Saturday, September 17, 2011

First Post - Motivating Effect of Cognitive Dissonance

When I first read the article "The Motivation Effect of Cognitive Dissonance" I was extremely lost. After the article a few times the concept of Cognitive Dissonance begins to make sense, however I still have a difficult time comprehending the experiment/observations of it. But the actual concept of dissonance does make sense and I realized that I experience this phenomenon quite often.

After realizing that I personally experience it, I decided to keep track of it for a day. I found that when it came to classes, my appearance, my food choices, friendships and activities, I had dissonant thoughts. I then became conscience of it's motivating capacity. Having these conflicting feelings gave me the drive to close the gap. One minute I would find myself saying that I could not handle all my class work. The next I found myself making lists and schedule my day to make sure I would be able to get all my working done and saying this is not bad at all. At one point I felt out of shape and that I looked like a mess. But later that night I thought I looked amazing and couldn't have been happier. I think we all experience dissonance, but it is not always as common to be aware of it.

After reading the article, I have definitely become more aware of how much cognitive dissonance motivates me in my everyday life. I now make note of when I have dissonant thoughts and make sure I use them in a productive and motivating manner. It is a great tool to motivate yourself and believe it or not you feel better once the conflicting thoughts are gone.

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