The Thursday Thesis - 16/06/2017 “Close Your Eyes...” Where your mind goes, your body follows: it’s true for everyone and for everything. And when I’m working with students, this is my favourite demonstration of the importance of mindset. Try it for yourself by listening to the audio version of The Thesis, right now. I ask the student to close their eyes, and start to feel more deeply relaxed. Now I ask them to hold their arms out in front of them at shoulder height with palms upwards. I now tie an imaginary helium balloon around their right wrist, describing how the balloon looks, the colour of the ribbon knotted around their wrist, and I explain that the balloon is lighter than air and will – obviously – begin to lift up their right hand, so there’s no need to resist the rising sensation, because it’s a balloon-thing... Now I ask them to prepare their left hand to support a copy of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica which I’ve just bought from a second-hand bookshop. I describe the book’s binding, the gold lettering on its spine and front, the thickness of the book and how heavy it is as I “place” it onto their uplifted palm. I explain that the book is very, very heavy and old; that it is dusty and that the paper is yellowed by the years. Guess what happens – the “balloon” hand rises, sometimes a little, more often, rather a lot. But the “book” hand sinks downwards, sometimes shaking with the sustained effort of holding up that dusty old tome. When I ask the student to open their eyes, they can see a huge difference in hand position. I ask them which was heavier, the book or the balloon? “The book”, they tell me. “What book?” I ask. There is no book, and there is no balloon. The important point here is that your body will behave according to what we believe to be true. In other words, whatever we believe, that’s how it is for us. So, how do you want it to be, for you? You alone will decide: the book or the balloon. You choose... © Neil Cowmeadow 2017
Please Like and Share The Thursday ThoughtCast with your friends, family, and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me. Neil@cowtownguitars.net
0 Comments
The Thursday Thesis - 08/06/2017 “The Imperfect Now ”. “Go, little book...” - Geoffrey Chaucer, when sending his Canterbury Tales out into small World of the 14th Century. Almost 700 years later, people are still reading Chaucer’s “little book”. It is not perfect – but it got written. Not only did it get written, it got published. Anybody who writes or seeks to create something will wrestle with their deep need to be perfect – to make their book, song or creation absolutely faultless. So the book never gets finished, the song remains uncompleted, the dreams of our souls lie, unloved and unfinished, in our hearts and on our hard-drives. I’m learning to say “get over it!” to myself. I’m facing-up to the fact that it will never be perfect, and it doesn’t need to be perfect – it just needs to be finished. People don’t want perfection tomorrow – they want excellent, today. This week I’ll be finishing the edits of my second little book and asking the lovely Rosa to format it. It won’t be perfect, but it will be done. The poems you wrote, the stories you told your kids, the pictures you drew when nobody was around to look at them... Those moments of imperfection are the best of you: cherish them, their imperfections, and their honesty, because they were born in a moment when your fear of failure was looking the other way, and when their being born was all that mattered. Those were moments before fear closed you down. So, today, let go of your need to be perfect, and create something imperfect. © Neil Cowmeadow 2017
Please Like and Share The Thursday ThoughtCast with your friends, family, 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 - 1/06/2017 “The Myth of the Half-Full Glass” As almost everyone knows, you can tell if someone is an optimist or a pessimist by showing them a glass half-full of your drink. “Is this glass half-full or half-empty?” goes the old saw. Conventional wisdom reckons that an optimist will tell you the glass is half-full, whilst a pessimist will gloomily tell you that the glass is half empty. Oh, you have to love pessimists – those Eeyore-like souls who potter around looking for the bad in everything and everyone. Now, here’s the thing: looking for the bad prevents you from looking for the good. Pessimists are so preoccupied with the search for Bad Stuff that the Good Stuff slips past, unnoticed... Does that make sense to you? When you Google for “cats on skateboards” how many suspension bridges show up in your search results? It’s simple, isn’t it? We see the World exactly how we think it is, whether we think it’s a battlefield or a playpen – that’s how it is for us. And that glass - what if it’s actually full of wee? Notice how being half-empty just became a Good Thing? With enough mischief and playfulness we can reframe everything, with a tiny effort. “What’s good about this?” produces a different response than “What’s bad about this?” “What’s funny about this?” gets more laughs than “What’s serious about this?” Get the idea? Different questions produce different answers, different responses, and – ultimately – a different view of the World. If you are looking for an answer, make sure you’re asking the right question. And if you want a suspension bridge, don’t Google for cats... © Neil Cowmeadow 2017
