Our minds are occupied with a jumble of thoughts. It distracts us from new opportunities. But when we define an objective in our mind, we can easily identify those new opportunities. Let me explain this with “The Red Car Theory.”
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What is the Red car theory?
If I asked you, How many red cars you noticed on your way home? You would say, you can’t remember.
But if I told you that I would pay 10 bucks for every red car you notice on the streets, suddenly you will pay attention to every red car around you. It doesn’t mean that suddenly you are being surrounded by red cars, they were always around you. You are noticing them now.
Similarly, opportunities are always around us, we notice them when we purposely look for them.
How The Red car theory reflects our mindset?
Our mind is lazy. It filters out events that it thinks are useless.
Take the example of the street next to your house. Whenever you take a walk on that street your mind starts daydreaming about irrelevant events instead of giving attention to the surroundings. This is because your mind is lazy and it does not want to store new memories.
You have walked on that street for years. Your mind knows every pit or turn exits on that route. There is no new data that your mind thinks is important. Hence it distracts you with daydreaming (with data that already exists in your mind.)
Similarly, when we are stuck in the same daily routine, our minds do not notice the changes happening around us, and we miss new opportunities.
How to apply “The Red car theory” in life?
Sometimes, what we are looking for is next to us, but we carelessly ignore it. Finding new opportunities is not only about your career. It applies to all decisions that you will make in life.
Whether you want to lose weight or want to get out of the toxic relationship. Looking for a new life partner or trying to spend more time with your children. Planning for a long vacation or trying to fix your shattered love life. Everything is possible and the solution is around you.
Below are a few tips for harnessing the power of the Red car theory in life.
1. Define an objective:
To define an objective, start by writing down your goals and read them often. This helps clear up the confusion in your mind. Since our minds are full of random thoughts, writing down goals highlights what’s important. This way, your mind can focus on spotting opportunities that match those goals in your daily life.
2. Be flexible:
Why are you looking for new opportunities? To create change in your life, right? But with change comes new challenges, and you need to be flexible to handle them. A rigid person struggles to seize new opportunities because they can’t easily adapt to change. So, it’s important to stay flexible.
3. Be Curious:
Ever wondered, “Why do kids learn new things so fast?” Kids learn new things quickly because they are naturally curious about the world. This curiosity drives them to explore, ask questions, and seek out new experiences. When you stay curious, you open yourself up to learning and discovering new things. Being curious helps you spot opportunities that you might otherwise miss. Embracing curiosity can lead to personal growth and exciting possibilities in your life.
4. Learn new skills:
Learning opens the door to more opportunities than anything else in the world. It’s not just about career-related skills; self-improvement, mindset management, meditation, personal grooming, confidence-building, communication, and relationship-building are also essential skills. By developing these skills, you become more aware of your surroundings and better equipped to recognize new opportunities that align with your goals and interests. This broader perspective allows you to seize chances that you might have otherwise overlooked.
5. Selective Awareness:
Our mind can’t remember everything. You are surrounded by so much information that your brain can’t take it all in. As a result, your mind ignores most of the things happening around you. Selective awareness means training your mind to focus on specific types of opportunities that you want to notice. By doing this, you can pay more attention to what really matters to you.
6. Stop Daydreaming:
Daydreaming keeps you detached from the world around you. You cannot identify new opportunities if your mind is distracted with daydreaming. It is difficult to stop daydreaming, but we can try to be in the present world.
How can we control daydreaming?
In red car theory, we tell our mind to notice red cars on streets, but if you are distracted by the fantasy world that you have built in your mind, you cannot identify red cars on streets. But if you repeatedly tell your mind to look for the red cars, it will stop daydreaming and it will focus on its surroundings. Hence defining an objective for the mind is important.
7. The butterfly effect:
“A butterfly caused the cyclone.” Would you believe in it? It is not possible, right?
But imagine a butterfly flips its wings. It propelled the surrounding wind. The gentle wind mingled with a gust of wind and turned into a tornado. And finally, the tornado turned into a cyclone. It all started when the butterfly flipped its tiny wings.
Your small actions are important. With time they will turn into big events. No matter how small your actions are, remember even the butterfly can cause a cyclone. Make little changes in your daily routine. With time it will attract new opportunities.
If you want to read about “How little changes in your daily routine can change your life forever. Then I explained it in my previous article “The Butterfly Effect.”
Conclusion:
Life is easy but we make it complicated with overthinking and daydreaming. We always cry for missed opportunities in the past but never focus on the present. Similar opportunities are around us but we are ignoring them the way we ignore red cars on streets.
- Define an objective for your mind to harness new opportunities.
- Be curious and notice the little changes happening around you.
- Acquire new skills, it will attract new opportunities.
FAQ:
Q: What does the red car theory mean?
A: The red car theory suggests when you think about the “Red car” you start noticing it everywhere. It doesn’t mean that you are suddenly surrounded by red cars. They were always around you. You are noticing them now. Similarly, you are surrounded by new opportunities too and you can find it only if you decide to notice it.
Q: What is the red car concept?
A: The red car theory is associated with selective awareness. When we define an objective for our mind, it tries to fulfill that objective and identifies new opportunities in the surroundings.
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