Attraction through Intention...
The Thursday Thesis - 6/04/2017 “Google your Life...” Ever notice how that thing you’ve been thinking about shows up in your life? It just seems to appear - as if by magic – and you’ve probably had a similar experience to mine. You see, when I was a teenager I wanted a Porsche 944. Back then, the closest I could get to owning one was to pin a picture of one on my bedroom wall. Before long I started seeing Porsches all over the place. It was odd, but it seems to be a universal principle. I won’t call it “The Law of Attraction”, because it’s not a Law at all – it’s just a Principle. The Principle is that you get what you think about most of the time. Google is just like that, too – you get what you search for, most of the time. Both Google and you respond to their inputs, so control your inputs and make sure they are what you Intend to do, have or be in your life. If you are open to possibility (see last week’s Thesis, if you haven’t already) then the things, people and situations you want will begin to show up. Keep your mind ON what you want, and OFF what you don’t want. Remind yourself, every day, what you want and go get it. The pictures on my wall have changed, but the Principle of Intention keeps on operating. The Rules don’t Change, only our intentions. © Neil Cowmeadow 2017 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, your cat and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net
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The Thursday Thesis - 30/03/2017
“The Power of Focus, and a Brand-New Lens” It’s a funny thing, you know, this life business. One day you think it’s all over and done, that all the good stuff has been taken, and the next day you stumble on something that opens your eyes up to new possibilities. Of course, the possibilities have been waiting around, waiting to be discovered, for a while - but you weren’t ready to see them yesterday. Every time we learn a new idea, skill, technique or approach we can use it to look at the World in a new way: sort-of like a lens. Not only can our new “lens” broaden our field of view, it can also sharpen our ability to focus. And the more lenses we have, the more problems we can see a way through. We may test a number of lenses on a problem or situation, but – with time and persistence – we’ll suddenly find that everything snaps into sharp focus... As I’ve learned more about the possibilities open to me as an entrepreneur I’ve begun to see opportunity everywhere. It’s crazy – you learn a new thing and “boom!” you almost fall over the possibilities you can suddenly see. Now is the time to focus on what is most important, to keep your ferocious attention on the Big Things that matter most to you, remembering the reason why you want to do them. Keep on learning, keep on growing; try out a new lens and see if it changes your point of view. Does the eye chart say “OPPORTUNITIES ARE NOWHERE” OR “OPPORTUNITIES ARE NOW HERE”? No Peeking! Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, visiting life-forms and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net
The Thursday Thesis - 15/03/2017
“You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know...” It used to be the case that what you don’t know can’t hurt you – but is it still true? Personally, I don’t believe it any more. Today I’m (once again) in a training suite, adding to what I learned during my last three days here - and I’m surrounded by fifty or so curious people. For the record - when I call these guys “curious” I don’t mean odd or peculiar – they are the inquisitive kind of curious. And the phrase I’ve heard most of all today is this: “You don’t know what you don’t know”. I read it in a manual on investing, once, and thought it was a bit smug-sounding. But today it resonates like a mighty church bell booming midnight strident through the frosted velvet blackness of the moonless night. You don’t know what you don’t know... Wow! It’s easy to reach a point in your life that is comfortable and satisfactory – and then begin to coast along, believing that you know pretty-much all you need to know. It’s easy and it’s dangerous, possibly fatal. The moment you think you’ve got it made, and that you’ve achieved quite a lot, that’s the point where complacency begins to sneak in on you. Comfort is the silent assassin of ambition and growth. You’ve come so far, so you figure it’s probably ok to ease back a little... You’re doing OK, so you figure it’ll be ok if you just ease back a little more... The world changes forward forever, but now that you’re leaning back, you’ve begun to stand still. And the old truths give way to the new Truths: wave upon wave of discoveries, insights and inventions lapping at the shores of our understanding. Things change without you noticing whilst you keep doing what you’ve always done. Over time, the gulf between what you knew that used to be true and the way things have become gets wider... And you don’t know about it, because you’re content with what you already know. But, even so, The Answers have still changed. As long as you keep on knowing the things that used to be true, the things that are now true can’t find their way in to replace your Obsolete Truths. So, what is it that you already know that stops you from knowing what you don’t know? Today would be a great day to find out, wouldn’t it? Once you accept that you don’t know everything, you can begin – today – to start to find out all you can about what interests or intrigues you. What is it that you are curious about? Go deep and immerse yourself, bathe in it, swim in it, breathe it in. Soon you’ll be as curious as I am.... © Neil Cowmeadow 2017 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, visiting life-forms and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net
The Thursday Thesis - 9/03/2017