Please Like and Share The Thursday ThoughtCast with your friends, family, 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 - 25/05/2017 “Beginning, Enduring” According to Nike founder Phil Knight, “The cowards never started, the weak fell along the way: all that’s left is you and I”. That’s his secret. Begin, keep going, and never stop. It’s so simple. Most people never even start on that big dream, believing it to be too hard or – more often – believing themselves to not be good enough. The weak do fall along the way, not recognising each fall as a way-marker or milestone on the journey. So that leaves you and me. If it is to be, it is up to us: we must bring about the change we want to see in the world. We must be unreasonable enough to doggedly pursue our dreams. And we must never, ever, ever, ever give up. So, today we get started, yes? © Neil Cowmeadow 2017
Please Like and Share The Thursday ThoughtCast with your friends, family, 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 - 18/05/2017 “Why Being Sure is Stupid" The danger isn’t what you don’t know, it’s what you DO know that imperils you. These are some of the wisest words I’ve ever read. It means that being absolutely sure of what you know is a very dangerous position to find yourself in. The Scientific Method is the dominant theory we use to try to understand our world and what happens in, on and around us. Yet science presents no facts and makes no claim to absolute certainty, because that is not what science is for. That’s why ideas in science are called Theories, rather than facts. Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity isn’t called the Fact of Special Relativity. After all: it’s just a theory. And when all is said and done, theories are only the currently accepted explanations we have for phenomena. All theories are there to be attacked, tested, torn down and replaced with something better. That’s why it is what you DO know that imperils you: if you are so certain of what you know, there can be no search for better. If you are so sure that you have incontrovertible knowledge, the chances you’ll never even look for anything better. Dissent and the quest for better has given mankind the world we know today. Every innovation, every invention, and every new development has been a result of someone asking “what if...?” and looking for a better solution than the one they had. The very soul of progress is dissent, and constantly challenging one’s current thinking is what advances understanding and knowledge. So, if you look at your life and find it uninspiring, unhappy, unfulfilling or unsatisfactory in any way, just ask yourself what would be better than your current way of doing things. That's the Science of Happiness - it’s as simple as that. Keep asking the question and acting on your answers until you realise that there is nothing that would bring you more inspiration, happiness and fulfilment than you are currently experiencing. Ask better questions, and remember that what you know, right now, might be all that stands between you and a better tomorrow. Stay Curious. © Neil Cowmeadow 2017 Please Like and Share The Thursday ThoughtCast with your friends, family, 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 - 11/05/2017 “Oh, stop being such a wuss - I do it every day”, she said. “I’m a woman, and all women can multi-task, you know”. I asked her to stop the car. There was something terrifying about the way she held her coffee cup against the steering-wheel of the big 4x4 whilst she stroked lipstick onto those lusciously pouting lips, in between speaking on her phone. I got out of her Range Rover and walked away. She thought I was having a breakdown. “Multitasking” – don’t make me laugh. Throwing two tonnes of metal down the road at 50 miles per hour whilst balancing a cup of coffee, daubing war-paint and talking crap – all at the same time – speaks of someone out of control, rather than in control. Add to that arrogant mix the inconvenience of other road users: little crumple-zoned steel boxes and the soft bounciness of cyclists and pedestrians... It’s never going to go well, is it? It’s a little-known fact that multi-Tasking is a computing term, dating back to when machines started to be able to run more than one program at a time. But here’s the thing: they didn’t run more than one program at the same time. No, those early computers divided their processing capacity and shared out slices of time to their various tasks and programs; but because this happened so quickly, the machines seemed to be doing everything at once. So Multi-Tasking is a myth, especially as the term is misapplied to humans. For Multi-Tasking, read Multi-Distracted. If you want to get something done, FOCUS on that one thing. Take away all of the distractions and unrelated activities. If you’re going to drive, then drive – but your phone can wait. If you’re having dinner with your partner, have dinner with your partner – and don’t invite FaceBook to join you. If you’re with your kids, only be with your kids – because your emails will still be in your inbox after you’ve sung that lullaby. Many highly productive people attribute their success to their focus – on doing just one thing. Many of them wake up early to do their most important work before anyone else is awake and potential distractions aren’t getting started. Consequently, these folks have done half a day’s work before the world is even out of bed, let alone got its boots on. FOCUS gets it done. Just do One Thing. Do I miss Range Rover girl? Yes I do. And while she’ll be free in a few weeks, the little boy she crushed will never walk or talk again. His mom has given up her career to care for him. And Range Rover girl will be out of prison soon, she’ll be back out on the road again, Multi-Tasking. Makes you think, doesn’t it? © Neil Cowmeadow 2017 Please Like and Share The Thursday ThoughtCast with your friends, family, and anyone else.
