Nir Eyal

If you've got two people, one has the belief I can't do this, one has the belief I might be able to do this,

or I'm gonna do it as long as I can, who's more likely to achieve the goal?

Because if there's one thing I want people to know, whether or not you read the book, what I learned over the six years of research is this, that beliefs are tools, not truths.

Beliefs are tools, not truths.

There are certain beliefs that serve us and there are certain beliefs that hurt us.

Beliefs that increase our motivation and beliefs that decrease our motivation.

Beliefs that increase our suffering or decrease our suffering.

whether or not they are facts.

That's the most important thing.

So many of our personal, interpersonal, geopolitical conflicts occur because of this misidentification of what is a fact and what's just a belief.

So the most important takeaway is that you can choose your beliefs.

That's exactly right.

And so this is, again, one of these concepts that blew my mind as I did the research, that pain is not suffering.

Those are two separate concepts.

Why?

Because as I mentioned earlier, the brain doesn't see reality clearly.

The brain doesn't feel reality clearly either.

That our perception of suffering is also through that tiny pinhole of attention.

And so we can change our perception of suffering based on where we are focusing our attention.

Let me give an example that absolutely blew my mind.