Dear LPG,

I have a question for you.  Are you one of life’s conclusion jumpers?

I think that it is something that we get a little better at dealing with as we get older because conclusion jumping often involves looking at a person or situation that has nothing to do with us and making it predict some negative personal outcome.

How many times have you met someone for the first time and worked out exactly what you think that they think of you because of a facial expression you saw or a gesture they made? The good thing is that, as we get older and retire, we are often less worried about how the rest of the world sees us, (we are past worrying about looking for a soulmate or the perfect job).   Have you ever made your mind up about a person or thing because you did not like something about the way they looked or sounded? 

I read a quite interesting message from years ago in the LPG back-catalogue recently and I agree with TF about how easily those advertisers are able to give their audience the complete picture of all they need to know in next to no time (►►►).  But it occurs to me that they can only achieve this because of the way that we have got used to thinking, and while the advert succeeds in getting us smiling about sweets, we so often end up putting two and two together and making all sorts of numbers as a result. 

Invariably our conclusions are the negative kind unless we have learned the trick of thinking positively and not thinking in shades of worst case scenario, which brings me to the point of my message today.  We have had more than an excuse to be negative with the covid-19 backdrop that we are all still affected by to a lesser or greater degree these days and, with that in mind, I have made a definitive decision to be affected more positively by what I see in front of me in the future.

I took a look at the internet for some direction and found the following advice which I hope may be helpful to more than just me.  I have now learned that there is a whole science behind how our minds are so ready to jump and why so many of their jumping destinations are negative. 

I have concluded that, since jumping to conclusions is inevitable, a bit of background on why human nature gets us doing it so negatively might just teach us to stop, or at least practise the habit less often…

SF, Forest Hill.

SF  shares what she found…

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