Do you go all anxious when you see a spider? All weak at the knees and heart pounding?
Especially when you were a child?
I know I was. Their shape and weird legs freaked me out. So too the Crane Fly a.k.a the Daddy Long Legs. All gangly and buzzy flying around.
Maybe you did (and still do) what I did then. I gave them a big whack and flattened them solid. Once they were dead they could do me no harm. Of course now I’m older and wiser I know they wouldn’t have done me any harm anyway. My mind believed otherwise. It got scared, created a narrative (you might die) and so I lashed out in fear.
I killed what I was scared of. That’s what us humans are very good at in life. We try to kill (or do kill) what we are scared of now and in history.
On a stormy night near Hartlepool in the north of England during the Napoleonic Wars, a French ship floundered off the coast with all hands. Apart from one. The ship’s mascot – a monkey. Locals had never ever seen a monkey before, nor a Frenchman either. The chattering of the monkey they took for French and their mind began to work overtime in terror.
They decided then and there on the beach to hang the monkey as a spy.
That’s the story in local folklore but it’s the story of human minds in general.
Going off the rails.
Most fears are unfounded. They are constructed on some incorrect fiction and blown out of proportion. Individually it can cause us to overreact, but collectively in can form mass hysteria.
The early 1800’s saw the wider development and usage of trains in Britain. Previously travel and transport of goods was through horses and canals. The advent of trains appeared hyper fast and caused many to worry if the human body was capable of withstanding the speeds they would go (barely 30mph in those days).
Irish Writer, Dionysius Lardner, wrote in 1830, ‘Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia’. Not to be outdone authors Edwin Fuller Torrey and Judy Miller wrote in ‘The Rise of Mental Illness from 1750 to the Present’, that trains were thought to ‘injure the brain’.
These above beliefs took root in the psyche of many travellers. The rolling and clanking of the train cars over the rails sent many people off them. The newspapers were often reporting individual cases of “railway madness” in the 1870’s. One Scottish aristocrat reportedly stripped naked and began leaning out of the window ranting in a crazed state.
The mind had been disturbed by something it had become scared of….that just wasn’t true. But, that’s how fears work, right?
Killing our best.
The historical stories above typify what is still about in today’s world. Namely, that we kill what we don’t understand, or through gossip, or from our own plain anxieties.
That may always remain so. There is, though, the more personal killing we all have participated in over the years. Killing our best.
How many great ideas have you had that you have ‘killed’ in your mind? Ones for a business or a lifestyle change for yourself that you ‘got rid of’? This is due to your deep inner fear that you will end up disappointed, losing, or most of all, embarrassed as it and you fail.
So, rather than letting it ever see the real light of day, you kill it in your head first. Often before any other human on the face of the Earth ever knew about it. I think we all have done that at some time or other.
It’s lunacy now to look back and believe a monkey could be a spy or train’s could stop us breathing. And that’s the call of this post – look back at YOUR history and see what you have killed that never deserved to be. Something that fear made you want to get rid of rather than welcome it and see what it really could be.
It’s time to get that monkey off your back and yourself back on track by no longer killing what could open up your whole world forever.
If you need to kill anything, kill the fears that won’t let your dreams live.
References – atlasobscura.com – ‘The Victorian Belief That a Train Ride Could Cause Instant Insanity’.
Hartlepoolunited.co.uk – ‘Hanged Monkey’.
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 – Sex.
Sex. A form of pleasure, a way to create a family, our human need as such. Yet it’s still a word that makes many people uncomfortable or a taboo subject. And that’s perfect for SuperMind Thinking, the very theme we need to look at on a Saturday. So switch on your SuperMind and let’s get sexy.
- For a very long time sex was a dirty word. It was something intensely private that was not talked about in public nor even by some couples. But today we don’t even flinch when it’s mentioned. Why are we now so relaxed with sex and is that a good thing?
- Quote – An observation by award winning actor, Billy Crystal, ‘Women need a reason to have sex. Men just need a place’. He may have had some truth in that in the past, but is that true today? Are women more active in taking the lead in sex and why has it changed?
- Sex is experienced by more people through watching porn every day than in enjoying the actual act. Most studies into porn find it harmful to self-esteem and loving relationships. It also promotes sex as as mere animal instinct rather than a caring union. Porn is everywhere due to the rise of the internet. Why is the world addicted to porn? Are we losing morals or finding freedom in our sexuality?
