For the purposes of this book, we'll mostly approach things from the level of what is practical, acknowledging that how things appear may not be as they actually are. The fact we have the perception we exist as a self, moving through the world in a body we call our own, is what we have to work with. It would be silly to ignore it. Instead, we need to embrace it, learning to work with our habits of mind and internal navigation system in which our affect surfaces emotion while our awareness becomes a natural first choice for navigating its own perceptions. By investigating what moves you—the psychological momentum behind all that you do—you'll begin to discern how you're habitually organizing and prioritizing what you pay attention to and act upon. With each self-discovery comes a clue, an additional piece to the complex puzzle of how your brain ascribes meaning to what it perceives. In turn, you'll learn to spot and work with the mental models and interpretations that may or may not be conducive to your overall aims, and when they aren't, what you can do about it.
Creating Optimal Internal Conditions
You'll have an opportunity to experiment with what it looks and feels like to create the necessary conditions within yourself to be able to exercise awareness. It turns out there is great opportunity to dial in our understanding of the mind's role as well as that of perception itself in the formation and evolution of our mental habits and the vital role each plays in absolutely everything we do. Then, and only then, will we be in a position to know where in the value chain of conscious perception and interpretation we can take an active role in shaping our habits and outcomes. Once we understand how the brain simulates our perceptions and proactively shapes our experience from our prior experiences and beliefs, we can start to address the interpretative mechanisms at play within our day-to-day lives and decisions.
Turning our attention toward the otherwise invisible inner workings of our minds, we will become aware of its go-to habits. To not do so would mean that our internal habits would remain hidden to our attention and conscious awareness, obscuring an entire realm of our experience. In order to maximize the wisdom inherent in our own perceptual capacity, we will practice increasing the dexterity of our own awareness to detect what is underlying our assumptions, biases, and mental models. We'll also pay particular attention to how our narratives reflect back to us the logic and meaning of our own perceptions, behaviors, and choices. Finally, we will investigate how the storylines we create not only serve the purpose of helping us make sense of our current perceptions but predispose our future ones along with our responses and actions.
The Value Stream Map of Perception
As you've likely already begun to glean, our awareness, conscious action, and habits of mind play a far greater and more central role than we typically give them credit for relative to what we habitually think, say, and do. They are the variables we have most readily available and at our disposal to work with. Our goal will be to operationalize our insights about each and the profound implications they hold for the quality of our lives, our relationships, and our outcomes. To this end, the value stream map of perception (VSM) is meant to orient us, to provide both a framework and an anchor for our inquiry into our own habits of mind and where we have options for conscious choice within it. It is by no means meant to be an anatomically correct depiction of all that is presently known or studied about the brain, the body, or the human mind. It's simply meant to be a highly accessible, understandable, and practical working model that gives us a starting point. Since I've not yet met a model or framework that has this as its scope or aim, while not perfect, the VSM just needs to serve its intended purpose as a visual representation of perception and the cognitive and sensory processes that accompany it.
You'll be introduced to each of the 12 Self-Discoveries, which serve as both a diagnostic and tool for you to examine the paradigms of thought either hindering or helping you, along with the practices you'll need to reappraise and shift your outlook and mental approach. As we look at each segment of the VSM that sketches out the primary ingredients of perception, we will see where we have the least and greatest possibility for direct influence. We will train in observing where within our own habits of mind we have the opportunity to influence our own beliefs and concepts, if not directly then indirectly. In fact, you are expanding your knowledge base and conceptual frameworks available to you simply by reading this book, or anything else capable of conveying knowledge, and even more so when you apply what's in it. We'll find out what happens at the stage of conscious interpretation, which is where our opportunity is the greatest to work with our mental models using the 12 Self-Discoveries and awareness practices. You'll be invited to notice your patterns of response, to examine what you think, say, or do again and again, and the implications each has for your own life and those around you. With each segment of the VSM and each of the 12 Self-Discoveries we'll see where we have the best chances to impact our own outcomes and how we can go about cultivating the optimal conditions within ourselves to do so. Finally, we'll explore our natural tendencies and where we have a higher propensity to derail or flourish depending on our present relationship with our own habits of mind.
The 12 Self-Discoveries
Now, a bit of background with respect to the 12 Self-Discoveries. Each of the 12 Self-Discoveries captures habitual tendencies we have relative to how we perceive and make sense of our own experience. They are interwoven habits of mind that can either help or hinder, depending on how conscious we are of their influence on us. Through identifying how we invest our time and energy, achieve a desired outcome or purpose, improve our relationships, develop a new skill, establish a new habit, or live in alignment with what we value most, each of the 12 Self-Discoveries reveals how we may be getting in our own way as well as how we can work with the mental patterns that are keeping us stuck. Each serves to focus our attention on the patterns of thinking and beliefs largely hidden to us, yet often apparent to others, highlighting where we may be getting led astray by the very functions we use to make sense of our moment-to-moment experience. Each of the 12 Self-Discoveries offers unique clues and insight into what may be holding us back or where we may not be operating at our best. They function as an internal barometer for when our expectations aren't met and our beliefs about what should have happened fall short. Ultimately, they provide us with a clear path to uncover and work with our mental models and patterns of response, giving us the possibility to exercise our agency at key moments. While not an exhaustive list of potential mental traps or pitfalls, or their antidotes, the 12 Self-Discoveries provide us with an empowering narrative of agency in which we each come equipped with the wherewithal to bring about the changes in our lives we deem most important. They are reminders for how we can choose to move through the world more intentionally while working at the level of what is within our conscious awareness and ability to choose.
1 The Evolution of Emotional Intelligence
Each generation rides on the invisible wings of the great thinkers and doers who came before them but from whose departure in substance, style, and approach we often stand to gain. What if we hadn't moved beyond the insights of Aristotle or Newton, for example? Without even knowing it, we are constantly iterating upon the uptake of residual knowledge of those who have come before us, be it our teachers, our contemporaries, or the collective wisdom (or lack thereof) of the context in which we find ourselves. In writing this book, I've often pondered where the world might be if the big thinkers in the various fields of science or quantum mechanics had as their primary object of inquiry the mind and had rigorously applied their fancy-pants formulas and analysis to its movement and behavior. Or what if the most skilled meditation masters had applied their wisdom and direct experience of the mind to the study and behavior of the physical universe? And how amazing would