Every time I open my phone, I tell myself, “Just five minutes.”
You know how this goes.
Five minutes turn into thirty. Thirty turn into sixty. Suddenly I’ve lost an entire hour to cat videos, ASMR clips, and random nonsense I won’t even remember tomorrow.
And when I finally put my phone down, the guilt sets in.
Why did I waste so much time? Why did I fall for it again?
The answer is simple.
It’s not me.
It’s the algorithm.
How Algorithms Hook You
Behind every swipe, every scroll, every pause, there’s a system studying you.
It doesn’t care about the truth. It doesn’t care about meaning. It only cares about one thing: keeping you engaged.
Every move you make is a data point.
What you click.
What you like.
What you linger on.
Piece by piece, the algorithm builds a feed designed to pull you deeper.
It’s not random. It’s intentional. And it works.
But here’s the insight that hit me one night after an especially long doomscroll:
Our mindset algorithm works in the exact same way.
How mindset algorithms shape behavior
Just like TikTok or Instagram, my mindset runs an algorithm in the background.
It shapes what I notice.
It shapes what I ignore.
It shapes how I interpret reality.
If I walk through the world thinking, “I’m not good enough,” my brain becomes ruthless at serving me proof. I see the rejection email sitting in my inbox, the friend who didn’t bother to text back, and the coworker who got praised while I was overlooked.
But if I hold a different belief—“I always find a way through”—suddenly my brain highlights an entirely different set of data:
- The times I’ve bounced back
- The problems I’ve solved
- The moments I’ve kept moving despite setbacks
It’s not magic. It’s selective attention.
What you feed your mind is exactly what it feeds back to you.
The Echo Chamber Effect
We all know how YouTube or TikTok works. You click one video and soon you’re drowning in a hundred more just like it.
Your mindset algorithm does this too.
- A scarcity mindset – fills your world with evidence that life is unfair.
- An abundance mindset – makes opportunities pop out of nowhere.
- A victim mindset – gathers stories about why everything is stacked against you.
- A growth mindset – gathers stories about how people reinvent themselves.
Your thoughts don’t just reflect reality. They filter it.
Reprogramming the Algorithm
Here’s the good news: unlike TikTok, you can actually rewire this system.
It won’t change overnight, but you can shift what your brain highlights.
Three simple rewrites:
1. Audit your input
What are you consuming? Online, in conversations, and in your self-talk?
If it’s garbage in, it will be garbage out. Curate wisely.
2. Interrupt the scroll
Notice when your brain feeds you the same old story.
Ask yourself: Is this thought helping me or holding me?
3. Feed the system what you want more of
Gratitude, curiosity, self-compassion.
They aren’t just feel good emotions. They train your brain to serve you more of the same.
The Takeaway
You don’t control every event in your life.
But you do control the lens you view it through.
If your mindset is your algorithm, then every thought is a data point.
Every belief is a filter.
Choose carefully.
Your brain is always watching what you click.
So, what’s in your feed today?