|
Hear The Thesis |
The Thursday Thesis - 04/05/2017
“Beware of The Men in White Coats”
“Beware of The Men in White Coats”
It’s a funny thing about psychopaths – they all think that they are completely normal and totally sane.
They would think that, though, wouldn’t they?
Oddly, doctors seem to think that they are completely normal and totally sane, too.
The American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) currently lists over 450 mental illnesses or conditions.
Back in its first edition (DSM-1, published in 1952) there were only 106 listed disorders.
Unbelievably, one of the mental disorders listed was male homosexuality – which seems shocking these days. More surprising is that it took the American Mental Health industry until 1974 to remove that particular listing.
The Land of the Free?
Our American friends have been busy inventing labels and diagnoses for everything and everybody, so there’s no need for anyone to feel left out.
If you can’t sleep or you get jumpy after drinking too much coffee, there are serious-sounding syndromes and disorders available for you (Caffeine-induced anxiety disorder and Caffeine-induced sleep disorder, respectively).
If – like me – you prefer to sleep at a time of your own choosing, rather than what is considered “normal”, you can be given a diagnosis of a mental illness known as Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder.
Congratulations - here, have a badge!
The thing is that mental health is highly subjective and diagnosis is often unreliable because there are no hard, clinical tests for mental illness.
So, if it’s not clinical testing and hard data, what’s driving the invention of these new conditions – other than the egos of “mental health professionals” handing out spurious diagnoses to anyone foolish enough to pass through their doors?
Are we getting more and more mentally ill, or are our doctors?
From my point of view I see a business model building a market.
Yes, I’m cynical about the global mental health business, its quack practitioners, and the massive pharmaceutical industry whose interests alone are served by making everybody eligible for their products.
Furthermore, I believe that we are being conned into powerlessness: gulled and deceived into believing that the answer lies in handing over responsibility for how we think and how we live to The Men (and Women) in White Coats.
I don’t believe that we need to be “treated”, medicated, cured, homogenised and normalised.
This is the same profession that has “treated” schizophrenia in countless thousands of people by imprisonment, which they call “sectioning”, since it sounds so much nicer.
This is the same profession that forcibly administers drugs to non-consenting patients – though “victims” seems more a accurate name for those unfortunate enough to be in their care.
This is the same profession that applied powerful electric shocks to the brains of their terrified victims.
It sounds exactly like torture, because it is torture.
And that’s what those bastards did to my mother.
And this is the same profession that thinks giving Ritalin to your kid is a good idea.
Perhaps I should tone-down my optimism a notch or two, just in case there’s a new syndrome that’s been invented for unacceptably happy people?
© Neil Cowmeadow 2017
Please Like and Share The Thursday ThoughtCast with your friends, family, and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me.
Neil@cowtownguitars.net
They would think that, though, wouldn’t they?
Oddly, doctors seem to think that they are completely normal and totally sane, too.
The American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) currently lists over 450 mental illnesses or conditions.
