Recently
a good friend of mine conducted a small experiment, for two days he would be as
vigilant as possible to any kind of butterflies inhabiting his reality. He
would consciously be alert, throughout the two-day period, to the presence of
anything relating to butterflies. This experiment, to really test validity,
would be conducted in winter, deep in the South Atlantic Ocean! You might ask
why would he commit his time to such a ‘meaningless’ and unlikely task? The
reason is simple, everything has meaning, and its how you interpret the meaning
around you that determines your destination – or is it?
Synchronicity
is the belief in NLP that everything is connected in some way; it’s how you use
those connections that define your outcomes. Some people see the proverbial
glass as half empty, with this model of the world they may never see the
opportunities that surround them every second. Others see the glass as half
full and are waiting, to pounce at the chance to top the glass up, thus seeing
the glass only temporarily half full, with the opportunity to top up coming
along at any second. Perspective is everything, and at the same time nothing;
in fact does perspective even exist – as we say in NLP ‘the map is not the
territory’? The world that I see is not the world you see, and this is the same
for everyone. I am unsure whether this statement strengthens or weakens the
theory of perspective, it does however make it fascinating. I do know one thing
hover, there are things I know I don’t know, which is absolutely fine with me –
in fact not knowing is what gives us curiosity and invention. It does, however,
lead to an interesting notion, what do really successful people know, which
perhaps unsuccessful people don’t?
Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events as meaningfully related, where they are unlikely to be casually related. The subject sees it as a meaningful coincidence as apposed to a chance occurance. This
theory was first explored by Carl Jung in the 1920’s; it was not published in a
research paper however until 1952 by Wolfgang Pauli.
Confusing
as all this may be I think at this point it might be prudent to agree on the
elements of the equation that are undeniable.
- · We all breathe oxygen.
- · We all have similar genetics, which gradually decline with age eventually leading to death.
- · We all have the same basic needs to survive.
Outside
of these constants I like the idea that the ‘canvass’ is blank, for sure there
is an infinite amount of external factors each having a finite influence on our
individuality, but if we could influence our destiny by altering our
perspective then surely this means we can, by virtue, alter our successfulness?
Can I think abundance into my life without taking any physical action, perhaps
not? However, if I am ‘looking’ in the right direction I can give myself the
best start.
I
have heard that when teaching students to down hill mountain bike the single
most effective coaching point is ‘look where you want to go’. If your
concentration and awareness is placed down the trail and towards your intended
goal the bike will naturally ‘flow’ in that direction. Conversely if, for a
split second, you focus your intention on the ditch running next to the trail
the result is inevitable.
This
poses an interesting theory, are life’s losers always looking towards the ditch
and are the winners looking down the trail? What are the variables outside of
their awareness that influence the individual perspective, and more importantly
can you teach people to ‘look where you want
to go’.
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
This is a philosophical thought experiment that raises questions regarding observation and knowledge of reality.
With this theory in mind let me reword the metaphor.
“If
there is an amazing opportunity and no one sees it, does the opportunity
exist?”
Synchronicity
teaches us to be mindful of the things right in front of us; the opportunities
to achieve abundance surround us all. However all the opportunity in the world
is irrelevant without the ability to connect the dots, these dots interpreted
through our individual model of the world define our behaviours, in turn these
behaviours shape our future.
My
friends experiment proved incredibly interesting. First he saw some butterfly
tattoos on a women’s hand when boarding his flight, not long after that on the
flight there was an article which contained pictures of butterflies, after this
when arriving at the airport in the Falkland Islands he saw a painting by a
school child of a butterfly on a wall in the airport, lastly on his first night
when flicking through some DVD’s he ‘noticed’ one – The Butterfly Effect.
Were
these butterflies always there, of course they were, however; had he not
‘noticed’ them they would never have existed in his model of the world – or
would they?
