> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.gilespcroft.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Superstitious thinking - URL: https://www.gilespcroft.com/superstitious-thinking/ - Published: 2025-12-16T07:00:52.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-05T08:24:38.000Z - Description: The roots of what is keeping us stuck today lie in the innocence of yesterday ❤️‍🩹 - Author: Giles P Croft - Tags: Trauma, Acceptance, Anxiety, Habit change, Identity, Life change, Mental Health, Moods, Overwhelm & Burnout, Presence, Principles, Productivity, Careers, Neuroscience, Parenting, Psychology, Real stories, Relationships, Resilience, Self-confidence, Thought realisation, IMPLICATIONS > *“If you chase a pigeon away, it will come back and poop on your head!”* Wisdom related to me by my daughter, stated as fact. It happened to a friend, see? *She* chased a pigeon away and it came back and pooped on her head. As a 50-something grown up, with a lifetime's experience of being around pigeons, I must admit, I was a tad skeptical. > *“You don't really believe that, do you?”* She paused, to give the notion due consideration. > *“Not really no, but it did happen!”* No doubt. And so begins the wearing in of a little neural pathway. 🐦👐🏻💩🙀🧠 It's taken root in her mind enough for her to relate it to me. I bet it's taken an even *stronger* hold in the mind of her friend – whose head actually got pooped on!! And this silly little tale contains a salutary lesson for why it *might* look like your life's currently falling apart. 😳 ## Myths and patterns I don't know if I've said it before (😉) but the mind is a truly *wondrous* thing. It's so powerful and it's so goddamn *earnest*, that if we just let it run riot, without awareness, it gets up to all sorts of mischief. So in this example, it could quite easily: 1. **Observe** something happening that it doesn't like, or that came with a strong negative emotion (e.g. pigeon poop on our heads) 2. Try and **figure out** *why* it happened, using the [very limited data](https://www.gilespcroft.com/working-on-limited-data/) it has at its disposal, at whatever tender age we are (e.g. 📦: *“Oh, it must be because I chased the pigeon away!”*) 3. **Create a story**, and then treat that **story as fact**, in order to avoid it happening again (e.g. 📦: *“I should be wary of / not chase pigeons”*) It will then spend the rest of its days looking for **confirmatory evidence** of this trauma, to [prove itself right](https://www.gilespcroft.com/meetings-from-hell/). 🤷🏻‍♂️ It's pretty straightforward behaviour for a mind, and easy to see how these little personal myths (we call them ‘beliefs’ in the trade 😉) can become a real pattern. > *But Giles, it's only pigeon poop! Why are you going on about it?!* Because we're talking about [Principles](https://www.gilespcroft.com/tag/principles/) here, and the exact same process has happened with *all* the superstitious beliefs that are holding you back. #### So it's no different from: 1. The mind **observing** one school presentation or performance that went badly 2. **Concluding** it's to do with a lack of confidence – something you're clearly lacking 3. You spend the rest of **your life terrified** of public speaking, or just speaking up full stop. It becomes ‘just the way I am’ 😔 #### Or… 1. The mind **watches** something going wrong for you, and you then being told off, or warned that you should *“think these things through properly!”* by a figure of authority 2. It **confuses** common sense (and good old fashioned gaining-experience-through-making-mistakes!) with hesitance or a need for a feeling of certainty before taking action 3. You spend the rest of your life ‘being sensible’, **playing small**, not taking risks, planning obsessively, or just waiting in general… 😫 #### Or… 1. The mind **observes** you performing really well after a period of intense stress (exams, maybe – there'll be the ever yearned-for parental praise in the mix there too, won't there)? 2. It makes a **fallacious connection** between stress and performance 3. You can **never properly relax**, and you find yourself always leaving things until the last minute, to rack up unnecessary time-pressure, ‘in order to’ perform 😮‍💨 #### Or the classic… 1. The mind **examines your emotions** following a change in circumstance, cherry-picking the ones that suit its narrative (e.g. 📦: *“I did well to leave that situation, only good has come of it!”*) 2. It goes **absolute gangbusters** on the [outside-in illusion](https://www.gilespcroft.com/inside-out/), firmly pinning your feelings onto situations and people and stuff – basically anything *other* than the Principle of Thought 3. You spend your **life running away** from anything that doesn't feel great, changing careers, partners, houses, even countries in an endless search for happiness outside of yourself 💔 (Or just numb it all with booze, fags, sex, shopping, gambling, exercise or meditation 😉😂) I could go on all day because this one little thing—superstitious thinking—lies upstream of *all* the beliefs that are holding us back! (And trust me, I can only tell you these things because I've been there. We all have. And to one degree or another, we all still do this—me included—it's what it is to be human!) ## How to break the cycle This may seem a bit like an episode of Giles-does-therapy, but I honestly think that when you pair these little childhood links up with an understanding of the 3 Principles—that Thought creates our very reality, moment to moment, and is totally harmless—then **awareness is the key to unlock change**. Because in all of these scenarios above, it's important to see that: - None of this is ‘on you’ – it's not like you're doing any of this deliberately or anything - There's no malice to the mind's responses – it [genuinely believes it's helping](https://www.gilespcroft.com/trauma-and-triggers/), otherwise it wouldn't be doing it - There's seldom much, if any, truth to any of these beliefs – they arose out of one moment, long, long ago, where the mind did its best from where you were at, way back then. You don't have to go delving into any of this stuff to try and change your superstitious beliefs, or replace them with different/better ones. No, you see that these stories were never fact in the first place. Big love for you today. 💗 Giles SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY REMINDERS newsletter [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/f3/9bf3d316-7d32-494b-814f-a7d94d6358c3/content/images/2025/12/DR_Lockup-Black-1.png)](#/portal/signup) Want to start **your* days with helpful, insightful content like this? The Daily Reminder is a quick, lighthearted email that arrives in your inbox, to help keep you grounded in reality, so that you get to **‘Think less, and live more.’* **“They feel like a moment of stillness in a world of madness.” \~* Neil, UK **“One of those small things with big impact. 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