The Reality Distortion Bubble

Delusion is a secret weapon for success.

There’s reality. Then there’s your reality.

The two are not the same.

Reality just is.

Your reality is how you see things. How you bend them to your vision.

Reality might be that your company is not growing.

Your reality is that you have an incredible vision to turn this company around and get it to thrive.

If you stay in this reality — the reality of your vision — you become impervious to what Shakespeare called “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.”

In your reality, you can deal with losing talent, because you are going to bring in folks who are better.

In your reality, you can deal with a terrible meeting because you are in the process of fixing things.

In your reality you can deal with modest revenue, because you know very soon, you will win a big piece of business. And run it efficiently.

Does this sound like some kind of business delusion?

It is. And I call it the Reality Distortion Bubble.

When I coach people, I often ask them to develop one.

Because reality just might sink your ship. But a Reality Distortion Bubble will help you float.

I first heard about Reality Distortion from Steve Jobs.

A colleague of his at Apple referred to Steve’s ability to convince anyone to do anything as his “Reality Distortion Field” (RDF). The RDF describes Jobs' ability to motivate his team to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks through a mix of charm, persistence, and an unwavering belief that they could make the improbable happen.

One of the anecdotes of Steve’s RDF happened during he original development of the Macintosh. The reality was that the Mac’s software development would take years. Steve demanded that it be done in 10 months.

Impossible? That’s just an opinion. Not Reality Distortion reality.

And sure enough, the Mac team got the Mac ready in months. Not years.

There are plenty of Apple stories like this that prove the point.

Steve had a field. A way he saw things.

I am offering you a bubble. It’s a way to see things in a more positive light. And it’s a way to protect you from the inevitable negative forces. They simply bounce off the bubble.

To round out the bubble, Carl Jung, the scientific force and legendary founder of analytical psychology wrote: “We create the meaning of events. The meaning is and always was artificial. We make it.”

You see, there’s reality. And there’s your reality.

Create a Reality Distortion Bubble for yourself.

Step inside.

You’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.

Image: Adobe Firefly