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1 July 2010

Everthing is happening right now…

Jorge Luis Borge quote

29 June 2010

Where is your blind spot?

blind-spot

Habits or patterns of thinking and behaving can often limit our view of what we perceive as possible. They can create “blind spots” that hold us back. Though, a small shift in perception is often all it takes to find a solution for a situation we are not happy with.

Inattentional blindness
Arien Mack and Irving Rock, two psychologists, have done research on the relationship between attention and perception and found what they call “Inattentional Blindness”. This is a phenomenon of not being able to perceive something that is within our sight. This can be the result of an object that is truly unexpected or because we are attending to something else.

Before you read on, test this yourself. It is fun, I promise, and only takes a couple of minutes. Just watch this video and follow the instructions.



Mack and Rock have even gone so far as to say that “there is no conscious perception without attention”. So, if you focus your attention on one thing, chances are that this is what you are going to see. It also means that you probably will miss many other things.

Therefore, you should not only ask yourself - What are you looking at? but also - What are you not looking at?
This is important as it might just help you make that small shift in perception. Think of the things that you have discovered about yourself that you previously had overlooked. How amazing was it for you when you started to see things you thought were not possible before. You made a shift in attention and therefore a shift in perception.

We are blinded by our habits and beliefs when they hold us back to discover many other possibilities for us in any situation.

Here are some helpful tips to become more aware and ‘seeing’, so that you can break unhelpful patterns:

1. Notice and seek new things in your daily routines: Walk a different way to work, cook with an ingredient you never used, try new things,…

2. Keep your mind refreshed: Take a break from what you are doing several times a day. The breaks can last one minute or ten minutes. Or longer if you wish.

3. Let your attention be guided by little sights, sounds, smells or physical sensations.

4. Beginners mind: Let go of what you know and your assumptions. Keep an open mind and try to react to situations according to circumstance not according to assumptions or conventions.

You might also want to read:
Do your beliefs support you or hold you back?

Image: Anders Ljungberg
24 June 2010

How to reduce distractions and stay focused

distraction1

How often do you get distracted during the day? With so many things going on in your mind, a myriad of tasks to do and devices continually alerting you of incoming emails, tweets, calls, texts or friend posts, how can you stay focused?

When your attention is divided between different things at the same time it can easily throw you off-course and can get overwhelming at times. Look at design or photography. The aim is to create one focal point to direct the viewer’s attention to it. As Garr Reynolds points out: “conflicting focal points would be a distraction” as it would introduce confusion and obscure clarity.

The attention we have for something diminishes with every distraction we follow, because attention is limited. The more you switch activities the more you divide and use your attention for those distractions and transitions. How much, do you think, is left to focus on something that is important to you.

Distractions also have a rewarding side. They can relieve worries or frustrations. Though this often only lasts for a short time and worries are back again. Anything that give us some relief from uncomfortable feelings or thoughts or anything that is just in front of us seems too attractive to ignore. We tend to easily get distracted. So, what can you do to stay focused and reduce distractions.

1. Switch off any communication devices & clean your desk
This is the easiest and most effective step you can take when you want to focus on a specific project. Our brain has the tendency to focus on what is right in front of us. So switching off your devices or removing any paper or notepads from your sight, will help you to reduce distraction. Make the project your focal point. Or make dinner with your family your focal point. Just switch off your mobile or remove anything that might remind you of the tasks you still have to do.

2. Take a break
Regularly take a break from what you are doing. The key is that you do that consciously. Get up every 30 minutes, have a stretch, a small walk or learn to juggle balls.

3. Write things down
Every time you have an idea, or remember a task you need to do write it down. That way it can’t distract you anymore, as you don’t need to use any brain power to remember. When you have finished your project, you can go back to your notes and then decide if there is anything on there you need to do right now. If not, just leave it there.

4. Become aware of your internal distractions
One of the most effective ways to reduce distraction is to get to know your internal thoughts. This is a more difficult step but the most rewarding. The more you know your thoughts or your feelings in any given situation the better you can stop yourself following any urge (“I need to get that cup of coffee”). The point is that you need to inhibit the actions fast, in under half a second, which in some studies is the time between noticing an urge and the urge taking over.

