You'll Find What You've Trained Yourself to See: Now It's Up To You, So Change It Up

I know that may sound a little too… tidy; I get it. I do.

But as I said, I stand behind it for many reasons.

Happy people have problems for sure, and frustrated people are not imagining every obstacle in their path. Some roadblocks are quite real, sadly inconvenient, and occasionally wearing a name tag pinned on an ill-fitting jacket.

But we still have a few things to look at, and so we shall, so have a seat.

Our brains are remarkably adept at making sure we are right. It wants us to be happy, no matter how hard we fight to be negative.

So if we say people are out to get us, our little brains will be all in on finding the culprits at every corner. When we are frustrated, we begin monitoring the world for confirmation.

“That won’t work.”
”Nobody wants this.”
”I’m too old.”
”The market is terrible.”
”AI ruined everything.”

“I don’t have the money, time, connections, equipment, audience, or that stupid secret handshake.”

Your brain hears this shit and gets to work to confirm it. That is literally its job.

The more roadblocks we look for, the more we find.
Eventually, we stop seeing anything else.

But wait a minute… does that mean opportunity works the same way?

You nailed it, Bucky. Sure does.

When we begin asking different questions, we notice different things.

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“What could I make with what I already have?”
”Who needs something I know how to do?”
”What problem keeps appearing?”
”What could I improve?”
”Who could I help?”
”What could I try before lunch?”

Opportunities are not as rare as we tell ourselves they are.

They are everywhere.

They don’t have PR firms or a social media following; they are just there all around us, watching and listening and hoping to be seen.

(Yep, I just anthropomorphized opportunities.)

They’ll show up as small problems, unfinished ideas, sometimes disregarded people, awkward systems, and unanswered questions that seem to have lingered for decades.

Or maybe it’s something that should simply be better than it is now. Like a potato peeler that needs a Bluetooth app to measure the weight of the potato peels.

You know… or something.

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I have often said that happiness creates the window for opportunities to enter.

So we just have to wait to be happy for a chance to do stuff? -ed

No.
Looking for opportunities is what we do first.

When we make the deliberate choice to look for opportunities, the act of seeking creates a little happiness all on its own.

You notice something.
You get a little curious.
So you try something.
Almost without noticing it, you begin moving again.

Movement matters.

Frustration lives to create stagnation. It grows fat sitting in the same blue reclining chair, smoking cheap cigars and repeating the same complaints over and over again. Bah… boring AF, isn’t it?

But opportunity just asks us to maybe just take a closer look. See beyond the obvious. Listen to sound of something new. Or old. Or undiscovered.

I don’t think of this as worn-out ol’ positive thinking, though.

Positive thinking without action is just daydreaming with an obnoxiously better brand.

I’m talking about deliberate attention.

It means training yourself to notice little openings and look past the gates and locked doors. Peek over the garden wall.

Then choose a destination, an approach, a goal… and get to work on it.

You may not become deliriously overjoyed by this Tuesday or even next Friday afternoon before your Aunt Sara and her annoying boyfriend come over for drinks on the patio.

But you know what you will be doing?

Even if only a little bit.

And you will no longer be standing still in the muck waiting for the world to come along like the ice cream truck playing cloying jingles to improve your mood and give you a free Choco-Taco.

Get busy and buy your own damned Choco-Taco.

Nobody owes you a Choco-Taco, bro.

For the people who still believe great work matters.

Creativity isn’t getting easier.
The tools we use are. They definitely are.
And that changes the equation.

So every week, I write about better thinking, stronger creative skills, AI without the hype, and building a creative life that can survive whatever comes next.

No fluff. No hustle porn. No BS.

Just practical ideas for independent creatives who refuse to become average.

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