- Thought – as early as the 1900’s the advertising industry followed the principle that ‘sex sells’. It entices our more carnal desires to grab our interest and part with our money. Today this idiom appears entrenched in the human psyche. Sex has become a commodity. And it’s become part of a common business transaction.
- Violence has become commonplace in films and especially TV schedules. So much so that we aren’t so shocked about it anymore. The same applies to sex and perhaps even more so. Could sex do with a makeover? If so, how should and could we promote it better?
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.
Have you ever planted a seed in your garden? And then watched it bloom into something wonderful?
Well doing the same in life to match a need you have, can be life changing. And just as blooming beautiful.
If you do you won’t be alone. You will be in very good company.
In 1976 a Brighton housewife in England needed to earn some income for herself and her two daughters while her husband was away travelling in South America. Being a keen environmentalist she opened a basic shop (between two funeral parlours) with only 25 simple, natural skin care products in refillable containers reducing cost simply because she didn’t have enough bottles to use. It ended up being what others needed too and within six months a second shop was opened.
The woman was Anita Roddick and this was the launch of the world’s first environmental high street brand, The Body Shop. When she sold the business in 2006 the price tag was £652 million. One seed met her need and did so for others too. And that’s often how it works.
Does that ring a bell with you? Maybe this will help.
Ringing up the profits.
Some of the most amazing ideas and products have come out of pure need.
Jamie Siminoff was a self confessed tinker. Taking gadgets and tinkering with them to see if he could add something new. Or creating his own version in his garage at home for pleasure. Hidden away creating in his den he kept missing deliveries because he couldn’t hear his doorbell. Frustrated by this he decided he needed to build some form of wi-fi doorbell that would solve his problem as nothing existed on the market.
So in 2012 he set about creating the bell and decided to also add a camera so as not to waste walking round to the front of his house for some everyday delivery that could be left on his porch. He hammered out his prototype creation on his workbench and called it the Doorbot. As a result she tried out the device in their home. She loved it telling him she felt safer now she could actually see who was behind the door without having to open it. It was the famous lightbulb moment.
The US investors TV show Shark Tank also heard about it on the grapevine. The Doorbot subsequently featured in front of millions of viewers who wowed at how the doorbell improved home security. He renamed the product Ring and immediately sales went through the roof selling 170 million within three years. Just six years after putting together his contraption in his garage to help fulfil his own missed delivery need, he sold the company to Amazon for $1billion. Perhaps the quickest growth of any business from nothing in history.
Needs must.
Often we see a need as a problem. An issue or challenge that’s stressing our life. Not so Anita and Jamie. They dropped a seed into something to fulfil their need and turned them into gold.
View your need or reoccurring snafu in the same vane. Take a logistic approach in your mind.
What skill do you possess you could put to use to meet that need?
Is there an interest or background knowledge you have that might be your route to a big breakthrough?
What need is actually your invitation to put something about you to good use?
We always assume amazing life change comes via a lottery win or a tragic event. Something unexpected that flips life 180. Therefore when an issue blocks us we don’t see that as the very opportunity we have waited our life for now showing itself. A need that we already carry the seed within to beat.
Take another look at your so called need. Maybe it’s what you always needed to discover how amazing you are.
What need in your life now needs what’s in you?
References; Anita Roddick – various sources, see mostly https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discovery/history-stories/dame-anita-roddick-entrepreneur-activist-and-campaigner/.
Ring – Jamie Siminoff – ‘The Secret Genius of Modern Life – BBC TV.
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 – Mental Health.
Mental Health is a big, big subject these days. COVID challenged us on many levels but hardest of all was in our minds. It flagged up how important the once neglected mental side of health truly is. So this week, SuperMind Saturday takes a look at our mental wellness.
- Mental Health – as ever I’m going to start with the point on many people’s lips. In this case it’s the word mental. This conjures up someone crazy, out of their minds, and plain mad. Therefore it’s perhaps not the best word to be used to draw attention to good mind health. And so should that be used instead? Good Mind Health? Or do you have an even better term that promotes a better view on mental wellbeing?
- Most people don’t like to talk about their mental health. But, even more so, they don’t want to even think about it even though that’s the right thing to do. We seem so scared about looking at our own mental health. What do we think we will find???
