In modern societies Mr Mind has to navigate a complex reality at highspeed. To deal with the myriad of thoughts effectively, he learned to cluster them into sets of beliefs or mental models.
Mr Mind simply adopts them without questioning, usually at an early age: This is how things work here.
These beliefs tell us how our world works and are shaped by the view of our family, friends, community and the culture we live in. Over time we begin expecting all sorts of behaviors and outcomes and preconceive ideas of how things ‘should‘ be done. After all they have always worked this way. You can imagine this like a pair of glasses through which we perceive our lives.
Different cultures bear different glasses (mental models, expectations, pre-judgments).
Conscious Me can prompt Mr Mind to put on the ‘Beginner‘ glasses. This helps him to see which glasses he is currently wearing and change his glasses deliberately to see the same environment differently:
Pick any activity and try to do it as if it was brand new. Notice every detail of the activity. Every step. Use all your senses to explore every detail of it. How does your expectation differ from your observation?
You will notice that ‘Beginner‘ glasses will transform any activity and you will start to approach things with curiosity, fresh eyes, and wonder.
