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I’ve finally decided to put together a guide about how I’ve managed to change everything over the last 18 months. I’ve gone from University lecturer and health professional to:
starting an online education company,
consulting to professionals about how to become an online authority using social media,
running an exclusive search engine optimization business,
launching a web design business,
selling a bucket load of useful things online, and
getting to speak about all this on international platforms in front of hundreds of people.
Of course, I’m still a health professional and I could be a lecturer if I wanted to be – but I’m now I’m on a very different path and I get to choose – it’s my choice.
On reflection – that’s quite a big change. And the more people I meet, the more people are interested in how I’ve manged such a shift in career. It would seem that there are a stack of people who’d like to attempt the same sort of thing, and so that’s why I’ve decided to write this guide.
I guess I’m thinking it’ll be more like a story, but written in a step-by-step format so that you can see what I actually did with the aim of you thinking about how you could do something similar – because the steps are bound to be the same even though the individual stories will be different.
Now one thing I’ve learned in all this is not to presume what people are going to want to know. If I’m going to go to the trouble of writing a guide that I give away for free, it makes far more sense to first find out what people actually want to know – so that I can then include that info in the guide.
So this means that you get to participate in this process. I’ve set up a survey – just a short one – four questions – and when you fill in your questions and tell me what you want to know, then I’ll include the answers in the guide AND put you on the list to be the first to receive it. Sound like a plan?
Oh, and apparently, if I include the word NOW in the next line, you’ll be more likely to go do it now, so watch this:
There have been many analogies to help explain the internet – but the best analogy is the brain. Not only is it an analogy – but it’s a direct comparison. As Jeffrey Stibel says, the internet is not like a brain – it is a brain.
Having a background in neuroscience – it’s easy to see the similarities. But rather than this just being a compare and contrast exercise, there is good reason to understand why the internet is a brain. You can look at the way the brain functions to create hyper-awareness of information to help understand how to create hyper-awareness on the internet.
Here are just a few simple examples of brain-internet similarities.
The brain is a large network of interconnected neurons, and the internet is a large network of interconnected computers
The brain isn’t about neurons, but about communication between neurons, and the internet isn’t about computers but about communication between computers
Both the brain and the internet are all about human communication.
One of the key ways humans communicate is with language, and one of the key ways that the internet communicates is through keywords (or search terms).
The functional unit of the brain is a synapse – the connection between two neurons. The functional unit of the internet is the hyperlink – the connection between two different locations or webpages (or specific URLs).
The more information that passes through a synapse, the ’stronger’ that synapse becomes. The more information that passes through a neural pathway, the stronger that neural pathway becomes due to an increase in the number of synapses. The more traffic that passes through a ‘web pathway’ (through hyperlinks) the stronger that pathway becomes due to an increase in the number of hyperlinks.
Because there is ‘too much information’ our brain has filters to reduce the noise and only allow important information through to consciousness. Because there is too much information on the internet, the internet also has filters to reduce noise and promote important information. One example of such a filter is Google search. It filters millions of websites so that it can display the most appropriate website amongst all that noise. The bigger example is social media, where the crowd is the filter. The crowd filters information by either sharing it or not sharing it, by ‘liking’ it or ‘not liking it’, by rating it or not rating it, by ‘flagging’ it as inappropriate or not flagging it.
We only become aware of something if it passes through our filters and hit’s our consciousness, and we only become aware of something on the internet when it passes through the filters and hit’s our consciousness
When a brain becomes consciously aware of information it may amplify the signal to create hyper-awareness – and an example of this is hyper-algesia (a heightened awareness of pain). Likewise, when an individual becomes consciously aware of information on the internet they may amplify the signal by sharing or promoting that information to their friends or contacts. This is the start of something going ‘viral’ and is the mechanism by which the market can create hyper-awareness of a website, song, video, image, product or service. The internet works to filter out the noise but amplify the signal of something that passes through the filter in order to more clearly evaluate the importance of that signal. The more people who share a particular ‘thing’ online, the more it get’s shared. The more that particular thing gets shared, the more the search engines become aware of it and rank it highly in their search results. The higher the particular ‘thing’ is ranked in search engines, the more people ‘find it’, and the more they find it, the more they share it.
