Listen carefully. Because what I'm about to tell you is going to hurt your ego, but it's going to save your bank account and your happiness. I'm going to talk about cognitive bias.
You think you're smart. You think you are rational. You think you make decisions based on facts, figures and in-depth analysis. But I have news for you: you're living in a fantasy world. You see, your brain is not a supercomputer that calculates the truth. It's a lazy machine that takes shortcuts to keep your head from exploding with information.
Those shortcuts are called cognitive biases. And they ruin your work, your relationships and your future without you even realizing it.
What is cognitive bias?
Let's start at the beginning. What is this clutter in your head anyway? A cognitive bias is a systematic error in your thought process. It is a filter that distorts reality. You think you are watching a sharp 4K movie of reality, but in reality you are looking through fogged glasses with lenses colored by your past, your fears and your lazy instincts.
How does this mess come about? Simple: evolution. Ten thousand years ago, on the savannah, you didn't have time to create an Excel sheet when a saber-toothed tiger ran at you. You had to decide at lightning speed. "Big beast = run." That was a survival mechanism.
But in the modern business world, a new AI tool or a change in the marketplace is not a tiger running after you. And your brain? That still uses those same old, rusty shortcuts from the Stone Age.
Research by Tversky and Kahneman showed as early as 1974 that we make decisions based on simple heuristics (shortcuts) that often lead to huge errors in judgment[1]. You are not rational, you are an emotional being that tries to justify in hindsight why it did something stupid.
Why it's your blind spot too
I know what you're thinking right now, "Edwin, this applies to my neighbor, to my staff or to that irritating competitor, but I see things as they are."
Congratulations, you suffer from the Bias Blind Spot. This is the funniest bias of all: the inability to recognize your own biases while pointing them out unerringly in others. You are convinced that you are objective, while you are stuck in your own tunnel vision.
Research has shown that people consistently see themselves as less biased than the average person, even when directly confronted with their own mistakes[2].
This is why you argue in meetings. Why you cling to a marketing strategy that hasn't worked for three years. Why you don't fire that one employee who is poisoning your entire corporate culture. You're blind to your own programming.
AI: The litmus test for your mindset
Let's look at what's happening in the world right now. We are in the midst of the AI revolution. This is the ultimate test of your brain. How do you view AI? Do you see it as a monster that will steal your job, or as a turbo engine for your business?
Your answer has NOTHING to do with the technique of AI, and ALL to do with your bias.
- The fear-bias (The danger-side): If you are programmed on scarcity and fear, you see AI as a threat. You focus on what can go wrong. Your brain looks for information that confirms that AI is "dangerous" or "has no soul." We call this the Confirmation Bias. You want to prove that you are right to feel safe.
- The optimism-bias (The opportunity side): The entrepreneur who sees opportunity sometimes ignores risk. Who sees AI as the holy grail.
But the reality is: AI is a tool. How we use that tool depends on how we delegate our own decision-making to algorithms. New research on delegating to algorithms shows that our willingness to trust AI depends heavily on how we perceive control[3].
If you see AI as a danger, you block. You stop learning. You get left behind. While the world thunders forward, you sit in the corner sulking that "things used to be better." Especially once AI makes a mistake, it can reduce your confidence,[4] even though in the grand scheme of things, that need not affect what AI can ultimately do for you.
That's not wisdom, that's a faulty link in your software. You are a victim of your own beliefs that cloud your rational view. By the way, you can break that bias March 14 during the free master class: Become AI proof with these tips. Click here for more information.
Why your work is suffering because of your poor programming
In your business life, cognitive bias is the silent killer of your profits. Consider the Sunk Cost Fallacy: you continue to invest in a project that is running at a loss simply because you have already put so much time and money into it.
That's not entrepreneurship, that's mental weakness. Your brain doesn't want to feel the pain of loss, so you throw good money after bad.
Or how about the Overconfidence Bias? You think you can predict the market. You think you know exactly what your customer wants without asking. The truth is that we often know much less than we think we do, but our brain fills in the gaps with imagination.
We live in a world where rationality is often far away, even though we pretend to think logically. Philosophy even debates whether we can be rational at all with all those filters[5].
But I'm not a philosopher, I'm a hypnotist. I'm interested in what works. And what doesn't work is continuing to believe in your own nonsense.
Hypnosis: the wrecking ball for obstructive biases
How to get rid of this? You can read about it. But knowing you have a bias is not the same as solving it. That's the problem with psychology today: we talk ourselves silly, but nothing changes at the core.
If you really want to address your biases, you have to go to the source: your subconscious mind. That's where those shortcuts are programmed. And that's where hypnosis comes around the corner.
Hypnosis is nothing more than parking the critical filter of your conscious brain for a moment, so we can instantly rewrite the software in your subconscious mind. Most people are stuck in a "mental myopathy," a kind of myopia of the mind[6]. With hypnosis, we retract that view.
Imagine being able to neutralize that deep, unconscious fear of AI or change. Imagine being able to turn off Confirmation Bias, so you can finally really hear your customers' feedback, instead of just hearing what you want to hear.
Hypnosis helps you take the emotional charge off your biases. After all, a bias is often nothing more than a defense mechanism of a fearful subconscious clinging to what is known.
When you go into a deep trance, you can update those old "survival programs" to programs appropriate for 2026. You teach your brain that being open to other points of view is not dangerous, but rather a source of growth. You remove the blockages that cause you to fall into the same traps over and over again.
Breaking Cognitive Bias: Being open to other points of view
Real growth, both in your work and personal life, occurs the moment you are willing to be wrong. But your brain hates being wrong. It feels like a physical attack.
To truly move forward, you must learn to see through the eyes of another. And no, that's not "being nice" or "policing." That's strategic mastery. If you can see what your competitor sees, without your own bias, you have a 10-0 advantage over the rest of the market.
Much of what we call "bias" is simply a lack of breadth in our thinking[7]. We are locked into our own little reality. Instead of focusing on human flaws, we should focus on how to increase our ecological rationality. How we can function better in the world we actually live in[8].
Become the programmer of your own brain
You have a choice. You can continue to live as a slave to your cognitive biases. You can keep shouting that AI is a danger, that your employees are no good and that the market is against you. But know that you are then fighting a phantom. You are fighting against your own filters.
Or you become the programmer. You recognize that your brain makes mistakes. You use tools like hypnosis to detect and remove the rotten code in your subconscious. You ask yourself, "What if what I believe now is not true at all?"
The world is changing faster than ever. The biases that protected you yesterday are the chains holding you today. Break them. Open your eyes. And finally begin to see reality as it is, rather than how you hope or fear it is.
Success is not a matter of working harder. It is a matter of seeing more clearly.
Are you ready to permanently demolish those rusty filters in your head and take back control of your own programming? Stop that mental mediocrity and stop being an extra in your own life.
Whether you want to take your business to a bizarre level or finally remove those invisible blocks: it's time for action.
Claim your spot and discover how to truly master your brain. Take the free master class on hypnosis and break through your fear of AI with helpful tips and insights.
Come to one of our live events or register directly for training at Hypnosis Institute Netherlands.
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The world is changing at lightning speed; make sure you are the one pushing the buttons. Fix it now.
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