The moonwalking bear. Are you blind to the unexpected?

mooonwalking bear

The moonwalking bear, awareness and attention, Why are they so important? and what do they have to do with a moonwalking bear?. Well, they matter and are important to everything you do. Awareness and in particular self-awareness is the first step in any change or growth process. You cannot change what you are not aware of and you cannot be prepared for something you never expected to happen. That is why so many people become disappointed of life, never reach the necessary self awareness to grow and fail to create a better life.

The video below was created as a campaign to raise awareness in looking up for cyclists by the Major of London. The idea of the spot comes from the original «invisible gorilla» test. It is a wonderful way to illustrate and understands how the brain works.

Look at this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47LCLoidJh4

QUESTION: Did you see the moonwalking bear?

Most probably you didn’t see a moonwalking bear dancing just in front your eyes!. Your attention, your focus were counting the number of passes of the white team and of course not checking out for moonwalking bears!. After all, that was not what you were told to check out for and by the way whose idea was to put a moonwalking bear in there?

The truth is you cannot pay attention to both things at the same time. Neurologists say it is impossible to do both i.e. counting passes and at the same time realize there is a moonwalking bear in the middle, unless you were prepared for. it is called inattentional blindness. Since we focus on counting, we always miss the moonwalking bear. We focus on what we were told to or in what we believe matters the most from the small piece of realty our awareness allows us to see. hence, the idea is to conciously prepare yourself for the unexpected.

Cognitive psychologists have detailed how people can focus so hard on something that they become blind to the unexpected. Even when staring right at it. They call the phenomena selective attention. It is a mechanism your brain uses to filter out events because the capacity of paying attention is limited. It has been shown by researchers that attention is a limited resource.

Examples are everywhere i.e. people so focused at working missing their relation is about to end. People in car accidents admitting they did not see the big truck in front of them. A company so focused on a product missing the competitor is about to crash their business. You not being aware of habits that inhibit you from extraordinary success.

What can we do with the moonwaking bears?

There are some learnings you can apply right now to your life to expand your awareness and prepare yourself for the unexpected:

1.Awareness can be developed. The more awareness you have, the bigger the reality and the more possibilities you will see. The way to be more aware is by being present and fully engaged in the area of your lfie where you want to create self awareness.

2.Self- awareness is the starting point. Being self-aware of your factors for success and at the same time of your bad habits is the difference between living a mediocre life and creating the life you want. You need to develop the habit of observing yourself. Another good practice is to take a good professional personality test to help you understand more about yourself.

3. You need both focus and broad vision. Creative, innovative people usually see the bear but miss the counts. Rational people miss the bear but get the number of passes. The good news is that you can learn to do both. In real life you can focus on the passes and also ask yourself: «Where could the moonwalking bear come from?». Ask yourself this question for any important situation, meeting or decision. You will be better prepared for life turns and it will save you a lot of disappointment.

4.Be intentional. Attention is a scarce resource. Use it wisely. You see and notice the things, people and events you devote your attention to. Hence, be very careful, intentional and extremely selective where you put it.

Create the life you want

I learnt about awareness and intentional action at an early age as my father gave me mental training. Unfortunately, I started applying this knowledge a bit late but once I applied it my life experienced a quantum leap: I became aware of the many angles of life situations (the passes and the bear), of my boundaries, my values and my life vision and the way to achieve it.

To take your awareness to the next level:

Numero 1. Become self aware of who you are. What do you want? Which are your fears and triggers? Your strengths? How do you react under stress?. I strongly recommend the RHETI test, the most complete test ever created to give you a full picture of the complexity of your personality. Do yourself a favor and take it!

Numero 2. Become aware of the life you want. You cannot create something you do not know about. Awareness on the type of life you want is the first step to create it. Without clarity, manifestation is impossible. To gain clarity in the type of life you want to experience I encourage you to read this life guide: life guide for busy women, It covers a clear set of techniques from coaching, spirituality and psychology to bring light on the life you want. It teaches you how to declutter you life using the clean sweep, manage your resources, discover your values which are the underlying personal truths you must celebrate for a fulfilling life, to set boundaries, to write your Life Vision and have your own, unique and inspiring Life Plan.

Being aware on who are you and the type of life you want to live and systematically pay attention to your life vision and life plan them is the formula to experience an extraordinary life. The life you want.

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