Back in its first edition (DSM-1, published in 1952) there were only 106 listed disorders.
Unbelievably, one of the mental disorders listed was male homosexuality – which seems shocking these days. More surprising is that it took the American Mental Health industry until 1974 to remove that particular listing.
The Land of the Free?
Our American friends have been busy inventing labels and diagnoses for everything and everybody, so there’s no need for anyone to feel left out.
If you can’t sleep or you get jumpy after drinking too much coffee, there are serious-sounding syndromes and disorders available for you (Caffeine-induced anxiety disorder and Caffeine-induced sleep disorder, respectively).
If – like me – you prefer to sleep at a time of your own choosing, rather than what is considered “normal”, you can be given a diagnosis of a mental illness known as Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder.
Congratulations - here, have a badge!
The thing is that mental health is highly subjective and diagnosis is often unreliable because there are no hard, clinical tests for mental illness.
So, if it’s not clinical testing and hard data, what’s driving the invention of these new conditions – other than the egos of “mental health professionals” handing out spurious diagnoses to anyone foolish enough to pass through their doors?
Are we getting more and more mentally ill, or are our doctors?
From my point of view I see a business model building a market.
Yes, I’m cynical about the global mental health business, its quack practitioners, and the massive pharmaceutical industry whose interests alone are served by making everybody eligible for their products.
Furthermore, I believe that we are being conned into powerlessness: gulled and deceived into believing that the answer lies in handing over responsibility for how we think and how we live to The Men (and Women) in White Coats.
I don’t believe that we need to be “treated”, medicated, cured, homogenised and normalised.
This is the same profession that has “treated” schizophrenia in countless thousands of people by imprisonment, which they call “sectioning”, since it sounds so much nicer.
This is the same profession that forcibly administers drugs to non-consenting patients – though “victims” seems more a accurate name for those unfortunate enough to be in their care.
This is the same profession that applied powerful electric shocks to the brains of their terrified victims.
It sounds exactly like torture, because it is torture.
And that’s what those bastards did to my mother.
And this is the same profession that thinks giving Ritalin to your kid is a good idea.
Perhaps I should tone-down my optimism a notch or two, just in case there’s a new syndrome that’s been invented for unacceptably happy people?
© Neil Cowmeadow 2017
Please Like and Share The Thursday ThoughtCast with your friends, family, and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me.
Neil@cowtownguitars.net
Hear The Thesis |
The Thursday Thesis - 27/04/2017
“Beauty, Death, and The Angel’s Navel”
I asked Gianni what the dim orange lights were, down the hillside from the road that snaked up his home near to the funicular.
“Candles, in Staglieno” he answered. That seemed to be enough for him, and he fell silent.
I was (as usual) ready to display my ignorance and asked what Staglieno was; and so began a peculiar love affair, between a Brit abroad and The City of the Dead.
You see, Staglieno is a cemetery, and it is – for me – one of the World’s most beautiful places.
Built on the banks of the River Bisagno, its great walls enclose a vast complex of elaborate tombs and shrines, with a population comprising hundreds of statues.
And one statue in particular.
She stands in niche XIII of the Upper Western Arcade, sullenly staring out from the Oneto family tomb – a beautiful angel, complete with feather wings and flowing gown.
But there’s more to her than the usual angelic attributes: first, there’s the undeniable sensuality of her pose and the way her hips tilt forward.
Then there’s the cold intensity of her unerring gaze.
After that you can marvel at the apparent texture of her dress, hemmed with stars, and the perfection of those feathers.
And there’s the little thing which Monteverdi gave her that makes her so enigmatic and fascinating: she has a navel.
And that’s odd – given that angels are created directly by a supposed god...
That’s why she’s so fascinating – she’s a perfect angel with a fatal flaw.
Nobody is perfect, and – in many ways – it is our own lack of perfection that makes us who we are.
And It's the way that everyone is imperfect in different ways that make teaching such a pleasure.
Perfection is bland, sterile and anodyne: who would be daft enough to want to be that?
Here’s to our imperfections - every single one of ‘em - because that's what makes us interesting, special and unique.
