Penny Casselman [00:00:00]:
Illusions can work both ways. They can be a deterrent for us or more importantly, how can we use illusion to help fuel our vision for a phenomenal life? How can we use illusion to boldly take action? To believe that we have what it takes and set the vision for where we wanna go so clearly that we believe it's real. And I know this is a superpower that we can all hone in if we just take a pause and learn this 1 simple reflection that I like to call pivot. Welcome to the the Pivot with Passion podcast. Hi. I'm Penny Casselman. I believe everyone is deserving of a phenomenal life, and that life starts when you grab a red marker and claim what you truly desire. Go grab your favorite beverage and let's shake things up as we explore how to pivot with passion.
Penny Casselman [00:01:14]:
Hello, my friend. Welcome to another fantastic episode of Pivot with Passion. This is my favorite part of the week. It's hump day. We are halfway through the week. There is still time to make a pivot and change how the week is gonna end. But we also have a little gauge of where we've come from. So wherever you find yourself at when you're listening to this, know that you are just 1 choice away.
Penny Casselman [00:01:44]:
Just 1 from starting to create your phenomenal life. This past weekend, I had the pleasure of joining some friends and going to a new museum that opened up here in Cleveland. It's called the Museum of illusion. And from my understanding, this is a chain of museums. They are starting to pop up all over the US. Maybe 1 is in your backyard. I will say, I felt a little old to be going there, but going once, it was totally worth it for the pictures that I snapped. As you can imagine, this museum of illusion is filled with things that trick your eye into believing something is happening or has happened that defies all logic.
Penny Casselman [00:02:42]:
Probably my favorite thing that I saw when I was there was this room big enough for 2 people. It was constructed in such a way from where you enter that you could clearly see how the illusion occurred. The floor was ramped up. The ceiling was ramped down. And truly, I entered with a friend who was over 6 feet tall. And when I stood on the left side of the room and he stood on the right side of the room, I looked 3 times taller. And from where they have you take the picture, it looks straight. I am probably not doing this full justice, but it was pretty hilarious.
Penny Casselman [00:03:33]:
And I'm sure that you have seen or experienced these some yourself. For instance, pictures that are black and white that the way the patterns run across make you feel and believe that the lines are not straight. When in fact, if you took a ruler and held it up to the picture, they were perfectly straight. But the illusion was made based on the light and all of the other elements that enter your eye and trick your mind into believing. And I tell you this today because it got me thinking of how we create illusions for ourself inside our own minds and inside our life. Have you ever built something up in your mind to a level where you were not able to take action because you thought about it for so long from so many different angles. You decided to give up before you even started or were extremely pessimistic that it would ever happen. When I think of times that I will catastrophize an action or an activity.
Penny Casselman [00:04:57]:
For me, it's usually related to my house. 1 year, I needed mulch for the front yard. And for some reason, not having talked to anyone about what it would take to get the front mulched, I had it in my mind that it was going to be 1, 000 of dollars and extremely difficult for me to achieve. I talked to no 1. I got no quotes. I didn't ask any neighbors. I started thinking in my mind. And, honestly, over time, it felt like a reality that I was going to have to pay 1, 000 of dollars to have my front yard mulched.
Penny Casselman [00:05:40]:
Now my yard is as big as a postage stamp. So looking back now, there is no way it was going to be that much. But I had created this illusion in my mind of what was going to happen. Maybe you have found yourself doing some of this illusion work on yourself where you create this hype around something that needs to be done that gets so big and out of your control that you either shut down, you don't take action, or you just completely give up and never even try to move forward. That's what I wanna dive into today is how can we help ourselves? How could an illusion benefit us instead of being detrimental to what we're going after? It's time for a clarity cocktail. Today's clarity cocktail comes from Iris Murdoch. We live in a fantasy world, world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.
Penny Casselman [00:07:01]:
When I ran across that 1, slam dunk, this was the 1 I needed for this episode. Full stop. Iris hit the nail on the head. Too often, we don't pursue additional knowledge, ask for help, do the things that help us shed light and keep things in focus. In the realm of reality, World of illusion is fun when it's in a museum, but inflating things around us to a point where we can't move forward doesn't serve us at all. When I noodle on this, I think of all of the beliefs and ideas and circumstances that we bring with us from the moment we're born up until every action that presents itself in front of us. We carry all of those learnings, insights, missteps with us. And when we look at an action in front of us, it almost is like a fantasy world.
Penny Casselman [00:08:15]:
We have to hold ourselves accountable for pulling apart items that are true and items that hold no basis in reality. And when I think about her charge to say the great task in life is to find reality, it is just simply a call to action, call to question what we see, be curious. What might I be misinterpreting? Is it possible that what I really think is true? Or perhaps conversely, what I really think might be wrong. It's up to us to stay curious. Be amazed by the illusion in front of us, but know how to drill down, parse it out, and move forward with purpose. So thank you so much, Iris Murdoch, for this fantastic quote. We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.
