Mindset......Unfiltered

Do you remember what you wanted to be when you were younger??

I was thinking about this recently. Our eldest child talked about his ambitions to become a drama teacher so he could bring plays to life. He was inspired after watching some of the older children at school perform a play during assembly. It was quite touching really.?

I should also say that he has since changed his ambition to be a Minecraft Youtuber, but hey ho. It is great to have a dream. And some of those YouTubers are pretty successful, so I keep an open mind.?

I have a specific memory from my own childhood of wanting to be either a ‘mad’ scientist or an artist. Not sure why specifically a ‘mad’ scientist (some may have their opinions), but I did study science and I suppose that a doctor counts as well. I am still pretty good at drawing as well, but it doesn’t play any role in my current work.?

Children have this remarkable ability to think that absolutely anything is possible. I find this fascinating as we have mostly completely lost this as adults.?

If you have a conversation with a child about pretty much anything, you will find that they also have the ability to look at things in different ways from an adult.?

There is something about the growing and developing brain that gives them the ability to flex their perspectives in a way that most of us have lost by adulthood. How can we tap into this to change our view on what we think is possible in our own lives??

You might say that most of these childhood ambitions are unrealistic. And what happens is that as the children grow and develop they learn this. However, remember that sometimes these childhood ambitions come true. Even some of the more improbable ones, like becoming an astronaut, a Hollywood film star, or a Premier League footballer.?

The point is that this is part of a filtering process applied by the brain which, when you think about it, makes absolute sense. We are constantly receiving inputs from all of our senses which are bombarding our brains with a lot of information about what is going on in our surroundings. To tap into 100% of this at the time of receiving it would be completely overwhelming, and other than receiving inputs you would get nothing else done.?

Whilst this filtering process makes sense in terms of avoiding us getting overwhelmed, it does have some implications for our mindset management. It means that on some level we are picking and choosing what to pay attention to. Are we picking the right things??

As the brain sifts through the many hundreds of sensory inputs, it is also assigning a degree of importance to each of these. This is based largely on pattern recognition and brings in some elements of past memory and future intention. The less valuable inputs may actually be unconsciously disregarded without you even realising.?

These processes may be part of how we are getting in our own way in life. Is your unconscious filtering and value tagging part of the reason why you have limiting beliefs about your capabilities?

As a child we are generally limited in terms of experiences in life, we are yet to accumulate anything that we could consider to be evidence of what we can or cannot do.?

How to then tap into some of this to achieve what you want in life? You may have read or heard about the ‘law of attraction’. This is the belief that the energy you put out there is what you get back. If you want something in life you have to put that out there and the ‘universe’ will find a way to make it happen for you.?

There are a couple of different ways to view this. Either conjure up an image in your mind of what it is you want- a fancy car, a big pile of cash, etc- and then it will come to you. I am not a big fan of this theory, it just makes no sense to me at all and is way too passive in my opinion.?

The alternative view on the law of attraction is that you identify the things you want in life or the way you want your life to be (aka your vision). You can then begin to emotionally connect with these images of the future and hold them in mind on a daily basis.?

Whether you realise this or not, you are starting to change the way your brain is filtering the sensory inputs from the world around you. You are also changing the way that value and importance is assigned to these stimuli, and may begin to change how this ‘value tagging’ is done.?

This is how I (and many others) believe the law of attraction actually works. You change the way you filter and interpret the world around you and start to identify and gravitate toward the relevant opportunities that will move you gradually closer to your desired goals. Sorry if anyone was hoping for an easy route to the big pile of cash!

It reminds me of the old Henry Ford quote “whether you think you can, or you can’t- you are right”. It is essential that you believe that you are capable of the things you want to do in order to start to make them happen. Consider the famous story of neurologist and runner Roger Bannister. He was the first person to break the 4-minute barrier for running a mile. Prior to this, it was widely believed to be impossible to do so. After he proved it was possible lots of others did the same.?

This also reminds me of my decision to apply to medical school. I do not come from a medical family or have any of the characteristics you might associate with people who go on to study medicine and become a doctor. In fact, I specifically remember at school thinking it would never be an option for me.?

It was only when I got to a learning environment that I thrived in (university) and started studying a related subject that I was interested in, that I actually discovered some academic ability. The key thing was overhearing a conversation one day about someone who was considering applying for medicine as a second degree. I had previously not known that this was possible. The rest, as they say, is history.?

So, how can you use all of this to work towards what it is you want in life? As with anything else in personal development, it starts with self-awareness. Benchmark where you are at in life at the moment. Ask yourself how satisfied or fulfilled do you feel. If you are feeling good about life, perhaps you are already tuned into the right things.?

If not, what is missing? Schedule some time to think about your vision for the future. What do you want your life to be like, feel like? Make sure to touch base with all aspects of your existence, do not fall into the trap of making it all work-related for example (although this may be a key part of your future plans).?

Once you have this longer-term vision in place, you can start to work backward to where you are now, establishing some rough checkpoints along the way.?

Now you can start to use this ideal future of yours to visualise how you want life to be. Make it as vivid as possible. The more you can connect with this vision of the future, the better.?

Visualisation is such a powerful tool and has long since been a tool of very successful people in business and sports. Various past studies have demonstrated that visualisation can activate the same areas of the brain as actually physically performing the tasks. It also feeds into your brain's filtering processes. The more you can visualise the things you want, the more your brain will start to look for relevant opportunities around you.?

I have started using visualisation more regularly in my daily practice. It does not have to take up much time and can be as mundane as visualising the day ahead in a positive way. Of course, challenges will crop up from time to time, and these can be both anticipated and managed in a way that does not disrupt your flow too much.?

I am no advocate for toxic positivity at all, but I can personally attest to the fact that if you prime your brain in a mainly negative way, you will find negativity everywhere you go.?

Thank you for reading this, and do let me know your thoughts in the comments section.