Magazine Review Shotgun Sports – March 2021 Michael J Keyes, M.D. gives another psychological primer to help us get past our mental issues in shooting. This month it is on cognitive dissonance, the holding of two conflicting ideas in your mind. Acting with conflicting ideas rattling around in your head causes psychological stress which will manifest as physical stress when your mind is telling you to do two different things at the same time. This usually occurs when you are working on a new shooting technique and your mind is telling you “this isn’t the way we did things in the past.” How do we resolve this? Michael gives us three ways to get past the dissonance. Change your attitude. This new technique will make me a better shooter. I know my performance will dip, but it’s a price I’m willing to pay in the short-term to improve long-term. In your mind build value on this new technique and make learning it more valuable than holding on to the old one. Secondly, keep looking for information that will reinforce your decision to make the change. The more information you nd the easier it is to accept
the new technique as the correct move. Finally, trivialize the old technique as one of a beginner and you are no longer such. As you start to master the new technique the old one will lose its emotional hold on you and will be replaced by the improved technique.
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