The Sense of Vision and the Missing Watch

The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get the old ones out.

-Dee Hock

The human visual system is a pattern seeker of enormous power and subtlety. The eye and the visual cortex of the brain form a massively parallel processor that provides the highest bandwidth channel into your cognitive centers. You rely more on the sense of vision than on any other of the senses.

When compared to our other senses, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, which are like narrow alleyways paved in cobblestone; vision is like a superhighway.

No doubt about those facts. None. But you still need to rely on your brain to decide on how to use all of your senses. Here a simple story about a missing watch we found to illustrate our point (author unknown):

There once was a farmer who discovered that he had lost his watch in the barn. It was no ordinary watch because it was a family heirloom and had great sentimental value for him.

After searching high and low among the hay for a long while; he gave up and enlisted the help of a group of children that liked to play outside the barn.

He promised them that the person who found it would be rewarded.

Hearing this, the children hurried inside the barn, went through and around the entire stack of hay but still could not find the watch. Just when the farmer was about to give up looking for his watch, a little boy went up to him and asked to be given another chance.

The farmer looked at him and thought, “Why not? After all, this kid looks sincere enough.”

So the farmer sent the little boy back to the barn. After a while, the little boy came out with the watch in his hand! The farmer was both happy and surprised and so he asked the boy how he succeeded where he and the rest had failed.

The boy replied, “I did nothing but sit on the ground and listen. In the silence, I heard the ticking of the watch and just looked for it in that direction.”

Taking a few minutes to think about the problem allowed the young boy to think about how best to apply his senses.

Allow a few minutes of silence for your mind every day, and see how sharply it helps you to set yourself up the way you want it to be!

Remember, don’t let what you know influences what you can imagine.