Filter 2 - Generalise - Your Brain deletes, generalises and distorts
The Brain’s Shortcut: How Generalization Shapes Your Reality
Your brain is an incredible pattern-recognition machine. It’s designed to take the chaotic flood of information from your senses and simplify it into something manageable, predictable, and—most importantly—useful. But this shortcut comes with a catch: it often skips over details, glosses over exceptions, and builds conclusions that aren’t entirely accurate.
This mental shortcut is called generalization, and while it’s one of the brain’s most efficient tools, it’s also one of its biggest blind spots. It helps us make quick decisions, but it can also lock us into limiting beliefs, stereotypes, and emotional habits that quietly dictate our lives.
Let’s explore how this invisible cognitive filter shapes your reality—and how you can learn to challenge it.
Why Your Brain Loves Generalization
Imagine if every time you saw a chair, your brain had to reanalyze it from scratch: What is this? Can I sit on it? Is it safe? That would be exhausting. Instead, your brain generalizes: Chairs are things you sit on. Simple, efficient, and usually accurate.
Generalization helps us:
Learn Faster: If one stove burns you, your brain generalizes: Stoves are hot.
Save Energy: Instead of processing every single dog you see, your brain generalizes: Dogs have fur, four legs, and bark.
Stay Safe: If one dark alley felt dangerous, your brain generalizes: Dark alleys are unsafe.
But here’s the problem—generalization isn’t perfect. It’s a blunt tool, not a precision scalpel. It takes a few isolated experiences and creates rules that might not always apply.
The Downside of Generalization: When Shortcuts Become Blind Spots
Your brain doesn’t just generalize about objects or safety—it generalizes about people, situations, and most importantly, yourself.
About Others: One bad experience with a coworker might lead you to believe, People in management can’t be trusted.
About Situations: After failing a public speech once, your brain might generalize: I’m terrible at public speaking.
About Yourself: If you struggled with math in school, your brain might decide: I’m just not a numbers person.
These generalizations often become invisible scripts running in the background of your mind. You stop questioning them because they feel true.
But the reality is, generalizations are rarely the full story. They’re broad strokes painted over complex truths.
Why Generalization Feels So Real
Generalizations are sticky because they often carry an emotional charge. If an experience caused you fear, embarrassment, or shame, your brain files it away as important. The more emotional weight an experience has, the stronger the generalization becomes.
For example:
If you were laughed at while dancing once, your brain might generalize: I’m not a good dancer.
If someone rejected your idea in a meeting, you might generalize: My ideas aren’t valuable.
These thoughts feel like facts, but they’re not—they’re conclusions your brain reached in an effort to protect you.
How to Spot—and Break—Unhelpful Generalizations
You can’t stop your brain from generalizing; it’s wired into your survival system. But you can start noticing when those generalizations are holding you back. Here’s how:
Look for Absolutes: Pay attention to thoughts that include words like always, never, everyone, or no one. These are clues that your brain might be generalizing.
Example: I always mess up in interviews.
Challenge it: Is that really true? Were there times when I performed well?
Ask for Evidence: When you catch a generalization, ask yourself: What proof do I have? Often, you’ll realize your belief is based on one or two isolated experiences.
Example: I’m bad at relationships.
Challenge it: What relationships have been positive? What did I learn from the difficult ones?
Look for Exceptions: Every generalization has exceptions. Find them.
Example: Nobody likes me at work.
Challenge it: Is there even one person who’s been kind or supportive?
Rewrite the Story: Once you’ve identified a harmful generalization, reframe it into a more balanced statement.
Instead of: I’m terrible at speaking in public.
Try: Speaking in public is challenging for me, but I can improve with practice.
When Generalization is a Superpower
Generalization isn’t inherently bad. It’s what allows you to drive a car, understand language, and avoid repeating dangerous mistakes. The goal isn’t to eliminate generalization—it’s to become aware of when it’s helping you and when it’s holding you back.
Helpful Generalization: Snakes can be dangerous, so I should be cautious.
Harmful Generalization: All relationships are doomed to fail.
The key is mindful awareness. Don’t let a few past experiences write the rules for your entire life.
Conclusion: Challenge the Rules Your Brain Made Up
Your brain’s ability to generalize is one of its greatest strengths—but also one of its sneakiest traps. Every time you catch yourself thinking in absolutes, pause. Ask questions. Look for exceptions.
Because behind every limiting belief, every assumption, and every invisible rule is a generalization your brain created to keep things simple.
But life isn’t simple—it’s nuanced, messy, and full of exceptions. And when you start seeing those exceptions, you start seeing opportunities.
So, the next time you hear that voice in your head saying, I always fail or This never works, pause. Challenge it. Ask yourself:
Is this really true? Or is this just the story my brain decided to tell me?
The answer might surprise you.
