Syndicated from Inspired Startup
Remember the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray? Everyday was the same thing over and over again. Sometimes we feel today is the same as yesterday and the same as the day before. We feel like we really haven’t accomplished much and if we had to recall what happened yesterday, we can barely remember anything significant. I sometimes feel trapped in this merry-go-round more often than I’d like to admit. Do you?
Mind Filter
Here’s my take on why this happens. We, as humans, don’t like change, we’re built to return to the familiar. We want order in our lives whether consciously or subconsciously. Our minds work like a well-oiled machine that filters out noise and provides a semblance of continuity and order. For example, your mind filters out most commercials on TV as you focus on the TV show, it can also filter out your watch as you focus on the time (most people can’t draw their watch). If you’ve ever spent a lot of time buying a car, after you bought it, most people are surprised how many of those exact same cars are on the road – your mind starts to remind you of the familiar. Our minds let in what we either set as important or subconsciously think is important. Why not set what we think is important?
The New Normal
Earlier this week, I listened to a speaker talk about the “new normal.” Normal is what our brains are predisposed to follow and filter for us. If we don’t set a “new normal” our minds returns to the familiar and we go about our lives like Groundhog Day. We need to set a “new normal” or a BHAG – “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” that we can visualize in our minds and that is very uncomfortable. Do you have a BHAG? Is it so ingrained in you that it has become the “new normal” and that your body never feels comfortable until you’ve achieved the “new normal” in reality?
The Benefits
If you truly set a “new normal” and really believe it, you’ll start seeing things that you’ve never seen before, your mind starts working for you rather than being on auto-pilot on the “old normal.” Your creativity starts running, your energy starts building, your hearts starts really beating. You can’t sleep unless you’re able to get to the “new normal.” That’s passion, that’s fun! Every day becomes a day to learn, create, and you remain uncomfortable until you’re able to reconcile your new goal with reality.
My New Normal
What is your “new normal?” How do you avoid Groundhog Day? I’m setting a BHAG and “new normal” to be 25,000,000 pageviews/day at my web company. I’m also setting a “new normal” to eradicate poverty for 1,000,000 extremely impoverished people. Is that big, hairy, and audacious enough? I think so, and I have absolutely no clue how I’m going to get there. That’s ok, by setting that in my mind, I believe that my subconscious and conscious mind will work at reaching that as the “new normal.” I’m dreaming, thinking, strategizing, breathing the “new normal.” No more Groundhog day here!
Get to it!
I think most of us have heard the same thing before from Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich or The Secret or from some fancy seminar. Intuitively, it makes sense and it’s nothing new. But, why is it then that most of us don’t have a BHAG or a “new normal”? When are you going to set it? I hope it’s today 
Share with us what your BHAG is below.
About nathan kaiser