What does all this mean? Let’s work backwards. If you want to create hyper-awareness of anything online, be it a product, service, charity, public health message – whatever – then you need to be able to get that information through he filters of the internet so that it reaches the consciousness of the group or market that you’re targeting. In order to do this, you must understand the filters and how to pass through them. Those filters are ’search filters’ (e.g Google) and ’social filters’ (e.g social media).
The functional unit is “keywords contained in hyperlinks”, and this has now expanded to include images, audio and video contained in hyperlinks. Still, the ‘keywords’ are at the center of how the internet-brain organizes everything, and so keywords are the essential starting point for any online promotion.
Keywords start out life as ‘an idea’ in someones brain … but that’s for another post. Thanks for reading.
Google reader is a browser based application that enables you to receive updates or notifications from anywhere on the web that has an rss feed – the little symbol (usually orange) with the embossed radio waves.
Basically, instead of you having to keep visiting all the websites you follow to see if they’ve made an update, you simply subscribe to those websites from your Google reader, and whenever there is an update, you’ll be automatically notified within the Google reader application. Think of Google reader like your email program. You don’t go to the outboxes of your friends and contacts to see if they’ve left you a message – instead, when they send you a message, you get automatically notified in your email program. Same deal with Google reader, except that it’s a program to receive automatic updates …Read more
“Oooooohhhh … would ya look at that … now that’s what I call an opportunity. Grrrrrrr … just imagine what you could do.”
The problem with this picture is that a lot of people only ever imagine … far fewer actually do something. This is why I call them ‘opportunity voyeurs’. They look. They analyze. The calculate. They contemplate. But they never step into the opportunity.
I wonder – out of 300+ – how many were just there as voyeurs? If I were to get all scientific about this, I would describe the opportunity voyeur as being stuck in a state of pre-action – the “chronic contemplater”. The person who is aware of the possibilities but who just can’t get over the line and take action. We see this all the time in public health – people who know the consequences of smoking, or speeding, or alcohol abuse – people who contemplate changing their behaviour but who just can’t get over the line and take action.
So, this isn’t some cheap and nasty personal development BS – this is a real phenomenon experienced by real people, and it’s a real problem being contemplated by public health officials and researchers all over the world.
They are asking, “how do we get people to change their behaviour”?
And whether you are trying to give up a ‘bad’ habit or trying to start a ‘good’ habit – it’s the same stuff and involves people having to change their behaviour.
Human behaviour change has been an interest of mine for well over a decade. It first started as a health care intervention when I was working in that area – how to get people to exercise, change their diet, change their posture etc. Then my understanding of human behaviour change developed in a broader sense to encompass more than just illness prevention or treatment. I saw that human behaviour change was also necessary for people to develop a positive self-concept, to achieve long-term goals – and yes – even to be happy or content.
I see these last things – positive self concept, achievement, happiness and contentment as completely legitimate and highly relevant public health goals – just as is reducing the incidence of smoking and drink driving accidents.
It can be perplexing as to why people don’t change their behaviour – especially when it is in their best interests to do so?
Why don’t they slow down on the high fat foods?
Why don’t they learn anger management?
Why don’t they give up smoking?
Why don’t they curb their spending habits and reduce their (bad non-tax deductible) debt?
Why don’t they budget?
Why don’t they invest?
Why don’t they start doing what they’ve been dreaming of doing for years?
These are the questions I asked my self more and more frequently as I consulted patients – who predominantly presented to me with pain problems but who also struggled with bigger life problems. What I got to see after 10 years as a health professional was a common pattern in which people’s external everyday behaviour was not congruent with their internal desires, goals, and dreams. They were sacrificing the opportunity to do what they really wanted to do … often for a far less rewarding behaviour like the daily grind of a job that they didn’t like, that didn’t inspire them, and that often involved personal conflict with other equally unsatisfied employees.
