How good are you at mind reading?

If you’re not sure then let me help you.

You’re not very good.

Not to worry, you’re not alone.

While you might be able to recognize patterns in people’s behavior and, in some cases, even be able to guess their actions correctly, it’s not because you can read their minds.

Even though you’re not a mind reader, how often do you find yourself acting as if you know what a person will say or do?

This kind of anticipatory thinking can lead to all kinds of problems because you begin to prepare yourself for what you think a person is going to say or do before they act. Or, perhaps said another way, they are guilty before they’ve acted.

Letting a person’s actions or words unfold before reacting is difficult because your brain is a very efficient pattern recognizing machine. And so, to save energy, it looks for cues and begins to formulate responses even before events have occurred. And this is where mind-reading can cause problems.

So how do you stop mind reading?

Well, you can’t really stop, but you can override your first set of thoughts. You can give a person room to act and speak, knowing that you don’t need to respond right away. You can give yourself time to digest their actions and words and respond later, or not at all.

So, the next time you find yourself jumping to a conclusion about what you think a person is going to say or do, remind yourself that you’re not a mind reader. Give them the benefit of the doubt and let the moment play out. If you begin to give people room to say and act without pre-judging them, then they might do the same for you too.

P.S. Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it, please share it with one person you love.