PART V – YOU’RE NOT LOGICAL

You might be tempted (because the idea is uncomfortable, and you like Certainty?) to say something like “There’s a lot more to human behaviour than that.” And you’d be right. All human behaviour doesn’t fit in a blog post.

But don’t forget that – to quote Scott Adams – our minds are delusion machines. We are emotional creatures first, logical ones second; what we love (ie, need emotionally) will trump what we believe. IOW, we will believe what we want to be true. Examples:
a. My boyfriend loves me.
b. I’ll go to the lake for the weekend with my friends, and I’ll work on my paper in the evenings at the cabin.
c. She wants to sleep with me.
d. This long-shot investment will pay off.
e. The good qualities of person I love outweigh the bad.
f. He cheated on his first three wives, but he’ll be faithful to me.
g. She won’t get pregnant.
h. He won’t hurt me.
i. I can make it home on this much gas.
j. Father O’Malley is a man of God, he wouldn’t fondle my son.
Etc

The point is: if we really really really want/need something (let’s say, to feel Secure and Significant), we’ll do just about anything to make it true. Or failing that, we’ll *believe* what we need to believe to feel like it’s true.

You *think* you’re far more logical than that, and probably sometimes you are. But I’ve noticed that we often do what makes us feel better and then we make up reasons/principles for it afterwards because our brains also want to feel like we're operating as part of a master plan (ie, Secure & Significant).