Of course, not everyone is like this – but there is a large group of people who are.
This is the pattern of hebaviour. They read books about change – but never change. They read books about property investing – but never buy an investment property. They read books about share trading – but never invest in shares. They read books about starting a business – but never start a business.
It’s like they’re addicted to the books – but never live the reality. This is the opportunity voyeur.
My thoughts today aren’t so warm and fuzzy. Only because I haven’t been gentle on myself today and I thought you might like a glimpse of how I coach myself.
In order to progress to the ‘next level’ we often have to “act in the absence of knowing the outcome” and I use the word “knowing” loosely. So far as I can tell, this is also called Faith. Every time you are faced with the potential to undergo substantial growth in a short period of time, you have to weigh up the cost of taking that action without knowing the outcome. You have to suspend your disbelief.
And we humans aren’t that smart at the best of times, and so we don’t weigh up the ‘true cost’ we weigh up the ‘perceived cost’. And that ‘perceived cost’ can put a chill down your spine and a sinking feeling in your gut.
But, here you are – at the point of decision. Are you going to do it – or are you going to back down from the challenge.
I have been working pretty hard on myself of late – and I aint backing down. And every time I get that sinking feeling or those nagging thoughts of self-doubt I don’t have to make decision to keep on going because I have already made the decision to keep on going.
The way I see it, if I want to do something and I think about it all the time and I tell other people it’s what I’m going to do – but then when it comes to actually doing it I stumble and procrastinate and excuse myself from action – then basically it means I either don’t believe it will be successful or I don’t really want it. The way I see it, there is no middle ground. I am either going to do it or not. And if I’m going to do it then I need to either believe it or act as if I believe in it.
It’s like bungee jumping – you can’t half do it. You either step off or not.
Conversely, if you’re not going to do it, then save yourself and everyone around you from the boring “chronic contemplation syndrome”. Just stop pretending you’re going to do X, Y or Z and move onto something else. This is not a cop out, but a powerful strategy. Admitting you don’t really want to do something enables you to back out and re-direct all that energy and time into something that you ARE going to do.
In all my work in health care – and now after having spoken to hundreds and hundreds of people at seminars – this issue keeps cropping up: people say they want something, but do not act as if they want it. And to me that’s just plain boring. Why do they waste their time – and everyone elses – ‘pretending’ that they’re going to do something when in actuality they are not.
Many of us are lucky enough to live in a country where the risk of doing something new – of trying something out – is pretty low. What’s the worst that could happen? Failure? Big deal.
Believe in what you do. If you don’t know for sure that it will all work out, then act as if you believe it anyway. Otherwise, do yourself – and everyone else a favor – and stop pretending you’re going to do it.
So, where does this tie into my story? Today I continued to take steps in the direction I want to move in – despite the uncertainty – despite the risk of failure.
Reflecting on this post, it is an easy target for the cynical and skeptical. It sounds cliched. Hyped. I don’t care. I’m no motivational speaker or life coach. I don’t have fancy techniques and strategies or life manuals. I have had a unique opportunity to observe thousands of people who are ‘not getting stuff done’ – and I’m just keeping myself on target and refusing to take any crap from my own mind.
Since writing this post, I came across another post by David Bullock which I thought was a perfect match for this. In his post, he included this video of a TED talk about what makes success.
Way back when I studied biomechanics at University, we learned about levers. And there are three main classes (1, 2, 3). The key thing about levers is that they provide leverage, which I now just describe as getting more done with the same or less amount of effort.
Of ...
Dunno why, but I find myself thinking about where I’ve come from and where I’m going. Wherever it is I’m going, it seems I’m going there really fast. I’ve had a bit of time ‘off’ over the summer and am starting to get back into things with speaking engagements in ...
Coming up sometime this year I will release a book I’ve been sitting on for a while now called P2A: Possibility to Actuality – otherwise known in my house as how to make stuff happen.
Some people believe success is only for those with natural talent. Other people believe success is ...