See more of Staglieno here: www.staglieno.comune.genova.it/en/node/199
© Neil Cowmeadow 2017
Please Like and Share The Thursday ThoughtCast with your friends, family, and anyone else. I’d love to hear your comments, along with any ideas you’d care to hurl at me.
Neil@cowtownguitars.net
“Beauty, Death, and The Angel’s Navel”
I asked Gianni what the dim orange lights were, down the hillside from the road that snaked up his home near to the funicular.
“Candles, in Staglieno” he answered. That seemed to be enough for him, and he fell silent.
I was (as usual) ready to display my ignorance and asked what Staglieno was; and so began a peculiar love affair, between a Brit abroad and The City of the Dead.
You see, Staglieno is a cemetery, and it is – for me – one of the World’s most beautiful places.
Built on the banks of the River Bisagno, its great walls enclose a vast complex of elaborate tombs and shrines, with a population comprising hundreds of statues.
And one statue in particular.
She stands in niche XIII of the Upper Western Arcade, sullenly staring out from the Oneto family tomb – a beautiful angel, complete with feather wings and flowing gown.
But there’s more to her than the usual angelic attributes: first, there’s the undeniable sensuality of her pose and the way her hips tilt forward.
Then there’s the cold intensity of her unerring gaze.
After that you can marvel at the apparent texture of her dress, hemmed with stars, and the perfection of those feathers.
And there’s the little thing which Monteverdi gave her that makes her so enigmatic and fascinating: she has a navel.
And that’s odd – given that angels are created directly by a supposed god...
That’s why she’s so fascinating – she’s a perfect angel with a fatal flaw.
Nobody is perfect, and – in many ways – it is our own lack of perfection that makes us who we are.
And It's the way that everyone is imperfect in different ways that make teaching such a pleasure.
Perfection is bland, sterile and anodyne: who would be daft enough to want to be that?
Here’s to our imperfections - every single one of ‘em - because that's what makes us interesting, special and unique.
See more of Staglieno here: www.staglieno.comune.genova.it/en/node/199
© Neil Cowmeadow 2017
Please Like and Share The Thursday ThoughtCast with your friends, family, 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 - 20/04/2017
“Birds of a Feather, and all That Jazz...”
It’s often said that “birds of a feather flock together” and it’s true.
But there are some birds which fly alone. These soloists are the hunters of the avian world, the eagles, falcons and hawks who rule the skies.
The proverb says that “the purpose of the hunter is to hunt”, to be committed to the pursuit of the prey – or the goal.
I think that these solitary hunting birds are beautiful, elegantly savage and rare.
And they are terrifying – if you’re a duck.
Ducks are the slow-moving types of birds that cluster together, each watching the other for clues about how they should behave.
Imagine a falcon on the wing, it’s hunt directed by a committee...
Ducks cluster, falcons swoop.
Eagles soar alone.
© Neil Cowmeadow 2017
I heartily recommend that you visit Chris Neale Falconry - you will never forget it.
http://chrisnealfalconry.co.uk/
“Birds of a Feather, and all That Jazz...”
It’s often said that “birds of a feather flock together” and it’s true.
But there are some birds which fly alone. These soloists are the hunters of the avian world, the eagles, falcons and hawks who rule the skies.
The proverb says that “the purpose of the hunter is to hunt”, to be committed to the pursuit of the prey – or the goal.
I think that these solitary hunting birds are beautiful, elegantly savage and rare.
And they are terrifying – if you’re a duck.
Ducks are the slow-moving types of birds that cluster together, each watching the other for clues about how they should behave.
Imagine a falcon on the wing, it’s hunt directed by a committee...
Ducks cluster, falcons swoop.
Eagles soar alone.
© Neil Cowmeadow 2017
I heartily recommend that you visit Chris Neale Falconry - you will never forget it.
http://chrisnealfalconry.co.uk/
Hear the Thesis |
The Thursday Thesis - 13/04/2017
“Is Your World full of Jerks...?”
