I've written a couple of posts recently about how the mind creates its visions of the future.
And as I was talking this through with a client the other day, a really powerful image popped into my head; a powerful visual metaphor that I'd never seen before.
It was of the mind, sitting on a high wall, fishing.
On one side of the wall, the endless content of the past. Every last shred of data at its disposal.
On the other lies the future, which is, by definition empty (because it is completely unknown).
It's just like pure potential: anything could happen.
And the mind is fishing stuff out of the past, and dangling it in front of us, making out like it's the future, when really, it has no idea.
A metaphor worth remembering.
It's a really strong mental image that has stuck with me… enough for me to ask the robot assistant to have a go at putting it down on paper for me.
What it came up with isn't half bad!
As the Danish proverb goes:
“It is difficult to make predictions,
especially about the future.”
When you know what it's using to make those predictions… that makes a lot of sense!
😉
Giles
Post-script
No sooner had I published this, than life delivered a perfect example of it: the Sunday cycling club run. I'd been invited to join a group I haven't ridden with for a while and was super excited, joining in group-chat banter about the ride in the preceding days, and really looking forward to getting out into the hills with them, and catching up. But the weather forecast was really bad.
The mind, using only the past, created the following fictional picture:
- 💭 It's going to be great, riding with the boys
- 💭 It's going to be quite unpleasant, doing that in the cold, wind and rain – something to steel myself against, in the run-up
And then on the day, here's what actually happened:
- The weather turned around completely, overnight. It wasn't cold. It didn't rain. It wasn't even all that windy. There was even blue sky. It was lovely! (I was a little over-dressed, and all that advance worry/negativity was entirely for nought).
- Turns out, unlike me, none of them really had much time off the bike at the end of last year, meaning they were all way fitter than me and I got dropped about 15 minutes in, when we went up the first proper climb. So I was out on my own for the day's riding.
😂
I was chuckling to myself, at how perfect an example of this metaphor I'd just been delivered.
If you look for the evidence, you'll find examples of this happening for you too, all day every day.