James Vaughan via Compfight
Let’s hope so, because YOUR mind is so powerful it could potentially cause you to miss a grown man dressed in a gorilla suit walking right through your vision of the future.
Think I’m bananas? Read on.
A number of years ago, two researches conducted a well known study; The Invisible Gorilla (http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/videos.html)
People were asked to view a video tape of a group of teenagers passing a basketball between them. Some of the teens were dressed in black and some in white. The viewer was asked to count the number of times a participant dressed in white, passed the ball.
Halfway through the video, a man in a gorilla suit reading a newspaper, walked through the group of teens.
What the researchers found was that the viewers were so committed to counting the number of times a participant in white passed the ball, most of them did not see the gorilla!
It’s Positively Primordial!
The brain is so good at helping us to focus on what we are looking for, it will eliminate those items that do not match our search.
Recently, Trafton Drew, an Attention Researcher at Harvard University conducted a similar study. He put a sticker of a gorilla on an x-ray of a pair of lungs and asked a group of radiologists to do what they do best; look at the x-ray and find the cancer.
You guessed it.
These professionals were so good at looking for cancer, 83% of them missed the sticker of the gorilla. (http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/02/11/171409656/why-even-radiologists-can-miss-a-gorilla-hiding-in-plain-sight)
Not Brain Surgery:
I’m no scientist, but I am in the business of helping working mothers optimize their lives. What better place to start than where we are focusing our attention?
It seems to me that there may be a chance that if we focus on finding the joy in each day, the strengths that serve us well and the ways in which life is truly working, we may uncover a few gorillas that have been there the whole time!
Coach Me Quick Tips For Seeing What We Are Truly Looking For:
I’ve Never Seen Herbivore.
What are you focusing on? How much time do you spend focused on what bothers you, a worry about the future or regret of the past? Check in with yourself each hour on the hour for one day, and notice your thoughts.
Gorillas In Our Midst:
What and who are you missing? Ask your mind to focus on something new, something different and something unexpected.
Will You Be My Primate?
How can we harness the ability we have to find what we focus on? Maybe we can uncover new opportunities, identify creative solutions, find the perfect job and land a hot date for Saturday night.
Let’s Hear It For The Cranium!
The brain is an incredible tool – let’s see if we can use it to help us build the lives we want to live.
Focusing on all that I love in Los Angeles,
Jamee