“Your Brain’s Secret Defence against Irrelevence”... Last week I promised to tell you about a clever trick our brains do and how to harness it to our own advantage. It’s your brain’s ability to reject the vast majority of what comes streaming into it and to capture and draw to your attention the tiny amount of what we think is important from everything that goes on all around us. Think about it: think of all the sights, smells, sounds, tastes and feelings that are hitting our senses at any time. Feel how your right heel presses lightly into the back of your shoe? Smell the perfume of the washing powder you laundered your clothes in? Can you hear the whisper of your computer’s cooling fan? Until I suggested that you should notice them, the chances are that you didn’t even notice those sensations. That’s because our brains have a powerful filter on incoming information, and it’s set to reject what isn’t important. It’s called the Reticular Activating System – the RAS, for short - and it’s a lot like a nightclub bouncer who politely tells you that your name isn’t on the list, so you can’t get in. A well known example of the RAS in action is when you decide that you’d like to buy a particular new car – then you start to see that kind of car everywhere. Your own thinking of purchasing the car gave it particular significance, so the RAS began allow the sighting to pass through your filters. The RAS does its best, but - unless we direct it – our poor old RAS has no clue what it should filter out and what it should allow to pass. That’s down to us. Do we decide what we allow into our minds, or allow the RAS to pick-up on? Advertising, media, the endless streams of Bad News broadcast by Bad News Stations? I think not – so I take care to remind my RAS that it should look for beauty, smiles, love and reasons to be grateful for my life. I write – each morning – a few lines of what I am grateful for, my son, health, work that I love, the chance to grow, today. As I do this I am programming my RAS with what I want more of, and that’s what I get – more of the good stuff. Just suppose I was foolish enough to not even ask for more good stuff – what might I get instead? All you have to do is ask... © Neil Cowmeadow 2017 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, your cat and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net
The Thursday Thesis - 2/03/2017 “Love is more important than money...” Anyone who tells you that is broke. In fact, anyone who tells you something is not important, doesn’t have any of it. Love is important, money is important, health is important: how we talk about it tells the world how we think about things. If we don’t care about love, we’ll be starved of love. When we say that money doesn’t matter, it’s highly unlikely that we have any. If we say we don’t care about health, chances are we are not a well pig. If we change how we talk about money, love, health or anything else, we will automatically change how we think about it, too. You see, at a deep level, our brains can’t tell the inner world from the outside world – fantasy from reality: however we think about things, then that’s the way they are for us. Ever wonder why two people can look at something and get totally different impressions? That’s why one person sees the work of God (NB: other gods are available, see terms and conditions) and the other person might see evolution in progress, when they look at the same creature, together. If you think Love is bad, you’ll figure out a way to get rid of it. Same goes for money, health, friends, or family. If you want any of those things – or anything else - recognise their value to you, and keep in touch with whatever it is you want. How do you get more of what you want? Pay attention to it. Spend time caring for it. Nurture and grow it. But first decide what you want. Next week I’ll look at another clever trick your mind does every day – without you even thinking about it – it’s awesome, and you can learn how to harness its power to change your life. © Neil Cowmeadow 2017
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The Thursday Thesis - 23/02/2017
“I want to play just like Clapton...” As a teacher, I often hear comments like that from new students - after all, it’s only natural that we develop a certain admiration for people who can do what we want to do. But there’s often a toxic undercurrent – competition. For some people, playing a musical instrument is a competitive sport. Sometimes you’ll hear it bare-nakedly expressed, sometimes it sidles into the teaching room on the blind-side of a Tuesday afternoon. But when it’s there, competition can blind even the smartest player to the beauty of their journey of discovery, the breathtaking moments and pleasures along the path. In the desperate sprint to prove themselves “worthy” against the illusions which surround their heroes, players overlook what I think to be a vital point: human beings and creative endeavours are not commodities, so there can be no competition between those two things. That means there is no competition for being You. You can’t out Clapton your role-model, because there’s only one chair marked “E.C.”, and Eric is sitting in it. Your real competition is the player you were yesterday. Your duty to yourself is to improve the player you are today, and become the player you want to be tomorrow. Just like we tell our lovers that we love them “more than yesterday, but less than tomorrow”, so should our love-affair with music deepen. Yesterday I was an outstanding teacher, today I’ll be a little better, so that tomorrow I can build on that. Life itself could – no, must – be more than yesterday, less than tomorrow. To be less than yesterday is to fade away... © Neil Cowmeadow 2017 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, your cat and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me.