- Quote – award winning actress Glenn Close wonderfully said, ‘What mental health needs is more sunlight…and more unashamed conversation’. Mental health doesn’t seem half as bad when spoken about by a celebrity. How can we use well known people to normalise talking about mental health?
- Thought. How ground breaking would it be if someone created a highly publicised programme and book about a thought diet? A healthy range of thoughts to fit into our daily thinking patterns. Would you love to participate in a thought diet and why?
- Best health is seen as bodily health. We eat well and exercise well and reduce harmful substances to maintain a sturdy system. But the mind is also part of our body as such, a key component of what keeps us alive. Is it time then that society encouraged mind exercises for us to undertake to keep our mental health as good as our physical one? How best can we do this?
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.
Have you heard of a Mission Statement?
It’s the corporate equivalent of a big vision for a company or product. A giant, bold phrase that acts as a powerful aspirational target. It also helps embed a huge slice of meaning and purpose. It brings the whole endeavour alive and dripping in focus and possibility.
There are many well know examples. Let’s start though with one of the most famous in history.
In 1975 a small computer based start up was founded in New Mexico, USA to explore the potential of building small computers generally for business use. Combining the words microcomputer and software, Microsoft was born. The fledgling industry was in its infancy and growth was minimal. Five years later in 1980 joint founder, Bill Gates, decided they needed an overall vision to drive thinking and planning for the future. It was then that the famous mission statement was coined that would define their work and development…
‘To have a computer on every desk and in every home around the world’.
Mega bold and perhaps somewhat crazy in those days when there was no real personal computer market. But that’s what it was designed to do. To set their minds on actually creating a computer that would create that market. One where they would be the leaders.
Roll on a few decades and what name is synonymic with the personal computer? And found in homes all around the world? Yep, Microsoft. Mission accomplished.
The guiding mental light.
The Mission Statement acts a guiding light to the mind. It zeros pure focus and attention onto the final outcome it states. No going off at tangents. Not wasting thinking on the irrelevant. Silly airy fairy planning gone. There’s the aim. Mentally and physically get it in your sights and go after it.
Other highly successful companies have also won through employing a defined Mission Statement.
Coca Cola chose something (unsurprisingly) sweet – ‘To refresh the world’.
Nike took a different leap by making us all equally athletic – ‘Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete’.
McDonalds chose instead to drive the experience that their food creates – ‘To make delicious, feel good moments easy for everyone’.
And finally take a look at online used clothes/items platform Vinted‘s brash, confident statement – ‘To make second hand the first choice worldwide’.
Each one very different but perfect for them and for their chosen market. But the Mission Statement doesn’t just have to be uitilised by the business community. It’s a first class mental tool for adding meaning, purpose, and streamlining the mindset. And it also gives a life going nowhere a very big somewhere to end up.
Your mission is…
Companies have a chosen sector – finance, automobiles, cakes, gin and the like. Take a cue from this and choose your sector for your mission. For example mine could be writing, or blogging, or books, or very simple psychology which stimulates my mind to drill down and be exact at how or what I want to be/achieve within it.
My Mission Statement therefore could be – ‘To be the world’s foremost writer on the power of the inner mind sharing how anyone can create an extraordinary life for themselves through their thinking’.
It states writing (which I love), the mind (what I write about) and two end results, world’s foremost writer, and anyone creating an extraordinary life from reading my words.
Therefore each post I write must encompass these on every occasion. Anyone anywhere can read and understand them and put them to instant use in their own mind.
So, over to you. What life sector matters to you that needs a PERSONAL Mission Statement? A pure individual life aim or major plan that captures fully who you are. To complete and fulfil yourself. Small and basic won’t do (to learn how to bake a lovely cake isn’t going to change your world).
That’s your homework here. Zero down to where you want to accomplish something of a deeper nature. A self realisation at your very best level come true. Set that higher bar and then craft your Mission Statement to capture it in bold words. Words that will instruct your mind the only direction you are going to go from now on. Meaning becomes a mission becomes your mastery.
Just like Gucci who embeded their thinking into this – ‘To become the leader in the luxury market at a worldwide level’.
Life itself is a mission, so make the most of it and turn it into your statement. YOUR MISSION STATEMENT!!
