Search Engine Thinking

Have you ever wondered why, when you feel negative, anxious or perhaps like a failure at something, you continue to feel that way until something trips the cycle? It’s a lousy way to think. And it’s one we actually choose.

A credit to Darren Hardy for pointing this out in one of his daily podcasts called “Search Engine Thinking”.

With Google, just type in the word “negative” in the search box, and what will you get?  Google will automatically search for entries related to the word “negative,” and it will find over 551,000,000 hits in .54 seconds. Now try the word “anxious” and you’ll get 75,700,000 hits in .63 seconds.  How about the word “failure” – try 491,000,000 in .55 seconds.

Pretty exciting, isn’t it?

As Darren put it, our minds are like a “mental Google,” meaning that our thoughts immediately and automatically initiate search results to define, describe and support those original thoughts. We think we’re a failure, so our mind finds the necessary research to support that thought. And, by the way, it’s very good at this.

Of course, this is true with positive words as well. So what’s the big deal? Google doesn’t care, but we do. What our mind plugs into the search results, we are emotionally tied to because they represent our experiences, or perceptions of them. You see how this is a problem. Think a thought and get a corresponding result, which supports that original thought, and, of course, elicits another thought...

The good news... We pick what gets entered.  We are the author; no thought gets in without our approval.  Whether conscious or unconscious, it’s still our choice. And more good news… Eventually, through habit formation, we can influence the result of what we search. Even the word “failure” can soon become a positive search experience when we recognize that every success is usually preceded by some failures.

Money, marriage, work, finances, health, weather - plenty to think about. Let’s make these positive searches in our “Mental Google”.

By the way, out of sheer curiosity, I just entered the word “success” in Google Search and I received 1 Billion, 99 million hits in .47 seconds! That’s more hits in less time than any of the others.  I like that result.