The Thursday Thesis - 16/2/2017
“A Defence of Focus and Unreasonable Interest” She told me I was obsessed as though it was a bad thing: that’s when I knew it was over. This beautiful woman had missed the point, but it was hardly surprising. You see, Obsession gets a bad press. For decades, Obsession has been demonised in the media and turned into a disorder by doctors. The negative spin on Obsession is overt and pervasive. For example, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines an obsession as “a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling; broadly: compelling motivation”. Disturbing? Unreasonable? Nope – my vote goes to the last two words. Though they look like a footnote, the words “compelling motivation” seem to be the real definition of an obsession: the object of an obsession is so irresistibly interesting, so fascinating, that it displaces almost everything else. Now, it seems to me that the ability to sharpens one’s focus to such an extent is a very positive skill for anyone to have. Think about it like this: a magnifying glass can concentrate the sun’s power into a tiny spot and produce very high temperatures, whereas the same sunlight – unfocused – might raise the temperature of a larger area by a couple of degrees. Likewise, a nail focuses the energy of a swinging hammerhead into a tiny point - penetrating the hardest timber, where the hammer would produce a slight dent. Throughout history, great achievers have been obsessive about their callings, interests, or ambitions. Shouldn’t we celebrate obsession, rather than revile it? They call him “Alexander The Great”, not “Alexander the Work-Life Balanced” – the clue is in the name, isn’t it? Could you imagine Churchill taking time off during The Blitz to find his “Work-Life Balance”? Don’t make me laugh. As we are so often encouraged not to be unreasonable or extreme, so often urged to “find Balance” in our lives, I believe that we are being lulled into the greyness of conforming to a bland normality. In the ideal beige world of the Balanced and Normal people everything is average, and the acceptable normal will be enforced by the thought-police and the quackery of the psychiatric profession. Obsession makes me think of a life lived more ferociously, more vividly and more passionately than an average and normal life. It’s like your favourite song, cranked to full volume and set to repeat: it never gets tired, and you keep on dancing. That’s Obsession. I encourage you, right now, to get obsessive: to be unreasonably interested, to become preoccupied with what fascinates you, and to give the beige eternity of “Balance” The Finger. “Balance” is what you have when you are becalmed, stupefied or tranquilised. “Balance” can go screw itself – give me a magnificent Obsession any day of the week. © Neil Cowmeadow 2017 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, your cat and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net
The Thursday Thesis - 9/2/2017
“London’s Best Address for Success” When Billy Joel sang about his New York State of Mind you could almost hear the honking yellow cabs, smell the hot dogs and pretzel stands... Much as I love New York and its people, I prefer a Chelsea State of Mind – which I was introduced to by self-help bestseller, my friend Peter Thomson. “Chelsea Mindset?” I’m glad you asked. London’s Chelsea district has the postcode SW3, and Peter asserts that it is a vital element to help you retain a positive mindset in the face of criticism, trolls, or people who “just don’t get it”. You see, Peter told me that when you put your own “take” on things out there, not everybody will love what you do or how you write, sing, dance or whatever you do: as Peter put it “Some Will, Some Won’t: So What?” When you do your thing, your own way, some people will “get it” and enjoy it – they are your tribe. There will be critics, trolls and naysayers, whatever you do – these folk are not your tribe. Love you or hate you, it’s all the same - the Important thing is to get your voice heard and not be silenced by the fear of criticism. Always expect both criticism and praise, because not everybody will be ready to hear your song, weep over your poem, read your book or watch your film. Some Will, Some Won’t: So What? If you don’t let your work out into the world it will die on your hard drive, unsung, unread, unloved; and you will have starved your own tribe of the juice of your creation. Some Will, Some Won’t: So What? That’s a powerful state of mind. That’s SW3. You can see what Peter does at: www.peterthomson.com/ © Neil Cowmeadow 2017 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, your cat and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net
The Thursday Thesis - 2/2/2017
