Anchor Beliefs

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There’s an important type of belief most of us have, which we call “Anchor Beliefs.” These beliefs are, by definition, those beliefs we hold that are almost impossible to change. To the believer, an Anchor Belief doesn’t feel like a mere belief – it feels like an undeniable truth. These beliefs are often too deeply rooted to change, and the cost of giving them up may be extremely high (e.g., questioning the belief might cause you to lose your family, friends, livelihood, or your understanding of what reality looks like).

Understanding the role that Anchor Beliefs play in human psychology – and identifying your own personal Anchor Beliefs – can help you make better sense of the world around you. Additionally, such an understanding can help you search for false Anchor Beliefs, those apparently unquestionable truths that make up the foundations of some people’s worldviews, despite being wrong! Challenging your own false anchors is very difficult, but the consequences may be life-changing.

How do Anchor Beliefs work?

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Anchor Beliefs almost never change, yet we still have to make sense of new information that we come across (some of which may strongly contradict our Anchor Beliefs). Our solution is to warp the evidence that we receive such that we can fit it into our worldview AND keep our Anchor Belief intact at the same time. This is how Anchor Beliefs get their name: they are like huge, steel anchors securing boats to the ocean floor – only an enormously powerful current will be able to make them budge; any lesser current will simply swirl around the anchor. In this way, only incredibly powerful evidence can pose a threat to our Anchor Beliefs. And even then, our brains are highly adept at interpreting evidence so that our original Anchor Belief remains steadfast.

While you may think that you wouldn’t fall for a false Anchor Belief, being particularly smart or logical doesn’t necessarily help you challenge these kinds of beliefs. You’re more likely to come up with smarter and more logical reasons why your Anchor Belief must be correct (regardless of whether or not it is). If you search hard enough, there is almost always a way to reinterpret the evidence so that your Anchor Belief can remain steadfast.

What happens when our anchor beliefs are wrong?

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Anchor Beliefs aren’t necessarily false. A lot of them are true. They just aren’t necessarily true. So, it’s important to distinguish between two types of Anchor Beliefs: (1) “False Anchors” and (2) Anchor Beliefs that happen to be true. False Anchors are obviously much more worrisome. However, they often aren’t easy to spot.

Remember, Anchor Beliefs feel to us (the believer) not like mere beliefs but like indisputable truths. However, it’s almost certain that we learned them from the people around us, or derived them from shoddy generalizations, and they may not be obvious truths at all (that doesn’t mean they are false, just that they may not be indisputable like they seem).

Our own Anchor Beliefs are like the dark matter of the self. They flow through us without detection, and they influence our actions. It’s not that doubting these beliefs is impossible, but we tend to automatically dismiss scepticism towards our Anchor Beliefs (or entirely ignore evidence that contradicts them), so that we don’t have to face abandoning our worldview.

False Anchor Beliefs can have negative consequences the way any false belief can: by causing your predictions to be out of sync with reality. What makes them worse than your average false belief is that they are hard to change, largely because so many other beliefs tend to rely on them. But remember that not all Anchor Beliefs are false (so it wouldn’t make sense to give up a belief merely because it’s an Anchor).

Self-expression: Choose and contribute in ethically clear and competent ways

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There are many ways to express ourselves, but when it comes to moral resilience, two ways can be particularly helpful: developing ethical competence and speaking with clarity and confidence.

Ethical competence involves ethical embodiment, that is living the values that we espouse by making sure that what we hold to be true and sacred is reflected in our actions. It is about immersing ourselves in the “moral” world by cultivating a moral vocabulary, imagination, attitude, and coherent character, as well as a dynamic moral posture — being patient with, and open and flexible to others’ values, desires, hopes, and fears.

Speaking with clarity and confidence means giving voice to our concerns by bringing distressing issues to the attention of invested others. Rather than seeing moral distress as an end in itself, consider it an opening to a broader and more substantive conversation about the dynamics of the situation. Speaking with clarity and confidence also includes knowing when to excuse ourselves from a situation, system, or relationship, whether it be for a short time or else permanently because that situation could irreparably harm our conscience.

Meaning-making: Don’t demand it. Create it.

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Meaning-making is the process of how we perceive, interpret, and make sense of events in life, relationships, and ourselves. It gives us a way to organize memories and shape the narrative of an experience. Meaning also helps us to reconcile incongruities in our values, beliefs, and expectations and in our attitude toward life. This is especially important in times of moral adversity.

Senseless suffering is a big theme in moral resilience. We often think to ourselves, “Why am I continuing to do ‘this’ when nothing changes?” One way to create meaning is to consider alternatives that may not appear obvious or that you have previously rejected. Also, consider how this situation is asking you to grow. What new insights about yourself, others, and life have come to light?

