Given the current state of affairs it’s easy to understand why so many things seem insane. However, the reason it can seem that way for so many is due to an inability to examine the evidence. This is down to how engaged we are on an emotional level
The same can be said when it comes to problem solving, be it for a Hobbyist or for a Deductionist such as yourselves.
”It is of the first importance,” he said, “not to allow your judgment to be biased by personal qualities. A client is to me a mere unit,–a factor in a problem. The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning”
We, as a race, struggle to think rationally when our emotions are engaged. To my mind this represents the reason why Sherlock Holmes was such a prolific problem solver – he could control his responses. This would give the cold, calculating veneer that so many are used to seeing. When you examine what he actually did, the veil can be lifted. He examined the evidence and then solved the case, without being dragged down into the cloudy mess of the lives he had to peer into.
I am not understating that these are difficult times that lie ahead of all of us but would they seem as difficult if words like VIRUS, PANDEMIC, DEATH TOLL, JOHNSON, BORIS weren’t used every day. I imagine that we would be less on edge if we were faced with facts such as the closure of emergency hospitals because cases are depleting. CO2 emissions are down, the healthy are getting better. When we are faced with an investigation for a detective, our little voice inside of our heads tell us to see and count the tears, how awful it must be for this person, they wouldn’t lie to me. We may miss the important parapraxis, the person perspective in speech, masked expressions, false emotional time displays and gestural emblems that would lead you to make a more direct read.
This leaves an important question, how do I control this? It will take practice but can be done. It starts with controlling that little voice inside of your head that tells you stories in relation to a situation. I have developed hundreds of games to help you do this. One of my personal favourites is ’The Room Game’.
Simply put take a room that you know very well. A room that has a lot of traffic and take as detailed a mental picture as you possibly can. Leave the room and let some traffic occur. Upon return you are to compare what you see now with what you have in your head. Your limbic system response will be telling you that this is too hard, there is too much information, this is a problem only Sherlock Holmes could solve. The joy of this game is that as it is a room you know, you can confirm your reads. The differences you recall will help you to abduce the action that has occurred. The simplicity of this game is multi layered in its benefits for you as a profiler. As your recall grows, your confidence will grow, your reactance to new scenes and therefore emotional control will grow, the more you recall the sharper you become and the more details you see in the situations you are in.
You are faced with a logic problem, are you now going to be thinking ‘I will never do this’ if you are faced with a fitness goal, are you now going to be thinking ‘I will never get there’? I would wager that after a few months of this you will see the evidence, the data, the actions that can be taken instead of what is antagonistic to the clear reasoning you need.
Here is one for you. You are a detective called to the scene of a death. A body is on the floor outside of a 3 storey car park. You go to the first floor and open the window to look out at the scene below then head to the next floor to open the window and look down and then the same on the top floor. You then head back down to the scene to talk to the CSI guys who confirm how far he must have jumped to have the damage to the body. You tell them this is now a murder investigation. How? Examine the evidence as everything you need to solve it is there. Keep your emotions quiet, the game is afoot!
On a personal note, if you are in a shopping queue with 60 loo rolls and 30 bags of pasta, then you have fallen foul of the clear reasoning needed. If they are for those more vulnerable than yourselves, then I applaud you as you have the making of a very rational thought process.
Don’t forget to check out my 1 on 1 coaching sessions pages to book in your slot for a more in-depth tutorial in how to use the Sherlockian approach to aid you in your day to day lives. Click here
To explore what life would be like through the eyes of Sherlock Holmes, get yours here. MX Publishing Link to get your own copy!
So here we understand that theRe are two types of problems in this world, ones we can solve and ones we can’t yet. Why worry about either? A dear friend of mine has recently said that he was aware of this process but was not truly aware of the benefits of owning this quality. It’s your time now!
Do stay in touch.
Ben