“C x A x T = ?” What’s the simple, yet powerful, rule that operates below the level of most people’s awareness? What really explains why some people are successful and other people fail, even though their skills, intelligence and backgrounds are much the same? It’s not luck that makes the difference – it’s choice. Our lives are little more than the aggregation and interplay of the choices we make today, acting upon the results of the choices we made yesterday, which – in turn – act upon the results of all the yesterdays that went before. There’s a simple equation that puts it like this: Choice x Action x Time = Results Notice that everything on the left of the equation multiplies everything else on the left of the equation? This means that if any of the elements is a zero, the result will ALWAYS be nothing, zero, nada, zilch. No choices made, or no actions take, or no time allowed, will always produce nothing. If the choice made is a negative one, the result of performing that negative action will be multiplied over time to vastly amplify the negative effect of the choice. Naturally, a better choice, followed by massive action, and sustained over a long time will produce far superior results than will a so-so choice followed by small actions sustained over a short time. Doesn’t that seem obvious? I didn’t learn this in school, college or university and none of my friends were taught this, either. The results are like a wedge when plotted on a graph: small initial results slowly begin to grow over time, accumulating into bigger and bigger total results. The longer we can make the wedge, the higher the “ramp” rises, but everything begins with the first decision, the first action, and a little time. Our futures depend on the choices we make, today and every day, multiplied by the actions we back those decisions up with, multiplied by the length of time we perform those actions. Time is the greatest factor. Time is the reason that a stream can carve a canyon into solid rock – given enough time. Small actions, performed daily, over a lifetime can be the difference between a life of happiness and fulfilment and a life of quiet desperation. You choose. © Neil Cowmeadow 2017 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, your cat and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net
The Thursday Thesis - 26/01/201 “Why 8 Hours Might Not be a Recipe for Rest” Personally, I have always been resentful of my need to sleep. There seems to be no real reason for it, and it interrupts me when I’m chasing down the subject of my fascination – or obsession – if you like. I’ll ponder obsession at some future date, I’m sure, but – for now, at least – there’s the tedious business of sleep to think about. More specifically, how to optimise sleep instead of the usual, random “go to sleep when I can’t keep my eyes open a moment longer” or the “eight solid hours” approaches. Firstly, it’s vital to understand the sleep cycle. Research tells us that sleep is not uniform, and that it varies in depth and effect over repeating cycles, each lasting around 90-minutes. Being woken from the very deepest sleep state can leave us feeling dreadful – still tired and disoriented, even if we have been asleep for a long time. But we are closest to waking-up at the end of each 90-minute cycle, so it’s a great idea to plan your sleep to be a certain number of sleep cycles, whether that be 4.5, 6 or 7.5 hours. Notice that the traditional 8-hour sleep will mean waking up 20 minutes or so into a cycle – a deep state – which make us feel grotty. So it’s often better to sleep a part-cycle less, rather than to sleep for part of an extra cycle: bizarrely, six hours of sleep can leave us feeling better than seven hours, due to the sleep state we are woken from. It’s a terrific idea to have a pre-sleep ritual, too, as this prepares you for a decent night’s sleep. The rules for an excellent pre-sleep ritual are: No coffee for two hours before bed. I hate this rule. Caffeine is a stimulant – the last thing we need at bedtime. No food for two hours before bed. Food speeds-up your metabolism – the opposite of what happens when we sleep, so there’s a conflict of metabolic drivers. Incidentally, dairy produce contains naturally-occurring morphine-group chemicals (lactomorphines) that can cause vivid dreams and/or nightmares. Dim the lights for at least 45 minutes before bedtime. Low light (preferably red/orange light) stimulates the release of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin – which is also associated with brain well-being. No technology for at least 60 minutes before bed. Smartphones, laptops and TV screens all emit high levels of blue-spectrum light, which tricks our brains into thinking it is daylight, inhibiting melatonin production. No TV in the bedroom, and no reading, either. Keep the bedroom sacred for sleep – you’re then telling yourself “I’m in my bedroom – what I do here is sleep.....” Clean sheets - These reassure you that everything is clean and safe, so you relax much better. Get the right pillow