Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning.

A man with a violin plays six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately two thousand people passed  through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After 3 minutes a middle-aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.  

4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: A woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk. 

6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.  

10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave  money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a  total of $32.

1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest  musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever  written, with a violin valued at $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold out a theatre in Boston where the price of seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and  people’s priorities.

The questions raised: in a commonplace  environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment?

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made… what else are we missing?

The psychological angle

Humans tend to practice an advanced form of mental deletion. We do this to protect our fragile minds from the sensory overload that the rich experience of waking life offers us.

Simply put, there is just way to much to pay attention to. We have to delete a huge portion of the experience available to us, in order to focus on the task at hand.

Completing such tasks are often necessary for our survival. But…

There is a grand irony concerning the folks at the train station, rushing to work to make a the next buck.

Beyond food and shelter, we work for money that is then exchanged for “experience” – tropical holidays, entertaining diversions and the occasional concert.

Sometimes it’s worth pausing in our journey, if only to enjoy the accidental rewards we encounter along the way.

What do you think? (Reply with a comment below)

Now is that a straight forward, in-your-face, title for a blog post or what?

Today, I’m going to share with you a technique to change other people’s behaviours – you should be able to read & use this in five minutes… it’s that easy.

This technique comes straight from the NLP textbook – as any therapist will tell you, the biggest thing that stops people doing what they know is best for them (like quitting smoking, getting a real job or making more sales) is them.

Self sabotage happens because people feel comfortable living within their current behaviours and the results they produce.

The reason that people manage to feel comfortable is a simple one: The behaviours make them feel good – in the current moment.

Smoking feels good now (if you’re addicted) and you can always quit tomorrow.

Being unemployed (or under-unemployed) is easiest today and you can try harder tomorrow.

Bringing in sales results can happen before the month ends – the internet is fun today!

Here’s the technique to counter-act this thinking:

1. Ask the person to consider what will happen if they continue the current behaviour for the next 3 months, 1 year and 5 years.
2. Ask the person to consider how easy it has been to maintain the current behaviour over the previous number of weeks/months… despite the constant inner belief that they can change at any moment.
3. Connect the dots: Yes, it was so easy to develop these ineffective behaviours – so easy that it will probably continue…
4. Ask them what they want to do about it.

It’s that simple – as soon as someone realises that their history of ineffective behaviours is pointing towards a similar future, they’ll get motivated to make that important change happen.