Category Archives: Perception

Admit Your Cluelessness

Accept Cluelessness

One movie I particularly like is, “Shooter,” with Mark Walhberg.

It is about an ex-sniper who is hired to reverse engineer what they say is an attempt on the president.

But it turns out to be some big conspiracy, with all kinds of cool plot twists.

There’s one scene that’s one my movie favorites.

The main character and his sidekick go and visit this old guy. He’s the archetype of the old wise character who’s been around, knows all about everybody’s dirty laundry, etc.

One line he says has ALWAYS stuck with me, after he goes on and on about how deep government conspiracies run.

“Just when you think you know, you’re wrong!”

Meaning we humans are good at convincing ourselves we know things. When we are really pretty clueless.

If you want to do an experiment, ask a bunch of people a difficult questions. One that HAS an answer, but one that most people don’t really know.

You’ll find that most people will have a hard time looking you dead in the eye and saying, “I really don’t know.”

What many people do is try to come up with an answer that “sounds” good. So we look like we know what we’re talking about.

But the secret is accepting that you DON’T know, or you COULD be wrong is the best thing ever.

Because it will OPEN your mind to NEW ideas, thoughts, models of the world, ways of looking at things.

One of the maxims from NLP is that whoever is most flexible will prevail.

If you have a flexible mindset, and can look at things in many different ways, you’ll generally be much more resourceful than people who need to be “right” all the time.

The natural way of learning (not sitting in school) is frustration, then curiosity, then exploration, then testing, then knowledge.

You are frustrated because you want something or you can’t do something. This leads to becoming curious about how you can get it. Then you start to take action, trying different things. Then you get feedback, and pretty soon you can get what you want.

Until this process starts all over again. The more you go through this, the more you’ll learn. The more you’ll learn, the more you’ll be able to get.

If you need to KNOW the TRUTH all the time, you’re stuck. Since you KNOW, there’s no reason to EXPLORE. To find out. To grow. To improve.

Knowledge in and of itself can be pretty boring.

Continuously searching for NEW knowledge is what life is all about.

Get Started:

Intelligence Accelerator

How To Shine Your Light

How to Change Their Filters

How To Create Their Filters

​Why is the sky blue?

This is a good metaphor for how the mind works.

We’ve all got these filters in our heads. Some are preprogrammed, some are learned.

For example, nobody comes into this world with our names burned into our brain.

Yet it doesn’t take long to associate a name that somebody else has given us, with our deep sense of self-identity. If we’re at a party, and somebody says our name a few feet away, we’ll automatically pick up on it.

Money is something else we “learn” to be on the lookout for. If you’re walking down the street, and you see a green piece of paper out of the corner of your eye, you’ll turn your head before you even know what’s what. 

And if it IS money, you’ll feel a rush of excitement as you reach down and pick it up. None of this will be conscious. Sure, you’re consciously aware of it while it’s happening, but it’s driven by subconscious desire.

Here’s the cool thing. If you moved to a country with a totally different type of money, different shape, different color, different material, you would EASILY start seeing THAT with the same subconscious desire.

Other filters are much more flexible. Meaning they can be conjured up on the spot. For example, if you started to talk to somebody, friend or whoever, about something they REALLY wanted, they would start seeing YOU through those temporary filters of desire.

This is why a lot of dating coaches recommend going on “action dates” in the beginning of the relationship. You subconsciously associate the fun and excitement with each other.

The more you talk to somebody about their desires, they’ll subconsciously associate their desires with you. Both because they are looking at you while they are talking about their desires, and they are talking about their desires BECAUSE you are the one asking them questions about it.

Kind of like why the sky is blue. Of all the different color light that comes from the sun, blue comes through the strongest. The molecules in the upper atmosphere vibrate at about the same frequency as blue light. So the sky appears blue.

When you ask questions about their desires, in the right way, and ask good follow up questions, in the right way, they will see YOU as resonating with their desires.

Which means YOU will be seen in a very, very good light, regardless of who you are and what you may or may not have to offer.

To learn how, check this out:

See Through The Noise

See Through The Haze

Adjust Your Vision

If you’ve ever seen those hidden 3D pictures, you know how frustrating they can be.

Now, some people can see them right away. But not me.

The first few times, it felt like I just couldn’t “get it” while everybody else was saying how cool it was.

But when it finally clicked, it WAS pretty cool.

Even after that, it still took me a while, but once I got it, it was easy to get.

It’s kind of a focus thing, you need to look beyond what’s right in front of you. Pretend to look deeper than what’s really there.

Once I was out hiking with my buddies. I was up a couple hundred meters ahead. I came across this one hill, and saw this bear. I wanted to reach up and grab my camera, which was hanging over my pack.

But I was so close, that I was worried just the camera-grabbing motion would startle the bear, and either chase him away, or make him angry.

So I just stood there, as motionless as I could, and enjoyed being so close a to a VERY powerful force of nature.

He even looked right at me, and then quickly dismissed me. I imagined he thought something like, “I could kill you, but I’m too lazy.”

After a few minutes, I went up the slope, and over the rise.

When I came down on the other side, I saw something that TERRIFIED ME.

