Looking For Mr. Gorilla
Three weeks ago, when I contemplated my upcoming birthday, I felt pretty pissy about it. This is NOT the way my life was supposed to be when I turned 50, I kept telling Tim.
No money for presents. No money to take a trip. No money to go out to dinner.
Scrambling for an income. Credit cards gone. Body is a mess.
I had a vision of where I thought I’d be at this point in my life. This wasn’t it.
I didn’t even want to bother celebrating. What was the point?
But thanks to some diligent focusing of thought, I started shifting the way I felt. I stopped thinking about all the things that weren’t right about my life right now and began deliberately focusing on the things (even though it seemed like there are few of them) that are right.
The more I did this, the more things I found to look at. I was shocked to discover that I have some treasures and opportunities and ideas right here at my fingertips that I hadn’t seen before.
In 1999, a study in selective attention used this video. It’s short, so check it out:
Fast Tube by Casper
Did you watch it?
In the study, half of the people watching this video or ones like it did not notice the guy in the gorilla suit who walked through the group of basketball players. Did you see Mr. Gorilla?
Tim watched the video and didn’t see Mr. Gorilla. When he went back and watched again, he focused on Mr. Gorilla and counted the number of seconds he was on the screen. Nine seconds, in case you’re interested.
We see what we focus on.
So when I was thinking about how lousy my life was, what did I see? Evidence of how lousy my life was.
Making it my intention to find reasons to feel good forced me to look for something different. It made me look for Mr. Gorilla (the previously hidden fun and good stuff in my life).
We are perceiving beings, but we’re also thinking beings. So we CAN reprogram what we pay attention to. And when we do, the law of attraction brings us more good things to pay attention to.
From now on, I’m going to look for Mr. Gorilla.
What about you?
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Tags: Focus, gorilla video, Law of Attraction, Perception, selective attention experiment
April 2nd, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Yes! I’m going to look for Mr. Gorilla everywhere. BUT I am going to have to be blunt with him: he needs a good waxing.
April 2nd, 2010 at 12:07 pm
LOL Karen–I love the playful way you look at life.
April 2nd, 2010 at 1:24 pm
I am in shock! I cant believe it. I got the number of passes dead on but no gorilla. OMG. I will have to sit and process this. What an amazing video. More later.
April 2nd, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Amazing, isn’t it?
April 2nd, 2010 at 1:56 pm
How fun to look for Mr. Gorilla (the “hidden fun and good stuff”) in the video clip AND in real life! I did spot him but perhaps it’s because I was LOOKING for him because of your post or perhaps, I try to look for extraordinary things in all that I see. I ‘m not sure. Funny thing, I got the number of passes wrong.
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:12 pm
So did I, Paz. I saw the gorilla because I knew what the video was about, and I got the passes wrong too. So much for multi-tasking–I guess we can look for one or the other, so if I have to choose, I choose to look for the extraordinary.
We’re having a storm here today–high winds and rain and snow. My mom and friends are spazzing about it–oh me, oh my. I am loving the sounds of it and the sight of it, and when I walked in it with Ducky, getting thoroughly drenched and blown about, my thought was “hey, at least the mosquitoes are gone.” And I had a lovely walk. It’s all perspective.
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Beautiful bright blue sky here in Orange County California!. Really really cold at 63 degrees F. people are talking about how cold that is. he he he…. Time for me to get on my red Victory 1600 cc motorcycle and ride up pacific coast highway and catch some good vibes. Dont need a therapist when you have one of these and she likes to gallop.
April 2nd, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Have a blast, Greg!
April 2nd, 2010 at 9:33 pm
That Greg! He just keeps getting happier and happier. The rest of us may have to hustle our bustles to keep up!