Apparently you can teach a pigeon to peck at a lever to release some seed.
I say apparently as I’ve never tried.
I struggle enough trying to teach my kids stuff, never mind a flying rodent.
But, enough experiments have been done to suggest it does work.
But, apparently, once you’ve taught the pigeon to do that……..
You can stop releasing the food……..
And they keep pecking.
Forever!
Madness, no?
But, they get in their head the whole “It worked before” thought process.
And find that hard to shake.
Humans do the same.
Gamblers become convinced they have a ‘system’ as doing something a certain way seemed to work at some point.
And they keep doing it the same way, not questioning the approach, even as they spiral ever further into debt.
People lose some weight with a certain approach.
A slimming club, diet, etc.
Then regain it and more.
Then return to the same method time and time again.
Even though, over all, they’ve been gaining weight since they started.
After all, “it worked before” didn’t it?
We humans are very prone to what’s called ‘Confirmation Bias’.
Picking out the bits that seem to confirm what they already believe.
And, kinda ignoring everything that suggests it isn’t true.
Most research suggests that the average long term success rate of most gyms, slimming clubs, diets, etc is 5%.
Don’t believe it?
Well, there’s more of all of the above than ever before.
Yet the population is till getting fatter and sicker year on year.
If you’re in that 5%, then that’s cool.
Crack on my friend!
But if it did work for a bit, but hasn’t continued to work.
Taking you all the way to long term, maintained success.
Then what’s going to change now, really?
Why would next time be any different?
If you’re already with us and aren’t making the progress you’d like, then it’s time to switch things up a bit.
Don’t just keep ‘trying’ to do it the same way.
Let us know and we’ll change approach together.
Not tried us yet and you’ve finally accepted that the answer isn’t to try the same stuff you’ve tried loads of times before……….
Then you know what to do………..
Much love,
Jon ‘Not pig! Pigeon!’ Hall and Matt ‘Is no rat. Is hamster’ Nicholson
