About Out of the Blue

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BACKGROUND

While doing a FutureCatalyst Report for a client, I came up with an idea that as soon as I typed it I thought, "That's a good one. I want to try it!"

And I did and it worked so well, I developed a whole process from it.

That process includes noticing good things happening in your day-to-day life that are a surprise. They occur "Out of the Blue."

For this process I also use a technique discussed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, which I read over ten years ago. To study "flow," the state when one is engaged in self-controlled, goal-related, meaningful actions, Csikszentmihalyi gave his subjects pagers so he could interrupt them at random to ask about their flow states while they were actually in them.

Ever since I read that, I thought such a random-interruption technique would be very effective in other applications. So I also use it in the Out of the Blue process described on this page.

The Out of the Blue Process is fun and easy—and free. To find out how it works, check out my "Request for BLUES" email, below. I send it out periodically to anyone who requests this BLUES service:

Hi—

It's that time again: a random email from me asking for a BLUE from you.

[Below is a short description of what a BLUE is. After that is the long version description.]

A "BLUE" is something really neat that's happened to you "Out of the Blue." It doesn't matter how big or how small it is. All it needs to be is:

1. Really neat in some way, however small.
2. Have some element of surprise to it, however small.

You define what a BLUE is, based on those two criteria.

So here's your official "REQUEST FOR BLUES" (RFB):

Email me back
and tell me
one
really neat thing
that's happened to you in the last 2 hours
(since you opened this email and/or since you decided to reply)
that was
"out of the blue."

[And here's a long description with more about BLUES—what they are and how they work:]

You don't have to write a long description. A word or two, a phrase—that's all.

And don't worry if I understand what you email back to me or not.

The power in sending me a BLUE email is in what it does for you, not for me. (Though, as many of you know, I love getting emails about your BLUES...)

That's because the more you pay attention to really neat things happening to you "Out of the Blue," the more really neat things "Out of the Blue" will show up in your life.

And... the bigger they will get.

Don't worry if you only notice tiny things. If you start by noticing tiny things, I guarantee you'll start to see bigger and bigger really neat things happening in your life "Out of the Blue."

The people who I've gotten started doing this regularly are reporting really neat things happening in their lives because of it. That sounds like an overly "woo woo" promise but it's actually grounded in sound, scientific brain theory—the same brain theory many of you have heard me talk about for years.

Our brains filter out a lot of stuff so that we can function. (If we noticed everything possible around us—without such filtering—we'd go crazy.)

All that noticing BLUES does is shift our brain filters a bit. By looking for BLUES in your life, you'll automatically and effortlessly start to scan your environment for neat things going on in your life "Out of the Blue".

The more you notice them, the more you'll train your brain to look for them. So, the more you'll see them. And on and on.

It's the exact same phenomenon I've been talking about all along—you see a new car and then it shows up everywhere; you learn a new word and then you hear it everywhere.

Nothing really magic is happening. It's just that your brain filter has been shifted a bit so you notice that car or that word when you haven't before.

Of course, one of the best things about BLUES is that they are a surprise in some way. So...you can't do anything to "work" for them or to "struggle" for them. They are truly easy, effortless and fun to look for.

Also, please feel free to send me BLUES emails any time you notice one—not just when I send out a "Request for BLUES" email like this one.

You cannot send me too many emails. Just put the word BLUES in all caps in your subject line—that's all.

Sending me BLUES emails is one of the most powerful things you can do to start having more and more bigger and bigger BLUES show up in your life. That's not because I have any magic. It's because the very act of sending someone else an email about your BLUE will cause you to notice more BLUES in your life. And the more BLUES you notice in your life, the more you see them and the bigger they become.

RFB's (Requests for BLUES) are fun because they're random BLUES themselves—getting you to stop briefly in the middle of your day to notice something good going on in your life that's a bit of a surprise that you may not have been paying attention to.

It's a fun device. Like a game. And you get better ideas and solutions when you're relaxed and even—having fun.

If you do this for awhile, you'll start to wake up in the morning in the happy anticipation of wonderful BLUES showing up in your day. Which sure beats waking up in the morning in dreaded anticipation of something bad happening.

So, as always and most of all... have fun with this!

— Betsy

If you'd like to sign up to be on the free Request for BLUES email, send me a quick e-mail by clicking here.