There are two human behaviors that perpetuate superstitions.
- Subconsciously seeking information that supports our beliefs
- Clinging to our routine behavior
For these two primary reasons we are inclined to create overarching beliefs and general assumptions about what leads to success and failure – or anything in between. This is why so many different people can seemingly happily exist in the same world with so many different and contradictory beliefs about life.
The problem is that not all superstitions serve us. Many times, the the beliefs we think are harmless or helpful actually hinder our ability to be creative and innovative – two necessary 21st century skills that involve… yes, risk.
We can’t innovate or improve by continuing to do the same things because eventually we experience a performance plateau. Thus, breaking superstitions involves taking new action (risk) under a new assumption (open-mindedness), both of which challenge deeply embedded beliefs. But this process allows us to interrupt habitual patterns of thought and recognize potentially new evidence of a new belief.
There can be many binding effects of holding untested assumptions for too long. It leads to complacency, inflexibility, and stubbornness among other things. As a result, Mavericks question their assumptions by experimenting with new action, because they know that new action leads to new, and hopefully better, results.
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