Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - The Gorilla in the Room

Episode Date: July 28, 2020

In this episode I talk about a study involving a basketball and a gorilla, expounding upon the idea that we only see what we decide to focus on.

Welcome to Your World Within Daily. I'm Eddie Panero. And in this episode, I want to talk a little bit about focus. And go into a study that really emphasizes the decisions we make regarding what to see versus what to walk right by end up defining our lives. So there's a great study. And anyone who's taken a psych course has probably seen it at some point. but I think for for today and like the purpose of the message that I'm trying to articulate they couldn't be more spot on so here is the study in a nutshell you have a group of people

passing a basketball right and so the video plays and what the viewer is instructed to do is count the number of times that the ball is passed back and forth right there may be some other nuance or detail but that's that's it in and in and in a nutshell. So the video starts in the viewer's eyes on the ball back forth, back forth. One, two, three, four, five passes, six passes, right? So you're counting. And then what happens is someone walks through right in the center of the screen with a gorilla suit, pounds his chest, makes the scene, throws his arms up, and then walks off screen. And I don't remember the number. Maybe I should have looked that up.

But enough to be statistically significant. A lot of people don't even see the gorilla. The first time I watched it, I didn't. All I saw was the basketball. That was all I was thinking about. But you missed the seemingly obvious gorilla in the middle of the screen. With, you know, the obvious parallel being in life, the things that we look for, the things that we seek out are what we ultimately get.

You know, maybe you've been in a situation where you're looking at a new car or your car shopping. And then all of a sudden on the road, you just see, you know, what feels like hundreds of those cars. It's not because they were dropped on Interstate 95 overnight. It's because now you're aware of them. You're looking for them. You're seeking them out. And so many aspects of life are like that. You know, we sort of forget how much control we have in our life.

And with regard to our emotional state, I think we all know. that person, no matter what happens, you know, they're positive. And if it's negative, they'll shake it off and they'll find something that's smile about and they'll be happy. And then, you know, conversely, there's always that eore. Right. It doesn't matter what happens, they'll find something to complain about. You know, like I mentioned yesterday, it's not that that person has more negative situations. It's that they're trained to see the negative. And it doesn't have to be that way. You know, like I said, control, control. control. I always used to, I don't know, it felt fluffy to say like, oh, think positive all the time.

No one thinks positive all the time. There's no snap your fingers and miraculously, things change. But there's truth to creating a foundation for yourself to stand on that's valuable. You know, like the gratitude journal. It took me a long time to understand the value of that because I'm like, why? Let's be productive. I'm not going to write a gratitude journal. Well, it turns out starting the the day acknowledging how good you have it and the people in your life and the things you're grateful for changes the scope and the lens to which you see things you know it's particularly on the on the tough days because you remember hey this is not an obligation i'm lucky i have a lot to be thankful for this is a gift and you know it helps you take the the bumps in stride um and

you know do what you need to do so that's the message today you know when when we are are so busy counting the metaphorical basketball to remind ourselves to see the gorilla, dancing, jumping, screaming for us to see and acknowledge all the good and all the value and all the things that, you know, are there to be appreciated and make our lives better. So I hope this episode helped. If it did, please rate subscribe review. Helps me get this podcast out to the world. Guys, I appreciate it.

And we'll catch you tomorrow.