Our mind is the root of everything we do. Sometimes, when things aren’t going well, all it takes is a change in our mental state to change the situation. In other words, there are a lot of little known mental ’tricks’ we can use to our advantage in life. Similarly, there are many common mental aspects of other humans that we can take advantage of.
Reddit Mode asked, What are some psychological life hacks you can do to give you an advantage in situations?
Below are 14 psychological life hacks from the thread that really work.
1. “When you find yourself in a situation where you’re forced to do a job you don’t care about:
Instead of thinking of the job as something you’re doing while you wait for your One True Passion, just forget about what it means to you and think instead about doing it well. Making sandwiches to pay the bills? Make really good sandwiches and be friendly. Doing scut work for your coworkers since you’re the lowest on the totem pole? Do really good scut work. Sweeping floors? Make your floors the cleanest.
If you get your ego out of the way, you'll realize that there’s a lot of joy to be found in doing anything well... With passion, integrity, and care for the people who you’re serving. And the people around you will recognize you as a passionate, serious, caring person, even if what you’re doing isn’t what you’re truly passionate about.
Perhaps more importantly, it will create the habit of excellence. You don’t develop that habit by slacking your whole life and then suddenly being awesome once you reach an imaginary plateau.”
Shared by Reddit user nickiter
Definitely. You will not be happy if you constantly pout over what you want but can’t have. Take what you are given, and in the process, develop the positive, said traits and live a content and comfortable life.
2. ”When I worked in retail, I had a tendency to get real curt with rude customers. When I realized I was just taking the bait, I decided to be super nice even when they would get openly hostile. Some of them would get even crazier and they looked like tools.”
Shared by Reddit user sleestakslayer
The thing is, when people being angry or hostile, they don’t realize how irrational they really are. By maintaining your kindness, your kindness will serve as a foil to their hostility, and then it will hit them.
3. “If you have no expectations going into something, your experience will be better.”
Shared by Reddit user Lord_Whosit
It’s ok to have expectations, but oftentimes we expect too much, and it will rub us the wrong way when we can’t get what we want.
4. “When you’re studying/learning something new, teach a friend how/about it. Let them ask questions. If you’re able to teach something well, you understand it.”
Shared by Reddit user MoreWhiskeyPls
I can’t stress this one enough. Thisis truly a great study tool for students, and for learning anything really. Obviously, there are times when you truly do understand something, but don’t know how to explain it. But for the most part, if you are at a loss as to whether you’ve truly understood something, find a buddy and explain it to them. If you can explain things clearly and confidently, then you really do understand the material. If you often have to pause or look things up, they you haven’t truly absorbed the material.
