One of my favorite memes regarding exploration says, “I was born 500 years too early or 100 years too late.” ¹ I love to hike, climb, and wander along shadowed cliffs in terrain new to me; I always hesitate to call it exploring because no matter how faint the trail or even the lack thereof, there is general evidence I am not the first to pass this way.
In this day and age, any exploration often takes the form of an adventure of the mind as we explore new ideas and topics. ² In 1826, the astronomer Heinrich Olbers asked what for many of us seems strange: “why is the sky dark at night?” ³
Olber’s observed that if the universe is infinite and stars are evenly distributed, every line of sight should eventually end at a star. Therefore, the entire sky should be bright. Not dark. ⁴ What would become known as Olber’s paradox or the dark sky paradox relates to the speed of light and vast distances; simply put, not all light has reached us yet, and based on the speed at which the universe is expanding, some light will never reach the planet Earth.
When we gaze at the night sky, we have an observable universe (light that has reached us), not the entire universe. Yet, paradoxically, we have a similar phenomenon occurring in our terrestrial sphere.
Our brains filter information, and although we have a certain amount of control, controlling our brains’ filtering process is an ant’s worth of power while riding an elephant; however, it is true that what we focus on changes what we notice, which is a significant advantage.
I’ve mentioned before that I am an extreme introvert who has spent the past 33 years in sales. Sales organizations are goal-driven companies, and I stumbled in my early years trying to learn how to set goals. Unfortunately, the typical material related to goal setting, i.e., S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely), didn’t move the needle for me. I could complete the template but was rarely motivated to see them through.
I struggled with goal setting until I read David Allens’ short white paper “The Big Secret About Goal Setting.” A simple sentence in the fourth paragraph changed my goal-setting paradigm.
“The value of goals is not in the future they describe, but the change in perception of reality they foster.” ⁵
Mr. Allen then explains what we all know. Our brains filter information. Our perception adjusts to what we seek; in other words, we control our observable universe.
We’ve all had the experience — of car shopping or purchasing a shirt. Once we know what we are looking for, we see the article everywhere. We want a red car, and suddenly everybody’s driving a red car. Mr. Allen points out, “That information is all around you, all the time. But if you’re not wired up to perceive it… you’ll think it doesn’t exist.” ⁶
On the plus side of our brain filtering system, we must set goals, create our someday/maybe lists, and point our telescope at them often. Rewiring our brain to notice things takes little effort; however, it does require consistent effort. And who knows, the next red car you see might be the one you are driving.
Written March 22, 2023
Published simultaneously at Medium.com
Footnotes
1. Facebook Meme
2. Maxwell, Neal A. “All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience.” Deseret Book, 1980. p.2.
3. Arachnoid. (n.d.). The Sky: A User’s Guide. Retrieved from https://arachnoid.com/sky/.
4. According to OpenAI’s GPT-3.5-turbo on March 22, 2023 6:42 AM Mountain Daylight Savings Time.
5. Allen, David. “The Big Secret about goal setting.” The David Allen Company 1998–2006.
6. Ibid