Cultural programming primes us. For all of the 19th century, at least, and half of the 20th war and its form were romanticized by a tightly controlled press and government propaganda. It was the Dolce et decorum est … era when the narrative of war was led by those who weren’t called to fight it but did choose to participate in it.
There comes a moment in your day, your week or your life when you have to make a critical decision. The moment you realize the magnitude of the decision you have to make you are also least likely to make the right choice.
Could the language you use determine what happens to you? Could it, even, determine what decision you will make when faced with a specific set of circumstances? One of the core concepts of The Sniper Mind: Eliminate Fear, Deal with Uncertainty, and Make Better Decisions is that it does.
“No” Is the most dangerous word in the dictionary
Words have a power that goes way beyond what they mean. Meaning is derived from context as well as knowledge (a.k.a. definition) but there is also an additional layer of associative connections that creates a truly semantic web of connections.
When a seemingly ordinary math problem becomes something that is impossible to solve the transformation reveals the boundary that marks the limit of our technological capabilities and the wonder that is the human brain. The process also teaches us something vital: just how much we can rely on our technology for our critical decision-making and at which point we need to use our own skills and talents.
We know that a brain left to its own devices is like a field left unmanaged. Yes, it is a field, but beyond what chance and nature placed there, it is unlikely to be of any great usefulness or, indeed, value. Training our brain though requires commitment and it takes effort. We need to have clear reasons for embarking upon it. So, here are fifty of them to help you: