Career OverDrive!
  • Career Stack
  • COD Channel
  • PsycheOS Channel
  • Blog
  • Content Archives

Psychological Jujutsu: Are You A Mind Reader?

6/5/2014

0 Comments

 
By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, SiliconEdge

"So, what, you think you're a minder read and can read minds, right?! Ha!"

I often find myself fielding this question although sometimes it's delivered in a tone of voice that conjures up images of an accusation such as "charlatan!" rather than a genuine question.

But that's okay, as it shows interest and engagement on the person asking it and once they allow me to explore a little more with them, they are usually hooked and have an "aha!" moment.

....

So the simple and honest answer to this question or perhaps the rejoinder to this accusation is, of course, I'm not a mind reader nor do I purport to be. And yet my results are there and they are what they are with them being more often than not extremely uncanny in their accuracy. 

The most important insight from my work and research that I try to impart to my students, clients and skeptics is that you don't need to be a mind reader to be accurate in your reading of a situation because in most cases the party in question through their actions, reactions and inactions almost to a tee loudly and graphically telegraphs exactly what they are thinking and how they are thinking as well as their intentions.

....
[more] Are You A Mind reader? >>
0 Comments

Myths & Memes: Work Them To Your Advantage

12/10/2013

0 Comments

 
By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, Career OverDrive!


Myths and memes. 
 
Love it when people soak them up.

Less competition for you and those that understand the way the world truly works rather than how the social engineers would like it to be.
0 Comments

Training Elephants: How Your Mental Conditioning Keeps You in Chains)

8/26/2013

0 Comments

 
By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, Career OverDrive!
(This is part of the No Box Thinking™ Series)


Elephants are considered one of the strongest animals on earth and in places like Thailand it's not uncommon to see one elephant compete against forty or more men in a tug-o-war contest with the elephant easily winning! 


Many elephants are also utilized in the forestry industry and it's an amazing sight to see an elephant easily and deftly pick up a massive log and effortlessly move it about like a mere toothpick. 

Not once or twice, mind you, but all day long and in the scorching heat. 


With such power and stamina an adult elephant could easily snap any ropes or chains used to subdue it. Yet why doesn't the adult elephant do this? And how can such a powerful animal be so easily controlled by an infinitely smaller human wielding only a stick or through the simple pressing of feet or heels into the elephant's neck or ears? 

Well, it all comes down to the elephant's mental conditioning and the shaping of expectations it has received and that has been implanted into it. Many humans would call what the elephant mentally engages in to be a "self-fulfilling prophecy." 

Since an adult elephant is so powerful and could easily break the biggest ropes or chains, trainers begin to condition the elephant at a very early age not only to not want to do this so but also to THINK that it is NOT able to do so.  Effectively to not even consider breaking the chains or snapping the ropes as an option.

Why? Because once we deem something to be "impossible" to do, we no longer attempt it. Our own thinking and thought processes, therefore, become a set of mental chains. 

As a baby, the elephant is often restrained with a substantial piece of rope or chain which is so strong that the baby has no chance of breaking it or escaping. As the baby pulls on the restraints it quickly realizes it cannot get free so it tries less and less frequently and less and less heartily to do so during each attempt. 

As the elephant grows in size, the diameter of the restraints can be reduced since the elephant has now been conditioned to believe that trying to escape or break the restraints is futile. 

Eventually the elephant no longer even attempts to break the restraints as it is now fully conditioned so that the presence of the restraint alone, rather than the tensile strength of that restraint, signals to the elephant that it is incapacitated and cannot move.

At some point, this restraint could be as thin as a piece of twine. 

In other words, the trainer has created a set of unbreakable mental chains for the elephant that the elephant cannot overcome! 

Humans, like elephants are also susceptible to these mental chains. Sometimes we create them ourselves. Other times they are given to us by friends, parents or relatives however well meaning they may be. 

We are taught various myths and memes  (the restraints) during our formative years and then these restraints are constantly waved in front of us to remind us of our inability to move freely through life. 

This is done through the usage of rituals. These rituals can be mores or folkways, comments from friends or family, even imagery beamed into our homes by satellite tv, found on DVDs or in our daily newspaper. 

What mental chains are holding you back?
Would you like to break them?
How will you break them? 

Knowing that they exist in the first place is the major step forward. 


(James originally posted this online on August 16th, 2004 but it is even more relevant today than it was 9 years ago. Several slight modifications from the original have been made)
0 Comments

    About

    Career OverDrive™ is your platform for career acceleration and expert advice. Together we'll explore high-performance career development, acceleration, transitions and change, job searching, interviewing and salary negotiations, Psychological Jujutsu™ and office politics and organizational power dynamics.

    Picture

    Archives (by date)

    June 2018
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    August 2015
    February 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    Categories

    All
    Approval
    Approval Seeking
    Asia
    Audio Guides
    Autonomous Systems
    Autonomous Vehicles
    Career Advice
    Career Advice
    Career Damage
    Career Damage
    Career Overdrive
    Career Overdrive
    Career Overdrive Announcements
    Career Overdrive Announcements
    Career Overdrive Website
    Career Overdrive Website
    Changing Careers
    China
    Coaching Advice
    Coaching Advice
    Communications
    Conferences
    Criticism
    Crush Any Career
    Crush Any Career
    Crush Any Interview
    Crush Any Interview
    Decision Making
    Decision Making
    Deprogramming
    Education
    Energy
    Entrepreneurs
    Entrepreneurship
    Events
    Factory Automation
    Failure
    Favors
    Fire Your Recruiter
    Fire-your-recruiter
    Fortune Cookie Inspiration
    Fortune Cookie Peddlers
    Frameworks
    Future Proof
    Hamster Wheel
    High Impact Resumes
    High Impact Resumes
    High-impact Resumes
    Hope Peddlers
    Humor
    Japan
    Job Candidate
    Job Candidate
    Job Search Lifecycle
    Job Search Lifecycle
    Leadership
    Liberal Arts Degree
    Machine Vision
    Memes
    Mental Chains
    Mental Conditioning
    Mistakes
    Modeling Success
    Modeling Success
    Myths
    Nbt
    Negotiations
    No Box Thinking
    Office Politics
    Opportunity Cost
    Organizational Power
    Passion Peddlers
    Phfc
    Philosophies
    Promotions
    Psychological Jujutsu
    Quotes
    Rituals
    Robots
    Salary Negotiations
    Silicon Valley
    Situational Awareness
    Speaking Conferences
    Speaking Events
    Startups
    Success Modeling
    Success Stories
    Tech Firms
    Tech Startups
    Testimonials
    Time Management
    Tokyo
    Unlearning
    Validation
    Work Life Balance
    Work-life Balance

    RSS Feed

Picture
© Copyright 2007-2025 SiliconEdge™ Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Picture