As humans, we tend to be more aware of challenges in our lives and less aware of places where we’ve had unearned help along the way.
A common example of this is with referees in sporting events. The majority of people will notice when the refs make a bad call that hurts their team, but rarely take note of a bad call that went in their favor. A study from the 50’s showed exactly how this works.
The authors of the book “Burnout” explained it this way:
This sort of bias is called the “headwinds/tailwinds asymmetry,” because people tend to notice their adversarial headwinds and not their helpful tailwinds.
You bound to sometimes pick the wrong line at the grocery store, or catch a red light at the worse time. However, the opposite is also going to happen, and taking note of those helpful tailwinds can only serve to improve your outlook on life.
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