height. Too-high or too-low pillows can cause us to hold tension in our necks as we sleep, disturbing our rest. Get a proper mattress. When you choose, remember that calling a mattress “Orthopaedic” doesn’t mean anything – it’s just a marketing word. The best mattress for you is one that supports you reasonably firmly but which does not sag or leave you feeling that you are perched right on top of it. Stay cool. Your body temperature dips during sleep, so don’t overdo the Tog rating of your duvet. Avoid all-night electric blankets, too, and turn down any thermostats in your bedroom. There are also some rituals that can help us to enjoy our waking-up time, too – for example: A sunrise alarm clock, such as those made by Lumie. These devices gradually fade-up the light in a simulated sunrise, sounding an alarm beep once full illumination has been reached. I’m usually awake before the beep, and I’d describe the gentle sunrise alarm as being kissed awake, rather than being kicked awake by more conventional alarms. I do also set a backstop alarm clock, just in case! Power-up the day with an espresso coffee and a light breakfast of nutritious food. I avoid cereals (except oats/porridge) as they are invariably laden with sugar, which has well-documented chronic poison effects. Yes – sugar is a toxin, and it’s been proven and well-known since the 70’s. Get a little exercise. Run if you can, walk if you can’t: ride a bike or pump some iron – do something that kick-starts your metabolism. A refreshing shower is a great way to start the day. Feeling clean is a great boost to our self-esteem, and we can step out in confidence, knowing that we don’t smell kinda peculiar... © Neil Cowmeadow 2017 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, your cat and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net
The Thursday Thesis - 19/1/2017
“What a Musician Really Listens to in the Car” Until you’ve experienced it, you wouldn’t understand. When you really, really don’t want to turn off the ignition and get out of the car. When you just want to go for a drive. When you just want to listen... But that’s what it’s like, sometimes: when what you’re listening to is so gripping that you can’t wait for that long commute home from the office, or you decide to take the long way home – just to prolong the magic. But I’m not talking about the magic of music: I’m talking about the magic of recorded books. Even though I am a professional music teacher, musician and composer, I only listen to audiobooks in the car. Not just any recorded books – I’m talking about non-fiction books covering whatever happens to interest me. Get this: the average UK driver spends 960 hours every year in their car!! Now, to my mind that’s a gigantic opportunity to spend FORTY whole 24-hour days with the world’s top thinkers and writers as I potter around in my tin box on wheels. Just compare a brainy commute with the average student at a UK university, who spends 9 hours a week in lectures and tutorials - according to studentroom.com. The academic year runs for between 32 and 36 weeks on campus: that’s a piddling 324 hours a year doing their degree with teaching staff – a little over a third of the time that the average UK driver spends just commuting to and from work. Draw your own conclusions from that observation; mull it over. As for me, I’ve commuted to work with Richard Dawkins, Naom Chomsky, and Steven Hawking... Those guys gave me a very different outlook than if I spent my drivetime listening to depressing (and dubious) “News” programmes or the drivelling and asinine witterings of the average “radio personality”. Imagine yourself driving those miles in the company of a Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, or Earl Nightingale – all hugely influential figures in the self-help and personal development fields. How about Ann Lamott chatting to you about writing, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi advising you on creativity, or Felix Dennis and Richard Branson discussing business? It’s all about exposure, repetition and recalibrating normality for you. Let’s do the minimum-numbers maths: Two commutes a day, five days a week, 48 weeks a year. 2 x 5 x 48 = 480 What might you learn this year during those 480 exposures to the best minds on the planet? What insights might you receive from almost 500 audiences with the best coaches and mentors in the world? How might that shape and mould your own thinking? What about over five years – 2400 sessions with great minds? A lifetime - over 25,000 exposures to your personally-chosen peer-group of genii? How might that change your life? What might you learn that you can you put to use in your own life that would move you forward to where you want to go? Might it be more important and life-changing than the propaganda of mendacious governments or the minutiae of a celebrity’s love-life, do you think? You