Hello beautiful people!
Let’s appreciate our worlds.
Today’s lesson is going to be, I think, an interesting take on gratitude, appreciation, and perspective.
What a wonderful world… there have been times over the course of these hundred days that Bonnie has asked you to breathe, to take stock of your life, and to feel the feelings associated with what you’re doing.
This is going to be a little bit like all those previous lessons. But here’s the part that’s going to make this one different… I want you to — as you’re breathing, as you’re assessing and taking stock of things, and as you’re contemplating the appreciation that you’ve gained about your creative journey as a part of this course — I want you to consciously choose to adjust your mindset.
I want you to shift your brains so that your sense of wonder at how good all that mindset work feels becomes your new normal.
Basically, if you think about Bonnie’s mindset shifts as an actor’s high, a creative high, an emotional high… I want you to come to understand that you need to start seeking to stay high all the time.
It’s a simple notion, but it’s actually a lot of work to tone those emotional muscles up to the point where you can sustain that sense of awe.
Things in the world outside of your control often try to drag you down. You know this. You’ve experienced it. You’ve dealt with it at some points during these last 86 days. I know you have.
Here’s something you may have experienced, but maybe not labeled as such: If your muscles for sustaining your positive feelings aren’t strong enough or exercised regularly enough… if you lack the stamina for appreciation that I’m asking you now build… things in the world can pull you back down.
We want to set you on a path toward building the stamina for appreciating what a great life you get to lead.
Bonnie’s pretty woo-woo. I am too, but my woo-woo tends to be more grounded in science and observation rather than contemplations of spiritual realities. Bonnie talks in term of Law of Attraction and things like that. I know of a psychological notion called “Perceptual Sets.” Perceptual Sets are my — scientific — version of the Law of Attraction.
Here’s what I want you to learn about the idea: Just like the Law of Attraction tells you that the things you focus on are attracted to you, the principle of Perceptual Sets is that a person is hit by over 100,000 individual bits of sensory input on a given day, but the human brain can only consciously perceive about 10,000 of them… the rest are lost to us.
Perceptual Sets is the psychological explanation of how eye-witnesses can be present at the same event but see completely contradictory things. Perceptual Sets is the reason that optimists and pessimists can experience the same stimuli completely differently.
The reason this is important for you to know and to label correctly is that (and here’s where you really have to hang with me because this is how the notion of Perceptual Sets is exactly the Law of Attraction) you can exert conscious control over what you perceive! You can choose to focus on the good, great, wonderful, amazing things in your world if you want to… I’m sure you’ve noticed that when you’re out shopping for a car, and you’ve decided on the kind you think you want, and all of a sudden you start seeing that car all over the place! It’s everywhere! That’s Perceptual Sets in action.
Okay, now I need to tie that notion back into your professional life.
Once you realize that you can control your own Perceptual Sets — once you get that if you focus on the wonders of this life you will experience more of them — all you need to do is strengthen the muscle for staying focused on the good shit. There are thousands of wonderful, positive, amazing things that are happening all around you every day, and when you come to understand that the only thing keeping you from paying attention to them is your own emotional/spiritual inertia… change toward the positive becomes the most important work of your life.
There are two real reasons that we hold off on it in the beginning. First, you have to have all your actor/creative tools in order before you can let go of them… you have to be relieved of your anxiety that there’s anything concrete you could be doing before you can be open enough to hear about the woo. Second, the mental game is where all the real work happens, and we have to get you warmed up properly before you can actually play with the concepts.
When Bonnie is working with her masterminders, or with high-end private coaching clients, or when she’s been working with anyone long enough… we come to see that all of the blocks/troubles/issues that these clients are dealing with are always some form of mental blocks… clearing the mental blocks opens the roads to success and triumph. In almost every situation, the reason people stumble is that they can’t see how to get out of their own way. (Tweet it.)
It sounds like a bit of a mind fuck, and it kind of is, except when you understand the power of Perceptual Sets and the notion that the world is throwing far more at you than you can hope to perceive coupled with the ability to consciously choose which of the 100,000+ bits of stimulus you pay attention to. You have to develop the ability to easily and consistently choose to see and appreciate the good, positive, effective things around you.
Now let me wrap everything up by telling you my point, which is also your homework… as we near the end of our 100 days together, your homework for Day 86 is to exercise your muscle for appreciating what a wonderful world you live in, inhabited by amazing people who are constantly helping you and challenging you to be better… lifting you up higher than you could go on your own. Really understand that you control your own outlook and — whether you call it Perceptual Sets or Law of Attraction makes no difference — how you choose to emotionally attach to the world around you directly impacts what the world delivers to you… and lastly, know that as we start the final two weeks of Get in Gear for the Next Tier, you are only just beginning the journey.
What a wonderful world indeed.
Love you beautiful people.
K