Five thoughts, ideas, insights, or quotes to power up your mind to think differently and creatively about life and who we are. Put all previous thinking away and open up a brand new world of the Supermind. YOUR SuperMind.
This week – Stress.
Stress is the No.1 killer in the background. Heart disease, alcoholism, smoking related diseases and drug taking all stem from the stress in our lives and our attempts to get away from it. Stress is a negative force for humans. We need to talk about it here on SuperMind Saturday.
- Stress is classed as a mental reaction to perceived pressures upon us. These cause physiological changes in the body such as a raised heart rate, impaired thinking, and increased body temperature and sweating. This means stress itself DOESN’T EXIST. It’s our response that does. Should we therefore be approaching stress completely differently than we are because of this?
- American philosopher William James observed, ‘The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over the other’. That being true as stress severely impacts work, relationships, and the health service here’s an idea. Could we start training children at a young age how to manage thinking and mindset so they are prepared for it as adults? And make that part of schools curriculum?
- SuperMind Thought – Stress does not have a level. There is no official measurement system to gauge it. No-one knows a job’s designated level of stress merely a level of skills and requirements. What we need is a stress scale from mild bother to extreme like the Beaufort scale from a breeze to a fully fledged hurricane. This helps us make informed choices as to whether the salary is worth the pressure.
- We never talk about stress until it’s got its grip. We almost never expect it to be there but invariably it is, certainly at work. And yet, we all know it exists. Maybe employers should have a stress policy that is declared with job candidates before they apply. How would you make pre-stress awareness compulsory in work and life?
- On the other end of the scale, some stress is good for us. It pushes us to achieve, make better efforts, can keep us fit, and get out of us what nothing else would….or we would. What are the best positive stresses we should aim to experience?
That’s another SuperMind Saturday for your mind powers to work on. Thank you for being here for the SuperMind time. Keep asking yourself these through the week to open up more of your mind to evolve its potential. Consider more, generate ideas more, think on bigger possibilities more, activate your connection to your personal higher mind more and more. Employ your SuperMInd and Super Think!
See you next time for more super thinking.
Do you experience good luck all time? Everything always coming up roses?
Or are you the opposite? That nothing remotely lucky ever happens to you.
It’s no surprise. Luck, actually, tends to be more of a belief that an actual blessing.
Professor Richard Wiseman, a well known TV and broadcasting psychologist, was highly interested in the whole subject of luck. In the early 1990’s he embarked on a ten year study into luck to see if people were truly lucky…..or not. He ran adverts in national papers asking for people to become involved in the study who believed they were either incredibly lucky or incredibly unlucky.
From this 400 were chosen to embark on the luck factor research. His aim was to examine the actual beliefs and life story experiences of both sets of people to determine if there was any factor(s) that lay at the root of their luck/non luck. His study was in depth involving keeping diaries, completing questionnaires, and participating in experiments. This 10 year programme was the first and biggest of its kind in the world.
So, what did he find? Who exactly really does enjoy good luck?
Good Beliefs = Good Fortune.
Well, from the title of this post, you can probably work out the outcome.
His groundbreaking exercise and findings were shared in his best selling book, ‘The Luck Factor’.
His studies showed that people were as lucky as they believed themselves to be. This was underpinned by 4 key traits, namely –
- They create self-fulfilling predictions through positive expectations.
- They adopt a resilient attitude under all circumstances turning lesser luck into greater luck.
- They have become skilled at noticing and creating chance opportunities that they follow.
- They make beneficial decisions through trusting their intuition.
Putting the four together in one human led to one good turn of fortune after another. Let me share a perfect example.
Luck hangs around.
In ‘The Luck Factor’, Richard Wiseman tells the tale of Barnett Helzberg Jr who had built up a fairly successful jewellery business. He was now 60 years of age and wanted to sell the company and read the means by which famous investor Warren Buffett bought companies. He decided he was the man but didn’t know how to be able to have a conversation with him. That was still in his mind in 1994 in visiting New York when, by chance as he was walking past The Plaza Hotel, he heard a woman call out ‘Mr Buffett’.
Seeing the man she was referring to, there and then he decided to walk over to him and introduce himself. And guess what? It was indeed Warren Buffett. One year later he agreed a deal to buy all of Barnett’s stores and he retired a wealthy man.