bet it would! Over the last twenty years and 400,000 miles I’ve listened to hundreds of audiobooks and lectures, on subjects as diverse as theoretical physics, linguistics, psychology, creative writing, business, fitness, history, biography, poetry, politics, philosophy, mythology and religion – to name just a few. I’ve been in my 4-wheeled University almost every day of my life. It’s taught me more than I ever learnt at school. It has given countless “stop the bloody car!!!” insights and moments of clarity. It even made getting a First at university a joyride, because I was in class every single day – even though I worked at least 70 hours a week at the time! I want to give it up for the University on Wheels and the power of leveraging your time; for transforming a brain-dead drive to work into a skull-session with the best of the best. Hip-Hip!! © Neil Cowmeadow 2017 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, your cat and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net
The Thursday Thesis - 08/12/2016
“The Fine Art of ROWF’ing” It hit me like a sledgehammer-blow to the side of my head. One of those “D’oh!” moments – you know the ones: where you wonder how on Earth you never noticed it before. For me it was the sudden clarity with which I realised that if I asked Life for what I wanted, then I’d open up a channel to receiving it. Maybe I was having a ThickDay... All I had to do was open my mouth and give life the chance to say “yes”. Life said “yes” a few times, and sometimes Life said “No”. The Yeses were great, but the interesting thing was that the no’s were great, too, as I noticed that I didn’t bleed or get arrested for my cheek. And while they initially felt more like “No, bugger-off!”, I could at least go on to ask for the reasons why not. Once I knew why not, I could make changes before I asked again. My tiny little brain finally figured out that if I kept on asking questions and making changes, I’d eventually find something that worked and got me what I wanted. This strategy is what I call “Running Out of Ways to Fail” – ROWFing, for short -and I’ve got it down to an Art-form, now. Ask, get a refusal, get more information and adapt, then ask again. Repeat until you run out of ways to fail. How simple can it be? Get failing, now, and you’ll get closer to your YES! Fail Fast, Fail Forward. Ok, enough said – I’ve gotta go – I’ve got to chalk-up a ton of failures today! © Neil Cowmeadow 2016 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, your cat and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net The Thursday Thesis - 29/09/2016
Like a Leaky bucket... Drip...Drip...Drip... That’s the sound of our brain, leaking away anything it has learnt, but that isn’t needed. Drip... Over time, our brains physically re-form themselves to perform the functions they do most often, and that’s why we “use it or lose” it – as far as skills go. Drip... It’s called Neuroplasticity, the ongoing “soft” state of the human brain, restlessly self-improving and sleeplessly trying to get more, for less. Drip... Neural pathways are the connections between nerve cells, and the human brain has a staggeringly large number of them: around 1,000 Trillion of them. Drip... Each nerve cell – or Neurone – is networked with others, which – in turn – connect with even more. The result is that each neurone interacts with all the other neurones in the brain via it’s connections and their neighbours. Drip... Redundant connections are reconfigured and recycled to help better performance of new skills. Drip... That’s why we forget what we once used to know - and why we vaguely remember what to do as we start to do it again. Drip... Learning new skills, thinking in new ways, learning another language, and any other new activity cause our brains to change their own structure: we are endlessly self-improving. Drip... The old stuff drips away from the leaky bucket of our brains. Perhaps the bucket empties almost completely, and only the deeply-learned knowledge of our earlier lives is left? Drip... Dementia (from the Latin de, meaning from; and mens, meaning mind) is a rising problem in the UK, reaching much higher levels than ever seen before. The question is “Why?” Drip... I submit the suggestion that we’ve become too comfortable, less involved in the world, retreating back into our lounges and dens; becoming passive spectators of a televised World from the sidelines and sofas of a life lived vicariously by remote control. Drip... Unstimulated and dumbed-down, what reason does our brain have to grow more connections? Drip... And why would it labour to pack itself with even more cells? Drip... For the same reason that a muscle will not grow if it is never used. Drip... Learn something new, every day, and re-fill your leaky bucket. However slowly it is leaking, it is still leaking. Drip... May your own bucket run over with its fullness, today. Evermore. © Neil Cowmeadow 2016 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, your cat and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net
