There's immense power in asking the right questions.
Finding the right answers can be valuable too - but I'd argue finding the right questions is more important than finding the right answers.
To some extent, if you ask the right questions, the answers don't matter as much as how easy it was to find appropriate answers, proof of progress, or meaningful momentum.
I shot this short video on the power of asking the right questions. Check it out.
The exercise of asking the right questions is really an exercise in the power of framing - of digesting or accessing information differently. There's power even in the reframing of the same question: "How do I survive the pandemic shelter-in-place quarantine?" vs. "In what ways has the pandemic shelter-in-place quarantine improved my relationships (or productivity, or health)?"
In my experience, asking someone what they want often results in a response about what they don't want. Yet, when the obstacle becomes the path forward it becomes easier to find the "hidden" gift.
You control what you make things mean and how things make you feel. In many respects, this is the difference between feeling sad or happy or feeling like a victim versus someone in control of their destiny. Your ability to control your perception is the difference between feeling like life happens to you or for you.
It's the same when tackling a research problem. When I hear "it can't be done" my first thought is usually "It can be done ... just not the way you were thinking about it."
The most important advances in society were impossible until they weren't. The examples are too numerous to list. But imagine telling someone in the middle ages that you could communicate with people around the globe in real-time, while seeing their faces, and sharing documents. They'd try you as a witch faster than you could say "Zoom!"
The term Moonshot, in a technology context, is an ambitious, exploratory, and ground-breaking project that was considered to be impossible (like going to the Moon).
Success is often a function of using Moonshots to set direction, then asking the right questions, being willing to see things differently, and finding a way to move in the right direction while gaining capabilities and confidence. As long as you are doing those things, the trick is to keep going until you get there. The result is inevitable if you do those things and don't give up.
Onwards!
Selective Attention: What Are You Missing?
Sticking with the philosophy theme, I encourage you to watch this video below on selective attention.
Daniel Simons' experiments on visual awareness have become famous. The primary conclusion drawn from his research is that we can miss incredibly obvious things, right in front of us, if our attention is focused elsewhere.
While watching the video, count how many passes the team in white makes.
This is worth doing so you experience it yourself.
OK, click the video to do it now.
via Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris (Click Here To Read The Full Paper)
First, did you get the number of passes correct? Second, did you see the gorilla?
If you have already seen this video or heard of the study, it's much easier, but most people absolutely miss the Gorilla, despite it not being hidden.
Think about how often your focus blinds you to the obvious.
This next video demonstrates "change blindness". In an experiment, 75% of the participants didn't notice that the experimenter was replaced by a different person.
via Derren Brown
Warning: Objects In Your Attention Span Are Fewer Than You Perceive.
It's well known that we often miss objects in our field of view due to limited attention and change blindness, but, it's true with more than just sight. Moment by moment, the brain selectively processes information it deems most relevant. Experiments, like these, show the limits of our capacity to encode, retain, and compare visual information from one glance to the next.
More importantly, this suggests that our awareness of our visual surroundings is far more sparse than most people intuitively believe. Consequently, our intuition can deceive us far more often than we perceive.
As an entrepreneur, when I focus fully on something, it's as if everything else goes away. That level of focus can be a gift - but it can also be a curse. In Genius Network, we have a form we fill out at the beginning of each meeting. In it is a diagram where you rate your score on 8 factors: physical environment, career, money, health, friends & family, significant other, personal & intellectual growth, and fun & recreation
It's rare that I'm fully succeeding in all 8 ... we only have so much focus and bandwidth, it's inevitable I'll miss things. Clearly, in an information-rich environment, attention is a scarce and essential resource. So, pay attention (or automate the things you know need to be done right, every time).
What are you currently prioritizing, and what's falling to the side due to that focus? What are you missing?
Hope this was a helpful reminder. Let me know what you think about posts like this. Thanks.
Posted at 07:15 PM in Business, Current Affairs, Film, Healthy Lifestyle, Ideas, Just for Fun, Market Commentary, Personal Development, Science, Trading | Permalink | Comments (0)
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