It’s probably human nature to see mostly what we want to see, but we shouldn’t ignore the other facts that are out there — even if they aren’t what we want to see.

The problem is, it’s hard to even notice the things that don’t already match our existing beliefs.

Sometimes we have to consciously work at noticing them. Other times, we may notice (or be told!) about facts that don’t match our existing beliefs, but we need to work at not dismissing them out of hand.

Ignoring facts that we don’t agree with can be costly.

For example, suppose there’s something expensive that you want to buy. If you want to buy it right now, but don’t have the money for it, you may end up seeing it everywhere you go — along with those tempting 6 months same as cash offers. On the surface a zero percent interest rate for 6 months sounds like a good thing, but there are a lot of little facts that come along with offers like that that you ignore at your peril.

Companies who make offers like that do so because they’re profitable. Folks buy things thinking that they’ll pay them off in time, but when the 6 months are up they’re hit with a high interest rate that applies to the entire balance. We get into trouble because we ignore “minor” facts like the penalties for not paying off the loan in time.

Of course, even if we do take a look at the facts, we may believe that we’ll be the exception to the rule. There’s nothing wrong with doing that, so long as we realize that they’re called exceptions for a reason.

So don’t ignore the facts. Instead, investigate what circumstances will be like if we’re wrong, and then act accordingly — either by basing our decision on what happens in most instances, by knowing ourselves very, very well, or by being prepared to accept the consequences if things don’t go as we had hoped.