If Perception Is Reality, Picture Only The Best!

I've been thinking about writing a "Motivational Monday" blog entry where I pump us all up with a nice sobering cup of inspiration. We all need that once in awhile. A lot of us need it everyday.

That's why I am writing this on a Tuesday. Why wait until next Monday to write something that might change your perspective for the best?

I read an interesting story on The Consumerist website (http://www.consumerist.com/) about an informal and unscientific study that probably concluded what a more extensive and expensive "official" study would: that we see and hear and taste what we PERCEIVE we are seeing, hearing, and tasting.

Specifically, a group of people listened to several CDs on a sound system. The speakers were hooked up to those super pricey "Monster Cables" and also cheap, common wire coat hangers! That's right. COAT HANGERS.

And guess what? Nobody could tell the difference between the two. In fact, no one knew that wire coat hangers were even being used!

So why do we insist that things sound better on more expensive cables? Well, I am sure that SOME of it has to do with the better quality of a product. There is no denying that a Ferrari will handle better around the hairpin turns than, say, a Honda. It doesn't mean the Honda is junk. It clearly isn't. But the Ferrari is a finer tooled machine, hands down.

So yes, Monster Cables are probably designed better than the cheapo $5 versions you can find at any electronics store.

But that doesn't mean the average person can tell the difference.

Hey, Spencer, you might be saying. How is this motivational?

It's because of the ever important lesson and truth that perception becomes your reality.

Doctors know this when they prescribe millions of placebos every year. Think about how powerful the human mind is! BELIEVING that a pill is going to help you has been proven to ACTUALLY help you, even if the pill has no medicinal value whatsoever!

Patients BELIEVE the pill is going to aid them in their pains and discomforts and maladies. And oftentimes, it DOES! That is REAL LIFE MAGIC. The magic of the human mind.

Remember the old advertisements that claimed "A mind is a terrible thing to waste"? Well, that is true. But even more true is this: Thoughts are a terrible thing to waste.

We have literally thousands of thoughts every day. And these thoughts can make or break our day. REALLY!

What are YOU thinking about right now?

Are you worrying about being late with the rent AGAIN?

Or that gas is darned near $4 a gallon and you could barely afford gas when it was $3 a gallon?

Are you thinking about that mountain of paperwork you keep bringing home because you never seem to have enough time to get your work done at the office?

Or maybe you are looking at your beautiful baby and already worrying about what colleges will cost in the year 2026.

Count how many times you worry in a day. Ever find yourself worrying about something and then you don't even remember what you were worrying ABOUT??

What a WASTE of thoughts!! Think of all the fantastic and positive and motivating and productive thoughts you COULD have had all day long!

People hear better quality music when using better quality cables MAINLY because--and this is just my theory based on common sense, experiments like the one above, and just day to day living--they EXPECT to hear better quality sound.

The same way my kids think the pizza tastes better if we order out rather than bake our own. I have found that generic pop tarts are just as yummy to them so long as they don't see the wrappers.

So if you are going to expect anything, why not expect the BEST! Why would you ever choose to anything less?

This method doesn't guarantee that everything will smell like roses for you. But thinking negatively almost NEVER produces positive results. How could it?

Just like the athlete pictures only success and victory, so should you. Any noteworthy athlete will tell you that they swung those golf clubs or baseball bats a thousand times in their mind's eye before they ever did it for real.

Picture everything today being Monster Cable quality and see if you don't have a better day than if you didn't.