When I was in college many moons ago, my roommate had one of those 3D pictures.
The kind that looks like noise, but when you stare at it the right way, a 3D image emerges.
For a while, I couldn’t “get it.” While all my friends did so easily.
But once you “get it” a couple of time, it’s pretty easy.
Once I was playing a game of flag football with some friends.
I was on defense, and my job was to rush in and pressure the QB.
Only on one play, I kind of froze. Not really froze, something just seemed “off” right after the snap.
Instead of running in, like I normally did, I stepped back a bit.
It turned out the other team was running a double reverse, and were counting on me rushing in, which would leave open a big hole.
As I was standing there wondering what the heck was going on, they ran the play and the guy with the ball ran right into me.
One of my teammates looked at me and asked, “you read that pretty well!”
To which I responded, “Huh?”
I suppose as often is the case, my subconscious knew what was up, but my conscious was clueless.
Being able to accurately “read” events to predict the outcomes is a pretty good skill.
There’s a saying that a small minority of people make things happen.
A slightly larger group watches things happen.
Then there’s the vast majority who stand around saying, “What happened?”
Of course, if you spend all your free time with your brain turned off staring at the pretend people in pretend situations on TV, it’s hard to be able to “read” events as they unfold.
I’ve read a few books on history, and things in real life are WAY more complicated than on TV.
Over the last couple decades, the world has changed A LOT, and will continue to do so.
If you’re planning on just coasting and hoping things work out, you may be surprised.
On the other hand, it really doesn’t take a lot of time, or effort, to increase your “people reading” skills.
This can help you move from the “what happened?” group to the “watch what happens” group.
And when you start to see things playing out, you can position yourself to either benefit, or not get pounded, like a lot of people.
Fortunately, the same exercise that will increase your “people reading” skills can ALSO significantly improve your communication skills, as well as your overall self-development.
Even if you ONLY do these exercises during commercial breaks!
If you make the commitment today, to spend only ten minutes a day, soon you’ll have skills most people don’t even know exist.
Get Started: