I wanted to share five quotes from the book, "Blink," that will make you think. I have really enjoyed reading this book and being forced to sit and truly think about something. Especially these concepts that we all deal with in our everyday lives.
1. “We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don't really have an explanation for.”
I chose this quote because it is so true. I catch myself doing this a lot with things going on in my life, such as making up explanations for people's actions. When we do not know why something has happened, we seem to make up an explanation for it and convince ourselves of it. I believe it is better and healthier for us to try and go with the flow and not always find an answer for something.
2. “Extreme visual clarity, tunnel vision, diminished sound, and the sense that time is slowing down. this is how the human body reacts to extreme stress.”
This quote stuck out to me while reading the book because I know a lot of people can relate to this. A time that we are experiencing extreme stress is also a time where we may find ourselves pushing through and doing our best work. A lot of us work great under pressure.
3. “The real me isn't the person I describe, no the real me is the me revealed by my actions.”
This is probably one of my favorite quotes from the entire book. I learned while reading this that when we introduce ourselves to people and hang around them, we have the choice to tell them anything we want about ourselves and the choice to leave out anything as well. We even have the choice to make things up because how will they know? So when we are describing ourselves, or someone is describing themselves to us, they are giving us a highlight reel. How do we tell who a person really is, by their actions?
4. “Whenever we have something that we are good at --something we care about -- that experience and passion fundamentally change the nature of our first impressions.”
This quote also really spoke to me because it is relatable to me as a person and something that I have watched in other people firsthand. When you are talking with someone and they bring up a subject they are truly passionate about, you can tell. We pick up on these things and we may look at the person differently. Everyone loves seeing someone be passionate about something, it is what makes them unique.
5. “We need to respect the fact that it is possible to know without knowing why we know and accept that-sometimes-we’re better off that way.”
I really like this quote because I believe a lot of us waste time searching for answers and asking ourselves why this has happened or why we know this or that, and it isn't always what we think. So it is better to accept and realize sometimes we are just better off that way.