The Thursday Thesis - 13/10/2016 “Speak as though it were already true...” As you may already know, whatever you say about yourself will naturally tend to become true for you, in time. So it’s common sense to make it good, then – or so you’d think. It makes sense to define yourself as you would wish to be, and wait for reality to catch up with you. The more widely you declare yourself, the more compelling will be your need to confirm – and to conform to – your identity. Defining yourself in that future-oriented way creates an image in your mind, and you’ll begin to mould yourself to fit that image and to be congruent with the ideas you choose to hold about yourself. If you want to write more often, describe yourself as a writer: you’ll start to do what writers do – write! You’ll begin to feel a need to write, because it staves-off the sneaking suspicion that you might just be a fraud who only pretends to be a writer. Tell the world you’re feeling down and you’ll start to behave in ways that are consistent with feeling down. The reverse is also true – though feeling happy and optimistic still carries a social stigma in the UK. So take a moment to check that what you say about yourself is worth living up to. If it isn’t, change it right now, forever. Then tell the people who matter to you who you aspire to be, and you’ll start to behave in ways that bring that aspiration into being. Say it as though it were already true, and wait for reality to catch up. Simple. © Neil Cowmeadow 2016 Special Notice: Jenny Attiyeh, who runs http://thoughtcast.org (an interview and ideas sharing site for creative and academic types) pointed out that she holds the worldwide trademark on the word ThoughtCast and has asked me to change my blog’s name to prevent confusion. So, The Thursday ThoughtCast will immediately and dynamically transmogrify itself into the new, improved and thoroughly modest Thursday Thesis. Incidentally, when you’re finished here (and NOT before!) you might like to have a look at Jenny’s site, especially if you like artists and bears. Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, and your cat. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me.
Neil@cowtownguitars.net The Thursday Thesis - 15/09/2016
AKA: The Suzy Effect “Really...?” The beautiful, elegant redhead blushed as I paid for my second-hand book in the charity shop. “Yes, utterly!” I smiled, dropping my change into the collection box on the counter. “I’m very fantastic today, and thank you for asking. How fabulous are you?” She smiled at me, unaccustomed to mud-spattered mountain bikers who grinned, toothily over the till at her. She giggled and confessed that she was, in fact, “Fabulous, but obviously not as fantastic as you!” It was, of course, my fault - I'd accidentally spilled some surplus fantasticness over her side of the counter. It happens. And, just in case you’re wondering, fantasticness is the secret and irrepressible love of life - that relentless optimism we generate when we are sure that nobody is watching. But, the most important thing there is to know about fantasticness is that it’s very hard to keep it under control, and it is dangerously contagious. Once it leaks out of you, you’ll begin to infect everyone around you with it. Fabulousity works the same way, but it's a little less fattening. If I had answered her “How are you, today?” with the commonplace “Alright”, “Not too bad”, or “Ok, I suppose” what would have happened to her mood? How about if I’d said I was “Struggling on”? Well, my son - Alex - has a word for how that feels: “Meh!” It’s a dull, flat-lined "so-what?" kind of a feeling. Same old, same old. So, how about being fantastic, instead? How does that grab you? How about being fabulous, just for a change? Say it aloud, and grin like a maniac... How does that feel? Pretty cool, huh? Now add an “intensive modifier” - a word that ratchets-up the force of another word and supercharges your message. You could use utterly, very, remarkably, staggeringly or – my own personal favourite – scintillatingly, just to get yourself started. I mean, how good would you feel telling the next person who asked how you were, that you were “utterly fabulous” and then thanking them for asking? And how would they respond to you? How would your partner, spouse or child respond to you being “scintillatingly marvellous” when you called home, just to say hello because you were thinking about them? You’d be able to hear them smiling. Then ask them how fantastic they are today - what are they going to say and feel? One of my students – Let’s call her Suzy - always answers the “how are you” question with “Ooh... now that’s a great question, because today I’m exquisitely bijou, but the forecast is for outbreaks