So, how can you become more aware what is going on inside you:

    - Become a curious observer.
    - Stop what you are doing and take a few breaths.
    - Notice your thoughts, feelings or bodily sensations that are coming up for you right now. Say them out loud or write them down. This is helpful especially when you just start out doing this.

Do this a few times a day over the next two weeks. It seems difficult in the beginning but the more you practice the easier it gets. Observing what is coming up for you will become an automatic behaviour and it will help you to identify distractions and stay focused.

23 June 2010

10 important questions to ask yourself



questionmark

  • What direction am I heading?
  • What do I want my life to stand for?
  • What do I value in my relationship with others?
  • What sort of relationships do I want to develop?
  • What is most important to me in relation to work/home/family/friends/myself?
  • What is guiding my decisions?
  • What actions can I take that reflect my values?
  • When was the last time I made a decision based on what I believe in?
  • How do I want to act towards myself?
  • What am I doing right now?



You might also want to read:
What are you doing, right now?
What motivates you
Do you know your why?
Do you know where you are going?

Image: takomabibelot

17 June 2010

Conversations with my pink elephant

pink-elephant5
Recently, I had a good conversation with my pink elephant. Sounds strange to you? My pink elephant comes in the form of fear, anxiety or self-doubt. It had started to push me around a bit and wanted to make decisions for me I would regret.

The more you ignore…
I have started to make a habit out of having a conversation with the things I don’t like. Why? The more I tried to ignore those thoughts or feelings the more powerful they became. They worked hard to get all my attention, while I really tried not give them any platform. You can imagine that I didn’t have much attention left for anything else.

Try it, right now: “At all cost, don’t think of the pink elephant. It’s right here in the corner, in front of you or standing behind you. Remember, don’t think of the pink elephant”

Why a conversation?
Isn’t it enough to allow it to be here in the room with you? Well, in my experience it is a vital part in making fear less powerful over my behaviour, decisions and the direction I want to go.
However, I also realised the better I got to know it through conversations the quicker I was able put my attention toward what I want to focus on.

Over time my conversations have become shorter as I got to know my pink elephant better in all those different situations it would come up. In those conversations it can have it’s voice, just like you would your aspirations, your values or goals want to have and find a voice. They are all part of you.

The most important question I ask my pink elephant:
What do you want me to know about you?

Other questions you might want to ask:
What is your purpose?
What makes you more/less present?
Who are your allies?

Have you ever wondered what your pink elephant would like to tell you?

Image: poplinre
15 June 2010

Ride that bike

ride-that-bike

What do you do about your fear of presenting? How can you learn to become aware where you are stuck and how to take action.

Do you remember when you learned how to ride a pushbike? You probably had help from your parents or maybe an older sibling. Falling off the bike, getting hurt and being frightened did not held you back in mastering the bike. You chose to learn to ride that bike no matter what.

When we grow into adults we sometimes loose that ability because there seems to be so much at stake – status, reputation, financial success, your place in the community, your public image,… – everything you work hard to achieve and maintain.

How can you re-discover this ability of choice? Practice is key to improving your presentation skills and developing confidence. So, think of those situations where you have to prepare for a presentation, but you procrastinate and wait until the last moment. Or, you do prepare in a certain way but it doesn’t seem to help you develop confidence. In both situations you are stuck and worries, fear or unhelpful thoughts seem to have the power to keep you there.

They literally narrow your ability to see and discover other ways to practice.

You can make those unwanted thoughts and feelings less powerful. Start today, and become curious about them. When you do that on a regularly it will open up the narrow view into a vista of possibilities. Here is where you can choose to prepare for presentations differently.

Learn to become aware of what is coming up for you, also notice all your reasons why you might not be able to do things differently. They are all part of your unhelpful thoughts that keep you stuck. Write them down and just let them be as they are. Don’t try to change them, push them away or turn them into a positive. Simply notice them. It might seem counter-intuitive to you, but over time you will realise that their power becomes weaker.

Also, ask yourself the following question:
If I would not struggle with worries or fear, what kind of presenter would I want to be?

“Start wherever you are and start small” – Rita Bailey

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