Ever notice how certain people sail through life and seem to make friends everywhere, whilst other people you know seem to always be in conflict?
It happens. And just like me, you know who those people are, don’t you?
What’s going on – are they just unlucky and keep on bumping into jerks and idiots with “attitude”?
I don’t think so.
So what else could it be?
Well, people respond to us in the way we act towards them: it’s an evolutionary thing, caused by the vast number of “mirror neurones” that everyone has. Their purpose seems to be in generating empathy and understanding, but the flip side of that is a mirror of our behaviour.
So, if you’re encountering happy people everywhere – smiling at you and being helpful – chances are they are transmitting (Tx'ing) back to you exactly what they received (Rx'd) from you.
Because Tx = Rx
So smile and be positive today– just for research purposes – and see what happens.
The people you meet, and how they are with you, holds up a mirror to yourself.
Encountering jerks everywhere might be a clue...
© 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
“Is Your World full of Jerks...?”
Ever notice how certain people sail through life and seem to make friends everywhere, whilst other people you know seem to always be in conflict?
It happens. And just like me, you know who those people are, don’t you?
What’s going on – are they just unlucky and keep on bumping into jerks and idiots with “attitude”?
I don’t think so.
So what else could it be?
Well, people respond to us in the way we act towards them: it’s an evolutionary thing, caused by the vast number of “mirror neurones” that everyone has. Their purpose seems to be in generating empathy and understanding, but the flip side of that is a mirror of our behaviour.
So, if you’re encountering happy people everywhere – smiling at you and being helpful – chances are they are transmitting (Tx'ing) back to you exactly what they received (Rx'd) from you.
Because Tx = Rx
So smile and be positive today– just for research purposes – and see what happens.
The people you meet, and how they are with you, holds up a mirror to yourself.
Encountering jerks everywhere might be a clue...
© 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
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
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
Hear The Thesis |
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 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
Hear the Thesis |
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
“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
Hear the Thesis |
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
“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
Hear The Thesis |
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.
“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
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
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
Hear The Thesis |
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.
“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.
Hear the Thesis.... |
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
“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
Hear the Thesis |
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
“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
Hear the Thesis |
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
“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
Hear the Thesis |
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
Hear the Thesis |
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
“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
Hear the Thesis |
The Thursday Thesis - 12/01/2017
“The Wisdom of.... Arnie!!??"
It seems that everybody’s favourite robo-assassin had six simple rules to pass out to students of The University of Southern California in his gubernatorial address. They are so good, I decided to share them with you, along with a few thoughts of my own
Here are Arnie’s Rules of Life, in bold type.
If you don’t trust yourself, why should anybody else trust you?
Be true to yourself and don’t try to be what someone else wants you to be.
Remember that we come into the world alone, and we die alone – you will answer only to yourself.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy we can imagine is to have lived as others wanted us to, and to have never discovered what we were really for, because we didn’t trust ourselves.
The Rules always restrict the debate and limit the “acceptable” outcomes.
It naturally follows that progress depends upon somebody breaking the rules, of rejecting the conventional wisdom, and opening up new pathways to the future.
If you risk nothing, you risk everything.
Yes, there is risk in change, but without the willingness to take the necessary risk, you and your life will never change.
Whether they are trying to protect you from risk or folly, or whether you make them feel as though they may have missed something importane is anybody’s guess, but they do seem to try to shut down any chance of progress.
You can’t climb the mountain of success whilst your hands are in your pockets.
In later years, people will tell you that you are so lucky to have done so well – some will even demand that you must share your good fortune.
Good Fortune, my arse!
Whilst you were up until the small hours, or working 7 days a week on your dreams, where were they?
They weren’t doing what it took to achieve what you have, and what they want a piece of, so you were just lucky and it’s not fair?
Don’t make me laugh.
You have to work hard enough to not have to work hard,; and you must be so good that you make it look easy.
The word here is “Give”, not “Have extracted from you”.
Share your passion, wisdom, insight, vision, and ideas. When you share an idea with one person, you double its worth. If you can share it with a classroom, perhaps you can multiply it by thirty times, but if you can give it to the World, whay value could you add to the World?
