Trigger Question #43:
Did you know that there are two kinds of awareness? I wasn’t aware of that.
Cognitive psychos, a subgroup of psychologists, identify two types of awareness. But they call it consciousness, not awareness. I prefer to use the word awareness because I assume you are always conscious. At least at work.
Here are the two types: spotlight awareness and lantern awareness. (I read about it in Michael Pollan’s book This Is Your Mind on Plants.)
Can you guess how they work? Correct! A spotlight is what you use to really, really focus your attention on something specific. When you are thinking through a problem, for example. A lantern is what you use when you need to take in more of your environment. For example, when you let your mind wander, for free association.
Here’s how you use them. Lanterns for creativity; spotlights for reasoning. A lantern for visioning; a spotlight for strategy. Lanterns for finding connections; spotlights for working connections. A lantern for the abstract; a spotlight for the specific.
Both spotlight and lantern illuminate, but differently. You get the picture?
A word of warning. I made up three of the four “how to use them.” I wanted to be cleverly creative, so I used my lantern mode. If you want to apply these, I suggest you first test them by giving them the spotlight treatment.
Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.
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Quote of the Moment:
“Thanks to social media, which is anything but sociable, we now have too many spotlights. The ones that shine on Me! Me! Me!” The Chief Nonsense Officer.
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