Category Archives: Brain Space

How To Go Infinitely Meta

Being able to go meta is a good skill to have.

This is the main reason why couples go to counseling.

It’s not because the counselor has gone to an ultra-classified school where the true secrets of relationship success were revealed.

And by visiting these esteemed counselors, they find out the inside scoop on how to REALLY make a relationship work.

The reason people go to counselors is to have an independent (as much as that’s possible) third party keep things objective.

The counselor serves as the “meta” view of the relationship.

Sometimes, though, this is troubling. What if this “meta” view is biased?

A recent study showed that when people go to a medical doctor (who is supposed to know what’s what) and then get a second opinion, EIGHTY PERCENT of the time, the second opinion of the second doctor was different than the first.

But the ability to “go meta” in any way is helpful. If we had enough resources, we could get lots of “meta opinions” and then take an average of something.

Luckily, unless you have a strange lump and you can’t “go meta” on yourself, you CAN go meta in a lot of other situations.

This is a skill that you can practice.

For example, if you are talking to somebody, when it’s there turn to talk, try and see yourself from an objective third person position, while they are talking to you.

Many people do this without really thinking about it.

If you are the type to write yourself a “to do” list every morning, it’s kind of the same thing.

One view of yourself is the writer of the list. Then later in the day, you the, “fulfiller of the list,” is in a slightly different viewpoint.

(Of course, if you’re at the supermarket and you can’t read your writing, you can’t really call yourself to ask what you meant…)

One way being meta is very helpful is how you pick up data, information and skills.

You can approach the data, skills or information as the “learner.”

Or you can step back and see yourself as the “learner” while the “meta you” is learning how to learn.

This takes being your own coach to an entirely different level.

Most people don’t even think of terms of “learning how to learn.”

It’s one of those things we just “do.” Like walking and talking.

But as you well know, there’s spitting out a bunch of gibberish, and then there’s skillful communication, where you eloquently put together strings of words that can move people’s emotions on deep levels.

If you can do that by “learning how to talk” imagine what you can do when you learn how to learn.

Click Here To Learn How

Think Outside Your Head

I saw this funny video the other day.

The kind where you want to use as few brain cells as possible.

It was this dog, who had this box. The way he was holding the box, was all he could see was the inside of the box.

So he kept walking around in circles, bumping into things.

Because he was a dog, and not an astrophysicist, he didn’t think to put the box down, take a look around, and then choose another strategy.

There are lots of videos like that. Cats, dogs, all acting goofy.

But we humans, who often times fancy ourselves as superheroes of logic and scientific thinking, don’t often do much better.

Sure, we convince ourselves that we’re giving it our best shot, but most of the time, we’re like that poor dog.

Crashing into things, but we just back up a bit, and then crash into them again.

Naturally, it can be tough to tell if you’re really doing the same thing or not.

Because humans, we’re doing things a little bit more complicated than walking with a box in our mouths.

We’re interacting with other humans, or other complicated systems.

And as the saying goes, “you can’t step in the same river twice,” every time we interact with the system, even if we ARE blinding doing the same thing over and over, the SYSTEM is changing, so it actually is possible to get a different result.

In the short term, this is pretty good. Just back up, try again and keep going until you get it right.

But every time you succeed with this strategy, it actually reinforces the idea of doing the same thing over and over.

Short term, pretty good. Long term, not so good.

A lot of times it’s better to simply try something different. Sometimes a little different, sometimes a LOT different.

This can be frustrating. Because once you change something, you’ll feel a little uncomfortable.

And when you feel uncomfortable, you’ll be much more sensitive to things that “seem” like failure, but are really feedback.

Or you’ll more likely to “interpret” feedback AS failure, rather than feedback.

One way make this a LOT easier is to simply expand your thinking.

Learn to think in different ways, so you’ll see things differently.

Then taking different action will seem a lot easier.

Kind of like discovering a new route to work that’s quicker and easier.

You aren’t driving around blindly hoping to find a new way, you’re using your enhanced thinking skills to FIND a new way so you don’t have to stumble around.

The more you work on your mental skills, the easier it will be to “try on” different behavioral skills, you’ll be able to get a lot more cool stuff.