of unconditional chirpiness during the afternoon. Thank you for asking, you're so kind. How fantastic are you today?” She invariably serves up a free side-order of smiley-face with that answer, and usually finds that she’s talking to someone who feels strangely compelled to describe themselves as “brilliant”, yet who seems bewildered that they should suddenly feel so good. By the way, bijou means “small and delicately worked... a trinket”. Did you notice how adding “exquisitely” just intensified and deepened that idea. Now imagine meeting someone who also embodies those qualities. It’s no wonder that everyone she meets seems to be either brilliant or fantastic. I believe that she leaves an invisible vapour-trail of fantasticness wherever she goes, even if that’s just buying a packet of Polos at the corner shop. You see, you can't help but respond to The Suzy Effect. So, I have a teeny-tiny-little, itty-bitty dare for you... really small, and completely free. It involves you, your most dazzling smile, and a generous portion of fantasticness; all served warm and garnished with a smidgen of fabulousity. I dare you to give an extravagant, ridiculously over-the-top answer the next time someone asks how you are. Now, remember that you’ll only be pretending to be fantastic, fabulous, bejewelled or kaleidoscopic (or any number of those things), so it’s not lying or deluding yourself – you’re just pretending and having a little fun. So, get out there and do the dare, and please let me know how it goes. I double-dare you! © Neil Cowmeadow 2016 Please Like and Share The Thursday Thesis with your friends, family, and your dog. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net
The Thursday ThoughtCast - 08/09/2016.
“The Best Testimonial – Ever!” ...And when James said “I can’t believe it, it’s too easy”, he told me exactly what was happening in his mind. You and I both know that the words people use when they speak automatically broadcast their thoughts to us, so we listen closely. James’ off-handed remark told me that he couldn’t square-up the evidence of his own hands, eyes and ears with the idea of difficulty he’d had in his mind for years. The problem wasn’t the subject matter – even though James had been trying to understand the conventional explanations for over a decade. No, the real problem was that James’ mind was being scrambled by the explanation – because it was TOO easy, and that made it wrong for him. My simple teaching gadget snapped everything into pin-sharp focus and violated James’s mental rules of how things were supposed to be. Instead of the problem of confusion, which he had grown up with and had come to expect, he had the new problem of clarity and concision. What a great problem to have! The real problem was the mismatch between what James now understood and what he thought was proper for him: his unconscious idea of what was normal. You see, “Easy” is just easy - but “too easy” is weird... “too easy” is a problem. That’s because when you say the word “too” it silently imposes pre-conceived limits and external standards on you. “Too...” means there’s a problem, it means there’s something wrong... but you just don’t know what it is, yet. You’re looking for the concealed down- side, aren’t you? Can you imagine someone who is too nice, or too good for you...? If they’re too nice, it stands to reason that they must be hiding something nasty, doesn’t it? Words such as “too, enough, proper, and right” are normative language and it’s the silent enforcer of normality and standards– usually other people’s standards. Normative language tells us what is acceptable and proper for us, and unless we are alert to its silent power, we are easily infected and influenced by other people’s ideas of what is proper for us. Using words like “too, proper, and enough” can make good things feel wrong. They will even try to make you feel guilty for having too much fun, for being too happy, for earning too much money, or being too caring... But tear out the “Too” from “Too easy” and all that’s left is plain-old easy. That one little thing might change your life. Let go of your expectation of difficulty and learn to expect easy, to welcome better, and to enjoy more... And, please - don’t be like the frustrated guitar player who ended our first session together by giving me the Best Testimonial a teacher could ask for - EVER! He thanked me for my time, but refused to study with me because, as he put it: “...You’re going to make it too easy and take away all of the challenges and difficulties from me.” Wow! You couldn’t make it up! If only I could have got him on video saying that... “Too easy, or just plain-old easy? You decide. © Neil Cowmeadow 2016 Please Like and Share The Thursday ThoughtCast with your friends, family, and your dog. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net |
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