Penny Casselman [00:09:25]:
And now back to the episode. Cheers. Circling back to our idea of you are 1 choice away from creating a phenomenal life. There was a study last year by the University College of London researchers, which found the more vividly a person imagines something, the more likely it is that they believe it's real, because both reality and what we imagine are processed in the same part of the brain. And I think back to my trip to the museum of illusion. When I took the picture with my phone of me in that room looking 3 times taller than my friend, just looking at the picture, you would believe that I was 3 times taller, because the perspective was spot on from the vantage point of the camera. Having been in the room, I knew that the floor was slanted. I knew that things were askew, but knowing something and seeing something and trying to process those together, it kinda what made the museum fun.
Penny Casselman [00:10:40]:
Right? Because your eyes were seeing 1 thing and telling your brain something was happening, yet you knew better and something else was really occurring. And like I mentioned at the top of the episode, what I took away from this experience is truly illusions can work both ways. They can be a deterrent for us or more importantly, how can we use illusion to help fuel our vision for a phenomenal life? How can we use illusion to boldly take action, To believe that we have what it takes and set the vision for where we wanna go. So clearly that we believe it's real. And I know this is a superpower that we can all harness if we just take a pause and learn this 1 simple reflection that I like to call pivot. Oh, yes. I did absolutely come up with my own acronym for this. I will put it in the show notes, but it goes like this.
Penny Casselman [00:11:49]:
You start with a phrase rooted in fact, then you think about what I believe. So what do you believe about that phrase? That's the I. The v, I use is vent. Because when you're venting, what are you doing? You are sharing emotion. What are you feeling about that statement? Then the O is what would someone observe. Someone looking from the outside in, what would be observable to them that you do? And the last 1 is t for the end. What would be the end result if all of those statements held true? You're probably thinking, okay. I have no idea what you've just said.
Penny Casselman [00:12:38]:
Let me take you through this pivot model with a negative bent, with a poor illusion, shall we say, that is personal experience of mine that has happened within the last year. So if we run through pivot in this example, it goes something like this. P, the phrase that I will share is, I completely froze during a speech. This is a fact. I, I believe. If I'm taking this down a negative road, I believe that means I am not a good speaker. Vent v. How do I feel? I feel that I will never reach my goal of being a speaker.
Penny Casselman [00:13:26]:
What would someone on the outside observe? They might observe that I quit taking action to support my speaking career. They might observe, I don't talk about speaking anymore. And what's the end result? The t is that I give up on my pursuit of a speaking career. Do you see how going through that pivot model, I have created an illusion with an extremely negative bent? But let's flip it, because I want us to take a pause when we encounter illusions that feel heavy or negative. And take a beat and apply this pivot in a positive and exciting illusion moving forward. We'll start with the exact same phrase. I completely froze during a speech. The I, I believe every speaker has this happen at some point in their career.
Penny Casselman [00:14:28]:
V, vent. How does that make me feel? I feel like I am right on track to achieve my goal. O, what might someone observe from the outside? I laugh about this freezing on stage. I continue to talk about speaking and what I'm passionate about. And in t, the end, they'll see me standing on more stages, speaking to more people. Now I hope that was a really clear illustration of exactly how the exact same phrase backed can go down 2 different paths. And I am only 1 choice away. It's in that eye.
Penny Casselman [00:15:14]:
The very second reflection in pivot is where everything changed. Because in the first negative way, I believe I am not meant to be a speaker, and it just went south from there. Where if I try to create the illusion, the positive, the exciting illusion, I believe every good speaker has had that happen. And suddenly, the illusion turns positive and keeps me on track. This is my challenge for you. When you find yourself catastrophizing something or blowing things out of proportion, pause and go through pivot. My goal with introducing this pivot model to you is to help strengthen the illusion that we are after in our lives. Because so many of us, myself included, aren't where we want to be yet, yet.
Penny Casselman [00:16:14]:
We'll get there. The illusion is in front of us. And like affirmations, this pivot model also helps to fill in the gap between where we are and where we want to be. Because in this model, you are 1 choice away from turning something negative into something amazing and positive. So this week, let's choose to alter 1 perspective. Create that positive illusion. Make it so tangible, so strong that we believe it. We are ready to take action and we create a phenomenal life.
Penny Casselman [00:16:58]:
My friend, if you live in the United States, whatever it is you do to recognize the 4th July holiday, make the most of it and enjoy yourself. And I will see you back here next week. Friend, thanks for listening to this episode of pivot with passion. If you've been feeling stuck, exhausted, or frustrated, this is your permission slip to go grab a red marker and claim the life you desire and deserve. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend, and then hop over to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. Because my goal is to put a red marker in everyone's hand, and I need your help to spread the word and make that happen. Until the next episode, go grab a red marker, Get excited for your future and make your first move to pivot with passion.