And it works the other way round too.
Croation Frane Selak reputedly survived a train crash, plane crash, a bus crash into water, a car fire and explosion, a head on lorry smash, and being struck by a bus. Some don’t fully believe they all actually occurred they way he described but there is an interesting epilogue to the story. Selak did believe he was lucky and one story is undisputed. In 2010 in the last of his amazing life events, he won over £700,000 in the Croatian Lottery!
That’s what happens when you believe in luck. It kind of hangs around. And it darn well sticks too.
Your own story, like those above, has been your life. And has that story been a lucky one? If not then it’s probably that you didn’t think and believe in all things lucky being a lifelong counterpart with you to the end. You can change that today.
Because good luck is in your head before it’s in your life.
References – Richardwiseman.com/resources/The_Luck_Factor.pdf
Wikipedia – Frano Selak.
Five thoughts, ideas, insights, or quotes to power up your mind to think differently and creatively about life and who we are. Put all previous thinking away and open up a brand new world of the Supermind. YOUR SuperMind.
This week – Wokeism.
Of all the subjects that divide people, this is one of the most talked about in today’s world. It’s a phrase coined to define society’s move to be more inclusive and fair but also the feelings and opinions that go with that. It’s definitely stirring things up in society. And that firmly interests me at SuperMind Saturday as I pose some questions about it to get us all thinking.
- Wokeism is a catch all title. It’s used to denote how the world has shifted from a place that favoured some groups over others and to get us to reflect on our historical behaviours. History though can’t be changed, only understood. There seems to be a never ending stream of past events and periods that many are now being asked to apologise for. Plus accusations that come with them. If we are trying to create a better world is anti history useful or is it the future we should now really be focused on?
- Elon Musk said, ‘At it’s heart, wokeness is divisive, exclusionary, and hateful’. Strong words. But they do lead to a crucial question. What does truly lie at the heart of wokeism?
- Wokeism is just another label. In itself it sounds a harsh term for the moral change that lies behind it to some degree. Labels can influence our opinions both positively and negatively. Therefore, is there a better term/label that can explain this modern change in culture?
- Top of the list with wokeism is how many people use the ‘I’m offended’ card to remove or cease something they personally don’t like. The powers that be in the media, scared to lose viewers, readers, or most chiefly, income, have seemed to follow suit. Often the offended person/people is in a very small minority numbers wise. Should we now be creating an official definition of offense so that anything classed as offensive is clear rather than individualistic?
- Observation – The world is fast changing. The old accepted ways are rapidly being superseded by different expected standards, values, and behaviours. Maybe older people are holding onto a world that no longer exists. Maybe younger generations are trying to force their version of the world onto society too quickly? And maybe, like all previous human behaviour change, perhaps we should see it all as a storm in a teacup that in the years ahead will slip into an adjustment we are all comfortable with.
That’s another SuperMind Saturday for your mind powers to work on. Thank you for being here for the SuperMind time. Keep asking yourself these through the week to open up more of your mind to evolve its potential. Consider more, generate ideas more, think on bigger possibilities more, activate your connection to your personal higher mind more and more. Employ your SuperMInd and Super Think!
See you next time for more super thinking.
Many people have a good idea.
Every single day the world over someone thinks up a good idea for a product, service, device, or system.
But that’s also where most ideas stop. Or stop very soon after. Their concept looked plausible on paper or in their mind, but in the real world it didn’t quite work or fit or meet the need it was designed for. And right there and then it died a death never to see the light of day.
That is the last thing anyone should do. A good idea is a good idea, it just may not have been the right time or found it’s rightful home.
Not Milking Success.
In the early 1970’s in the UK, the Milk Marketing Board, an agency set up to manage milk production and distribution four decades before, planned an ad campaign to promote milk drinking as a cost effective health booster for the population during a time of soaring inflation and cuts.
The ad agency WCRS was contracted to create ideas for the promotions. After some research they felt the focus should be on the working male population with ads showing men in various roles who had drunk milk first. Their tag line was, ‘I bet he drinks milk’. The Milk Marketing Board however didn’t take the idea forwards, as other preferred concepts were explored.
