Session 42

Adapting Your Vision To

New Conditions

Seeing Only Validation

1. We humans have a weird mechanism in our heads - when we think something is a
certain way, we only see things that validate our idea.
2. If we think we know how things are going to turn out, and they start not turning
out that way, we stay focused only on those things that tell us things are going to
turn out the way we think, and we fail.
3. Eben calls this Seeing Only Validation.

Scenario Planning:
1. Go and imagine multiple futures - say a positive, a negative, and a status quo and ask yourself what the road signs would be if each of these futures were
starting to materialize? When you map this out in your head first, then when the
road signs come you know exactly what they mean because you're prepared for
them. You can then adjust.
2. This is a way to overcome Emotional Estimation and Seeing Only Validation.

Whatever you're going to do, it's probably not going to work out exactly the way you
think it will.

Most people start businesses in a damaging idealistic way.

Our species has dominated because we have a trait that's expressed in us a little bit
more than in other species: adaptability (From Darwin).

Exercise:
1. Imagine a future you want to create
2. Think about two other futures that may happen instead that are very different
(things went a different direction and there were surprises).
3. Ask yourself, "What would be my key indicator, half way between now and the
future, that each of these three futures were likely to come true?

What separates the real leader powerhouses from everyone else?

1. They snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
2. C players snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
3. Superstars adapt as indicators show that their vision isn't going to happen. They
ask, "How can I use this to create the vision I want to create, but at an even higher
level?" (Eben refers to this as "Utilization")

"Waking Up" is about gaining a perspective that is closer to reality.

1. Sometimes we need shock therapy like a "bad" event to wake us up.
2. Suffering can be for our greater good. But when the storm comes, we're pulled
down into our lower selves - survival, security, etc. - we must learn to pull
ourselves out of this, ahead of time.