A mistake often made when it comes to meaning-making is thinking it is a lesson to be learned or the “moral of the story.” Not so. Meaning-making is not trying to put a happy spin on pain, nor is it necessarily trying to teach us cautionary realities. Meaning-making simply helps us to broaden our thinking and feeling about a morally difficult situation and keeps us moving forward with integrity and principled action.

Personal values

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It turns out that writing about your values is one of the most effective psychological interventions ever studied. In the short term, writing about personal values makes people feel more powerful, in control, proud, and strong. It also makes them feel more loving, connected, and empathetic toward others. It increases pain tolerance, enhances self-control, and reduces unhelpful rumination after a stressful experience.

In the long term, writing about values has been shown to boost GPAs, reduce doctor visits, improve mental health, and help with everything from weight loss to quitting smoking and reducing drinking. It helps people persevere in the face of discrimination and reduces self-handicapping. In many cases, these benefits are a result of a one-time mindset intervention. People who write about their values once, for ten minutes, show benefits months or even years later.

—Kelly McGonigal, Author, The Upside of Stress (audiobook)

Researchers believe that one core reason for this is that journaling about your personal values and connecting them to the events in your life helps to reveal the meaning behind stressful events in your life. In fact, writing about how our day-to-day actions match up with our deepest personal values can mentally and biologically improve our ability to deal with stress. In McGonigal’s words, “Stressful experiences were no longer simply hassles to endure; they became an expression of the students’ values… small things that might otherwise have seemed irritating became moments of meaning.”

Anchor Beliefs

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There’s an important type of belief most of us have, which we call “Anchor Beliefs.” These beliefs are, by definition, those beliefs we hold that are almost impossible to change. To the believer, an Anchor Belief doesn’t feel like a mere belief – it feels like an undeniable truth. These beliefs are often too deeply rooted to change, and the cost of giving them up may be extremely high (e.g., questioning the belief might cause you to lose your family, friends, livelihood, or your understanding of what reality looks like).

Understanding the role that Anchor Beliefs play in human psychology – and identifying your own personal Anchor Beliefs – can help you make better sense of the world around you. Additionally, such an understanding can help you search for false Anchor Beliefs, those apparently unquestionable truths that make up the foundations of some people’s worldviews, despite being wrong! Challenging your own false anchors is very difficult, but the consequences may be life-changing.

This article provides an introduction to Anchor Beliefs, including an explanation of how they differ from other beliefs, what can make them so hard to change, and a list of common categories of Anchor Beliefs that can help you identify your own.

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The gentle way to fuck off

If you know yourself very well & know exactly what makes you what you are, then it will be easier for you to stand by your actions. You will then worry less about what others think of you because you are determined to take full responsibility for your actions, proactively.

Proactive here means that you act according to your values and ideas. Reactive means that you are guided by the social conventions and opinions of others. Therefore, when developing your personality, place a strong focus on your self-esteem and self-confidence.

A proactive lifestyle is neither antisocial nor selfish. Because if you use your full potential, you can still give back the most to society.

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Isaac Newton’s clockwork universe theory, applied to your life goals

A theist is the opposite of an atheist. Theists believe in the existence of a god or gods. Like a theist, a deist believes in God. But a deist believes that while God created the universe, natural laws determine how the universe plays out.

Deists are often connected to Isaac Newton’s clockwork universe theory, which compares the universe to a clock that has been wound up and set in motion by God but is governed by the laws of science.

No matter what your religious stand is otherwise, it helps to borrow the concept of Isaac Newton’s clockwork universe theory, when it comes to your journey to reach your goals.

When you work on your long term goals, 1 year goals or 90 days goals or this months goals, you got to wind up the clocks and set them in motion.

And, the laws of science are the set of your “principles” and “values”.

This is so true in respect of the goals that you chase in given point of time.

But, with a small (or big?) twist.

Your goals too can change based on what you “value” in life. Your values may change as you discover new things about you and environment.

Yet, the rest of the mechanics of clockwork works.

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How not to be an asshole?

When you google “how to be an adult” most of the results that come back talk about preparing for job interviews, managing your finances, cleaning up after yourself, and not being a disrespectful asshole.

These things are all great, and indeed, they are all things that adults are expected to do. But I would argue that they, by themselves, do not make you an adult. They simply prevent you from being a child, which is not the same thing as being an adult.

ideally, adults behave in a mature way. But what people usually mean by adult is taking care of certain responsibilities – maybe the responsibilities that make someone self-sufficient.

Unfortunately, a person can be both self-sufficient and an asshole – so by that definition, a person can be both an adult and an asshole. “Maturity” isn’t compatible with being an asshole, to me.

I would say maturity includes virtues. But being an adult doesn’t necessarily include maturity (or being virtuous).