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YOUR CAPACITIES
Concepts
A
shortcut to practice
You certainly understand the meaning of the word
“television”. But have you ever stopped to think about how many
information is linked to this word? The TV set, its general functioning,
how images and sounds are produced, sent and received, artists and
presenters, what you have already watched, your preferences, what you
plan to watch… And it’s not just that. varied feelings and emotions can
be associated to the idea of television: about specific programs (like,
don’t like), feelings about specific artists, channels, shows and
others. It’s a huge amount of information, which you deal with in more
generic or specific levels according to the situation, but which make
sense for you from one only essential idea: television.
This is the power of concepts and ideas, consequence of the ability we
have to deal with big blocks of information as a unique one. Maybe
that’s why Robert B. Dilts said that “a word worths more than a thousand
images”!
Besides it can be used to understand, a concept can be used to action.
In the case of television, for example, you have some behaviors that can
be executed, that is, some possibilities: turn on and off, change
channel, control the image, to watch video. The power of a concept gets
enhanced when we have options of action linked to the concept. This
happens even with the abstract concepts. What are the actions related to
the expression and concept “romantic love” that come to your mind? And
to “relax when tired”? Well, some people have aggressive actions linked
to the word "peace", but that's a collateral effect of our freedom and
flexibility!
There’s a kind of law, empirically determined, that says that we humans
are capable of dealing with 5 to 9, media 7, units of information at
once. Admitting that this is true, and considering our capacity of
dealing with concepts, we can in fact be considering thousands of things
at one time, since they are structured and organized in up to 9 ideas.
The idea of “concept” is itself a concept. One person can have, linked
to this, other ideas like “theory”, “philosophy” or “without practical
value”. As you can see, it’s just a matter of what possibilities the
person has attached to the concept. Here we show that concepts can be
useful, when we can link actions to each one which put them at the
service of our purposes.
To install a concept, hence, as it is applied in this site, is a
strategy of integration of thoughts, ideas, actions and emotions.
Whenever you find one, be sure it’s bringing new possibilities to you!
See Day-to-day: Situational awareness
for an example of an applied concept.
V. V. Vilela
Editor
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