What Is Cognitive Reappraisal

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Psychologist Diana Hill's "genius energy" framework reveals how our core strengths become failure modes.

The Einstellung effect shows that known solutions physically block our ability to perceive better ones.

Curiosity, not harder effort, is the mechanism that loosens the grip of cognitive entrenchment.

In psychologist Diana Hill's new book Wise Effort, she provides a striking image: A bird flies into her kitchen through an open door, panics, and heads straight for the large window, mistaking it for the way out. It slams into the glass, tumbles to the floor, gathers itself, and tries again — harder this time, and with even more urgency.

Hill writes: "It's so relatable, isn't it? We are going about our lives, doing our thing, and then find ourselves stuck. And we do the exact same thing those birds do. We think if we just fly harder, go faster, or push ourselves more, we will get out."

The bird has effort in abundance, but that effort is working against its own aims. It's a perfect metaphor for human striving. Anyone who has watched a talented person grind themselves into dust doing the thing they're best at has seen the human version of this exact phenomenon. How can we orient ourselves differently to our goals? How do we exert effort that works with our aims?

Each of has a unique, idiosyncratic combination of strenghts, which Hill calls our "genius energy". Here, she's drawing on the word's Roman roots, where a genius was a guardian spirit believed to watch over a person or family. Your genius, as Hill describes, is the combination of personality, talents, interests, character strengths, and emotional intelligence........

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