

They understood that our minds are more than happy to play tricks on us, so they found ways to counter their own bias and illogical thinking.

The first and probably most important tool to avoid hasty judgments is delaying emotional responses.

So the stoics, break this down into two components, impression and ascent.

An impression is anything that we feel, sense or think.

This could be something that we see or hear.

It could be the initial response we have to a situation.

Think of this as data that is input.

Now, the second step is to examine and test this data and to make sure that we really understand it before we make a judgment on it.

Why do we feel this way?

Did I really hear that or did I misunderstand what somebody was saying?

By taking this pause, we can make sure that what we really actually saw or heard or felt is legit.

Once we have a better understanding of what input we have, we can make a better choice of how to respond.

Epic.

TEUs explains this clearly.

Do not be carried away by appearances, but say, wait for me a little impression.

Let me see what you are and what you represent.

Let me test you.

The next powerful tool I want to discuss is one of my favorites, Premio Mara.

That is the premeditation of evils.

So far.

Too often we assume the best case scenario when we're dealing with a problem, we assume that everything will go the way that we want, and often end up surprised when they don't.

We look back on the things we didn't anticipate or the downsides that we glossed over, and when we practiced pre malorum, we anticipate those challenges and plan rational responses.

Think of this practice as like fortifying a castle before an attack.

You'll search out the outer walls and you'll fortify any weak points.

You'll consider all possible roots that the enemy might advance on.

You'll think beyond just the obvious hazards and consider case strategies and how you would respond to them.

By imagining as many things as possible that could go wrong, you'll be more prepared for them than if you just assume that everything will go to plan.

Next, let's talk about seeking disconfirming evidence.

So one of the best ways that you can find flaws in your thinking is to actively challenge your own beliefs.

Think of it as a scientific experiment, like a scientist testing their hypothesis rigorously trying to disprove it, rather than just seeking evidence to confirm.

So a while back when I was listening to Ezra Klein's podcast, he used the term steelman when trying to understand an argument put forward by someone he disagreed with.

Now, I hadn't heard this term, so I looked it up.

Now, steelman is the practice of, rather than opposing an argument or ignoring it, you try to prove or make it stronger, and doing so helps you find where the flaws are in that argument.

But it also has the benefit that in some cases.

It might show you that it actually is a better argument.

Now, the simplest way to practice the Steelman argument is to say, what if the opposite is of what I believe is true?

Then do your best in good faith to try and prove it.

And this also has the knock on effect of understanding a larger part of the argument rather than just your own narrow perspective.

Remember what Richard Feinman observed?

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

So learning from our mistakes seems like such an obvious thing, but how many times have we not learned from them?

How many times do we simply brush them off or look to place the blame on someone or something else?

If we're curious and we're working towards understanding rather than blaming, then we're more likely to learn.

Mistakes are inevitable, but the stoics see them as opportunities to grow in wisdom and virtue.

So Marcus Reyes had a habit of reflecting on each day's actions and adjusting his approach to align with virtue.

Failure to read what is happening in someone's soul is not easily seen as a cause of unhappiness, but those who fail to attend to the motions of their own soul are necessarily unhappy.

So let's talk about the role of others in our self-correction so others could provide valuable feedback and hold us accountable.

Stoics value dialogue and learning from others as a way to refine their thoughts.

Getting the perspective of another person can be incredibly helpful because we often miss things because we're so tied to our own perspective.

Now, often we don't like to engage in this kind of dialogue because we're afraid.

Others might think that we're weak or foolish, or show that we're wrong, but as Epictetus notes, if you wish to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

Seeking out those who can improve our thinking is a sign of wisdom and strength.

Seneca implores us to associate with those who will make a better man of you.

Welcome those who you yourself can improve.

Now, one of the things that I value in my own personal life is my friend Trevor.

Now, I interviewed him a couple of years ago on my podcast, and we usually have a weekly catchup session.

Talk about the things that we're working on.

And he is really good at finding the holes in my arguments.

He may point out where my assumptions are wrong or incomplete, and maybe even some factors that I didn't consider.

He has more than once changed my perspective on some pretty big areas in life.

So in conclusion, what it comes down to is progress over perfection.

So I want you to take some time this week and reflect on a recent mistake or flawed assumption that you had.

What led to the error?

What assumptions did you make or quick judgements that later turned out to be wrong?

And lastly, what can you do to self-correct in the future?

The stoic path isn't about being perfect, it's about constant improvement.

Self-correction is a lifelong process that keeps us aligned with truth and virtue.

It's about constantly challenging ourselves to think better and be better.

The more we practice, the easier it becomes.

And the less time we spend trying to prove we are right and focus on correcting where we are wrong.

And that's the end of this week, stoic Coffee Break.

As always, be kind to yourself, be kind to others, and thanks for listening.

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I put a lot of time and energy into this book, and if you want to.

Advance your knowledge of stoicism coming from very basic level and IT and moving things forward.

This is a great book to start off with.

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