Now that wasn’t the end of that. WCRS liked the strap line so kept it on hold for a possible future use.
Roll on a decade. WCRS were approached by Carling Breweries to help increase the market share of their Black Label lager. They wanted it to have a more ‘cool’ and appealing look. An easily remembered slogan that would hook in interest was needed. And guess who already had that?
A range of adverts were launched in 1983 with two men watching another man doing something impressive or skilful before adding, ‘I bet he drinks Carling Black Label’. The connection from drinking Carling to being a hip, popular guy was made. Gone was milk and in was Carling.
The result? Within 18 months it was the UK’s best selling draught beer and would remain so for the next two decades.
That’s what happens when you hold onto an idea.
That’s a wrap.
The best ideas not only might have to wait for success, they also need using elsewhere.
In 1957 Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes tried to create a textured wallpaper for the new young music generation and the interior fashions they were buying. Sealing shower curtains through heat disappointed them as it only resulted in a see through film with trapped bubbles in. In fact they ended up with several patents for their idea and thought of hundreds of uses for it, but none worked.
Three years later with a product seemingly of little value, they decided to offer it for packaging for various industries as the bubbles within would at least prevent friction and damage. The product took off as its first major buyer was IBM who used it to protect their new computers when they were shipped. Bubble Wrap as we know it was born. At the turn of this century it had sales of over £3 billion per year.
You have to wonder what could have also happened to all the myriad of ideas that were left on the shelf because they didn’t come up to scratch at first.
So, take a look at your own ideas you ‘put away for another day’ or in a drawer gathering dust.
They may not be a dud but a dynamo waiting to go.
And don’t forget yourself – the idea you’ve always had about who you are may only need sharpening up so that the world responds to it. Why?
Because the best ideas are best kept as one day they may be the best for your life and future.
References – ‘Smithsonian.com/innovation/accidental-invention-bubble-wrap’.
Channel 5 – ‘Britain’s Favourite Ads of the 70’s and 80’s’.
Five thoughts, ideas, insights, or quotes to power up your mind to think differently and creatively about life and who we are. Put all previous thinking away and open up a brand new world of the Supermind. YOUR SuperMind.
This week – Immigration.
Immigration is how countries improve their society through skills and abilities that new arrivals bring. But in recent times immigration has become a hot potato the world over. It’s now seen as a dirty word and a political challenge to manage. It’s a key issue to everyday people and so this week we are going to put our SuperMind Saturday hats on to what can be done.
- Modern immigration reflects greater economic need by immigrants. Seeking a better life many take extreme risks to better their lives in search of a more secure financial future. This has led to wealthier nations inundated by would be settlers. The world then has become a money driven planet of which this reflects it. How can we stop making everything about money?
- That desire for greater and greater financial strength led to European borders being opened in ways never previously seen in history. This started the great immigration flood that continues to this day. Immigration spread far and wide and has caused increased crime and unrest in many nations. It’s too late to go back, so how can we go forwards? How do countries know who to permit entry to?
- The big question is coming – one we have not ever been able to properly and fairly answer. When is a country full and who or what decides this? Can this be measured in a fair and reasonable statistic?
- Observation – the public image of immigrants is poor. That is all down to the media. They only feature stories of illegal immigration and negative stories and information. It is like propaganda. People can’t get a balanced view on the subject until there are as many stories to see and read of immigrants who have made huge contributions to their communities. The media are negatively magnifying everything too much.
- I’m going to come at the last question from a different angle. Immigration, immigrants. Two words that conjure up the wrong meaning in the public’s minds. We know changing words can change our whole opinion and approach to something. What word or phrase then could be used instead of these to alter our viewpoint in a more humane way? One that removes all the current anger, fear, hate, and misunderstanding?
I feel there are so many other points I could raise for your mind to consider on this. But, it’s 5 only so that’s another SuperMind Saturday for your mind powers wrapped up. Thank you for being here for the SuperMind time. Keep asking yourself these through the week to open up more of your mind to evolve its potential. Consider more, generate ideas more, think on bigger possibilities more, activate your connection to your personal higher mind more and more. Employ your SuperMInd and Super Think!
See you next time for more super thinking.