Two bear cubs!

Suddenly this powerful force of nature became WAY more dangerous. You NEVER get between a mama and her cubs!

So I FROZE. Only when my friends started showing up, and the bear and her cubs started walking down the hill away from me, did I grab my camera.

I thought I would have an AWESOME picture, one that would certainly amaze my friends.

Only when the pictures came out (this was before digital cameras were popular) you could barely see the bear.

Since I knew what to look for, I could see it. But none of my friends could, unless I pointed it out to them.

Even then they didn’t believe me.

Imagine if those people who made those 3D pictures never explained how to see them!

This is the danger of living with your eyes closed.

One the one hand, there are TONS of stuff out there that we simply can’t see. 

However, there’s nobody really there to point things out.

Which means it’s up to us. To change our filters, to have faith in ourselves to see deeper than most.

To look through the noise and see the treasures hidden right out in the open.

They’re there.

Waiting.

Can you see them?

Are You Kind To Your Best Friend?

Listen To Your Friend

Strengthen Your Instincts

When people go to Vegas, they hope to get “lucky.”

When people go to the track, they hope to get “lucky.”

Now, there’s blind luck, and there’s inspired luck.

For example, if you can learn to count cards, and stay focused, you can generally win most of the time.

So much so that if you start to win a lot, you’ll get kicked out. In the movie “Bringing Down The House,” which was based on the true story book, a group of students (and their professor played by Kevin Spacey) did just that.

With a pretty ingenious “group” card counting system, they won big. Consistently.

I also know a guy who’s pretty good at the track. He knows which horses are going to win, generally, before the race goes off. I don’t understand how he does it, but it’s a combination of reading body language (of the horses and their owners) as well as some advanced statistical analysis of past races for all the horses involved.

And he makes a very nice income from this “hobby.” More than most people make in a regular job. 

The truth is that all things are like this. Of course, most people are hoping for blind luck. They expect (or want) good things to come gift wrapped from some kind of fairy godmother.

But those that get lucky, consistently, instead of sitting around wishing, know that you need to put in a little effort.

But you’d be surprised how easy it is to learn to count cards. The theory is very simple, and it’s really a matter of a couple hours practice.

Most other “luck” is just as easy as well. It’s just a matter of understanding how the game works, and how to operate within it effectively.

For example, most people get hunches all the time. This is your subconscious speaking to you. Giving you a hint that there’s something good out there. Just waiting for you to grab it.

Most people are too scared, or too busy checking Facebook to notice.

Are you?

Imagine if you had a close friend, that was ALWAYS giving you fantastic advice, but you never listened. How long do you think they’d keep it up? They’d probably get gun shy after a while.

Now imagine if you finally started listening. Not only listening, but actually taking action based on their advice.

And imagine if once they saw you actually not only listening, but taking action, this made them MUCH MORE effective in spotting opportunities. So much they were literally speaking non-stop about all the things around you that you could turn into money, love, or anything else you wanted.

The truth is that friend is with you right now. They’ve always been with you and they always will be.

Will you start to listen? To take action based on their subtle advice?

You KNOW what will happen when you do!

Shift Your Luck Filter

Find Better Tools

Get Some More Tools

When all you have is a hammer, all you see is nails.

This is a very basic description of human perception.

How we perceive the world around us is directly related to our own filters.

Some of these filters are pretty hard wired. These are throwbacks from evolution and kept us safe when we were running around in the jungle chasing dinner.

Since cavemen weren’t famous for their intellectual reasoning, Mother Nature had to make certain things automatic.

So when they saw something out of the corner of their eye that was a potential threat, that flight or fight response AUTOMATICALLY kicked in. They’d take off running before they knew what was what.

We’ve still got those filters today, which is pretty funny whenever we jump at shadows!

Other filters are based on our recent experience. Things that we’ve been thinking about a lot lately will start showing up.

Others are kind of in between, and they are not set in stone, but they take some effort to change.

They are also structurally based, rather than content based.

In NLP, these are called “Meta Programs.”

Like if you are more motivated by fear or pleasure. Or if you see a new situation, do you automatically find things you are familiar with, or things you are unfamiliar with? 

Or when you make a decision, does it come from the inside, or do you need to hear validation from the outside?

One thing that’s crucial is how open you are to seeing opportunities.

You can have the attitude of “nothing good ever happens to me,” or “why doesn’t anything happen to me.”

Many people have these thought patterns running through their heads.

And guess what? Nothing ever happens to them!

Others have the idea of “Something fantastic is going to happen,” or even “I wonder what cool thing is going to happen?”

And guess what? Those people usually find some pretty good things. Some may say they are extraordinary lucky.

Imagine if you saw an interesting person across the room. Instead of thinking, “I’d like to talk to them, but I might get rejected,” you thought, “I wonder what cool things I can find out about that person?”

Imagine going into a job interview and instead of thinking, “I hope I don’t mess up,” you think, “Hmm, I wonder if this is the right opportunity for me?”

Now, this wouldn’t magically change your life. It wouldn’t rain money.

But you would create a LOT more positive events.

All it takes is a shift inside, and you’ll see a shift outside.