Ok, I’m back after my extended ‘vacation’.
And here’s a biggie: I’m amazed at this book. And if you’ve ever wondered about the factor of getting old (and stupid), or wondered how we learn (and unlearn stuff), then you need to read this book. I intend to take snippets of the information and put my own spin to it over the weeks and months to come. You’ll understand all of that information so much better, and how it relates to talent—if you read this book.
If there was one recommendation I’d make for Feb 2008-Feb 2009, it would be this one.
The Brain That Changes Itself
You may not have heard of Paul Wolfe.
You may never hear of Paul Wolfe.
But someday soon Paul Wolfe will grow his business.
And by the time we finish with the year 2012, Paul will be extremely successful.
So what is this prediction based on?
You see Paul doesn’t have many subscribers to his website (At last count he had less than 20).
In fact, he just started doing YouTube Videos a while ago (Maybe a month or less).
And those videos have bad lighting. And aren’t something magical.
But the magic isn’t in the videos.
Or the subscriber list.
It’s in the daily routine.
You see, every night before he goes to bed, Paul writes down what he’s done every single day.
And the achievement for the day.
And every single day he’s doing a little bit more. And more. And even more, as you may expect.
Which tells me one thing.
I don’t care how talented Paul really is.
I don’t care if his videos never improve.
I know that he’ll succeed.
Because the DNA of successful people is exactly the same. They keep at it. They do stuff every day, and keep at it relentlessly.
Which is why this is my prediction for 2012.
Paul Wolfe will be running a reasonably successful business.
Despite the recession.
Despite the blah, blah.
Despite everything you hear.
He’ll do it.
Watch this space.
Or watch his videos.
http://uk.youtube.com/user/howtoplaybassdotcom
And here’s the reasoning why: http://www.psychotactics.com/artmastery
The poster for the the movie “Elf”
Now I don’t want to boast, but this is what I do.
I run blogs at:
http://www.psychotactics.com/blog
https://brainaudit.com
http://www.spidersecret.com/
Less frequently at:
http://www.cavechronicles.com
http://www.stickybusinessbooks.com
Write articles, per year:
http://www.5000bc.com (about 100-300 a year)
http://www.psychotactics.com (about 50 a year)
And monitor no less than four to five forums:
On the Psychotactics Courses forum, just this year, the tally is 4000 posts (This includes reviews of articles/websites/and detailed answers to questions which may take as long as twenty minutes per post to answer). On 5000bc, you can find 7000+ posts (we lost about 5000 of my earlier posts when 5000bc crashed in 2007).
I write two courses a year at the very least
Each course has about 200+ pages of notes/graphics (these take a lot of time–the graphics)
There’s audio.
I also present these courses live (which means the Keynote/Powerpoint slides have to be created as well).
I will often do mini courses or mini products.
e.g. The re-write of the Brain Audit book.
On top of this there’s assorted stuff like:
Full colour cartoons for the blog.
Audio files for the blog.
And other assorted requests like Vanishing Reports in 5000bc. etc.
And in the past I’ve created the entire website design, HTML, graphics etc.
I still do the graphics and website design for any new website or revamp (e.g. new Psychotactics and now 5000bc revamp in Dec 2008).
And then I respond to every email for every subscriber (yes, every subscriber).
The question is when do I sleep, let alone go on vacation or anything.
Just reading this list should make you tired.
But here’s what’s happening.
In about 25 minutes I’m off to play badminton.
I’ll be back in 3 hours.
Then have lunch.
Probably go to the cafe.
And that’s the end of the day.
How is this possible?
It is. And there are ways to do all of the above, because though it seems like there’s an army of elves doing all of the above, there’s just Renuka and I. And she likes the trips to the cafe as much. Plus she takes her parents out twice a week, so those days are half-days for her.
How does this all happen?
Where are the elves?
Aha, you didn’t think I’d give the answer so easily, did you?
My wife Renuka, sniffled.
She sniffled. She sneezed.
Achoo!
Achoo!
Achoo!
For thirteen years she sneezed.
Her eyes would get all red and puffy.
She tried all types of anti-allergy medication.
It would work for a while, then it was back to achoo!
Incredible as it seems, the problem was in her brain.
Your brain reacts to allergies with a code. And that code has a ‘virus.’ So when you run into dust or pollen the virus kicks in. It says: Execute command, and the virus starts rolling out.
How do we know it’s a virus? And not a program instead?
We know it because most of us don’t sneeze with pollen. Or dust. Or after drinking wine. But Renuka’s brain had accumulated a whole bunch of viruses. And to try and subdue these viruses, she’d take anti-allergy medication. But anti-allergy medication simply stops the virus from executing. It can’t erase the virus. And frankly, erasing the virus is a waste of time.
All we need is to re-wire the brain to stop running the program in the first instance. The brain needs to have a completely different code written to deal with dust. Then it stops sneezing.
Which is what Renuka did
She visited an anti-allergy clinic. Or should I say allergy-elimination. But were they able to prevent dust or pollen from entering her system? No they weren’t. But they were able to write a new program onto her brain. A program that ignored the dust, pollen, etc. A program that was fresh and didn’t have any viruses.
And so it is with talent and learning.
Trying to fix the problem with medication (more courses; more training) isn’t going to help at all. Instead all the brain does is replicate the anti-allergy syndrome and pretends to learn. But eventually the virus kicks in and you’re back to where you started. If you truly want to learn a new skill. If you truly want to develop a talent, you’re wasting time trying to eliminate the virus.
What you need to do is write fresh code.
Code with no viruses in the first place 🙂
And the achoo goes away forever!
Note: Renuka doesn’t sneeze. She can enjoy her wine, go out amongst the flowers in spring, and dust away to her heart’s content. And it was all done with no pills, no medication and simple re-writing of code. (It’s actually a simple system of re-wiring and no wires are involved–just in case you’re wondering).
Read Part 1 of How To Bypass A Brain Virus
I was sitting at my favourite cafe in Takapuna with Renuka’s niece, Marsha.
Marsha was only three and half years old at the time, and happily drinking her um, ‘coffee’, when she looked upwards (as most kids do), and noticed a black object on the glass.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Fungus,” I said.
“Fungus,” she repeated about three-four times.
Then promptly she forgot. And asked again.
Of course I told her it was called fungus. And she nodded happily.
When she went back home to her mother, she ran through the door and said “Mama, I saw a bungus.”
Of course confusion reigned till I stepped in to clarify that it was a fungus.
And Marsha was delighted to correct herself and say the word correctly.
Most adults don’t act like Marsha
They’re defensive. Incredibly defensive.
They’re attacking. And it gets a bit scary how they fight back at times.
They don’t want to make a mistake.
They don’t want to appear in a bad light.
They are insecure. Because if they weren’t insecure, they would have no problem making mistakes. Or letting the world know about mistakes.
Most of us want to appear perfect.
We don’t want to make mistakes.
We don’t want others to learn that we’ve made a mistake.
In effect, we’re dolts.
Even a three and half year old knows better.
In fact the reason why kids have an enormous learning capacity is because they follow a very clear pattern of:
1) Learn
2) Talk
3) Implement
4) Make mistake.
5) Go back to start.
Most kids are smart because they’re professional mistake makers. They live in a world of ‘conscious incompetence’. Most adults are dolts.
They learn less not because they don’t have the time. Or because they have no talent.
They learn less because they can’t be like Marsha.