(Or meet more people or make more money or whatever you want.)

Learn How:
Intelligence Accelerator

Do You Want To Use Your Whole Brain?

When I was in High School, I loved reading the Far Side.

It was still published every day, and it was before those books became popular.

If you aren’t familiar, it was usually one goofy picture with a small caption.

Like a scientist who invented a device to understand what dogs were really saying.

And it had a picture with a dog, saying, “Hey! Hey! Hey!…”

Or one where a guy standing in front of an elevator that just opened. And in the elevator was a mama bear, and her cub. Only the only spot the guy could walk into was between them.

There was another one of two scientists in this laboratory, looking at another scientist, who was writing all kinds of complicated equations on the board. One scientist says to the other,

“I wish I could be more like him, he uses 50% of his brain!”

Of course, the idea that we only use 10% of our brain is not really true.

Sure, we never use all it at the same time. But that’s like our body. Sometimes we’re walking. Sometimes we’re sitting. Sometimes we’re using only our fingers. But we don’t say “humans only use 10% of our bodies” because that’s clearly ridiculous.

In fact, if you want to get a REAL workout, try doing some four-count-burpies. This is an exercise that uses a LOT of your muscles, and chances are you won’t last more than a couple minutes.

But here’s the thing. You CAN strengthen different parts of your bodies. You CAN become a world class juggler for example, and still ONLY USE 10 percent of your body at any given time.

You CAN train to do 1000 pushups in a few months. But you’ll still ONLY be using 10% of your body at any given time.

But so will some super lazy potato chip eater. If they NEVER exercise, they are also using 10% of their body at any given time.

So the question isn’t really, “how can I use more of my brain?” The question is, “How can I identify the parts of my brain that I want to use better, and how can I exercise them so I WILL use them better?”

The first question is, what do you want to do?

Become more creative?

Improve your memory?

Be able to solve problems more quickly?

Boost your general IQ?

You can do all of these, simply by doing the appropriate exercises.

Just like Jack Lalanne became super famous by doing a kajillion pushups, you can become famous by becoming a super genius.

Just start training, and never stop.

Get Started:
Intelligence Accelerator

Do You See Holograms Everywhere?

Do You Really See What You See?

Near my home there’s a small museum.

They usually have local artists there, and sometimes more nationally famous people.

A few weeks ago they had a guy who toured the world to take pictures of cats.

Not lions or tigers or leopards, but regular cats.

He gave a speech, and then sold those coffee table books filled with pictures of world cats.

A few months before that, they had a display with a bunch of optical illusions.

Those are pretty interesting. They way they work is the take advantage of the assumptions we make when we see things.

Scientists tell us that when we see something, up to 40% of what we “see” is actually internally generated.

Similar to your browser, in an effort to save computing power, our brains reference what’s stored inside, rather than what is outside.

This pretty fun when we’re seeing these stairs that go round and round and never go up.

But it kind of sucks when there’s opportunities all around us, but we don’t notice.

Even worse, when we’re referencing remembered fears instead of the safety and potential pleasure that’s looking at us and waiting for us to make a move.

There’s certainly plenty of ways to reframe things.

Taxes aren’t a burden, they’re membership fees which spur investment which help everybody make more money.

We care for you so much that we’re keeping you locked up for your own good.

We’re not firing you, we’re giving an opportunity to explore more careers.

The biggest and most deadliest reframes, however, are the ones we do to ourselves.

Sure I’d like to start my own business, but I just am waiting for the economy to pick up.

Sure, I’d love a relationship with a loving and affectionate person, it’s just that I’ve got some important things going in my life, and I need to take care of them first.

Yes, I know I should be sending our resumes, but I need to finish taking that online class first (that I haven’t signed for yet) which will make my resume look REALLY good.

And on and on.

The truth is the only time you have is now. What you do with NOW will define your entire life. There is no “next time.” That sexy person wants you to make a move NOW. That hiring manager wants to see your resume NOW. The world needs you to start your business NOW.

Not later.

Let all the other goofs of the world flip flop around in their minds, waiting for the mythical goddess of opportunity to show up and literally push them to action.

Action starts in YOUR mind.

Here.

Now.

Mind Persuasion