Best of all, you still have the idea to use, the wisdom to draw upon, long after you have given it away.
Sadly though, Arnie will most likely be remembered for saying "I'll be back" than for his wise words and Rules of Life.
Until next week - I'm not going to say it....
© 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 Wisdom of.... Arnie!!??"
It seems that everybody’s favourite robo-assassin had six simple rules to pass out to students of The University of Southern California in his gubernatorial address. They are so good, I decided to share them with you, along with a few thoughts of my own
Here are Arnie’s Rules of Life, in bold type.
- Trust Yourself.
If you don’t trust yourself, why should anybody else trust you?
Be true to yourself and don’t try to be what someone else wants you to be.
Remember that we come into the world alone, and we die alone – you will answer only to yourself.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy we can imagine is to have lived as others wanted us to, and to have never discovered what we were really for, because we didn’t trust ourselves.
- Break the Rules.
The Rules always restrict the debate and limit the “acceptable” outcomes.
It naturally follows that progress depends upon somebody breaking the rules, of rejecting the conventional wisdom, and opening up new pathways to the future.
- Don’t be afraid to fail.
If you risk nothing, you risk everything.
Yes, there is risk in change, but without the willingness to take the necessary risk, you and your life will never change.
- Don’t listen to the naysayers.
Whether they are trying to protect you from risk or folly, or whether you make them feel as though they may have missed something importane is anybody’s guess, but they do seem to try to shut down any chance of progress.
- Work your butt off.
You can’t climb the mountain of success whilst your hands are in your pockets.
In later years, people will tell you that you are so lucky to have done so well – some will even demand that you must share your good fortune.
Good Fortune, my arse!
Whilst you were up until the small hours, or working 7 days a week on your dreams, where were they?
They weren’t doing what it took to achieve what you have, and what they want a piece of, so you were just lucky and it’s not fair?
Don’t make me laugh.
You have to work hard enough to not have to work hard,; and you must be so good that you make it look easy.
- Give Something back.
The word here is “Give”, not “Have extracted from you”.
Share your passion, wisdom, insight, vision, and ideas. When you share an idea with one person, you double its worth. If you can share it with a classroom, perhaps you can multiply it by thirty times, but if you can give it to the World, whay value could you add to the World?
Best of all, you still have the idea to use, the wisdom to draw upon, long after you have given it away.
Sadly though, Arnie will most likely be remembered for saying "I'll be back" than for his wise words and Rules of Life.
Until next week - I'm not going to say it....
© 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
Hear The Thesis |
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 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
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
Hear The Thesis |
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
“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.
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
Neil@cowtownguitars.net
Share it with your friends
It's Like This...
The Thursday Thesis shares ideas which I think are worth spreading.
I'm Neil Cowmeadow, the Guitar Teacher and Guitar Technician, based near Telford, Shropshire.
My aim is to share some of the discoveries and cool stuff that took me a lifetime to learn - so you don't have to replicate the effort.
Along the way, I'm also going to debunk the mountains of nonsense and pretentious claptrap that put people off playing music, writing songs, and having more fun in their lives.
Along the way, some of these posts might challenge your assumptions and ideas.
Pick up a nugget of cool stuff, here, and throw it into the waters of your life.
The ripples you'll create will spread outwards...
I may also wander off into politics, literature, or any other place I damn-well please, but if you're cool with that, read on....
Archives
May 2022
February 2022
January 2021
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
Categories
All
000 Hour Rule
10
Accelerated Learning
Blog
Business
Business Coaching
Fake News
Goals
Guitar Lessons
Guitar Teaching
Health And Fitness
Hypnosis
Learned Optimism
Life Coaching
Lifestyle
Malcolm Gladwell
Media
Music
NLP
Optimal Performance
Positive Psychology
Propaganda
Science
Self Help
Sleep
Success
Tecnology
Telford
Telford Guitar Teacher
Time Management
All content on these pages is the intellectual property of the author, unless otherwise stated, and may not be used in any form or reproduced under any circumstances without the authors permission.