Counter Intuitive: Advantages Outside of Conventional Thinking

Welcome to another episode of Halftime Talks. My name is Rahim Rasul, and you’re listening to the podcast that recognizes that in the middle of your game of life, whether you’re up by 10 or down by 20, we all need halftime talks to uplift us, inspire us and challenge us to bring that level of performance it’s gonna take to win the game.

Thank you guys for tuning in to another episode. I want to say, I want to share that these are evergreen episodes. Make sure you go to our catalog and check out some cool tangential episodes. Pretty cool catalog. But let’s start with some appreciation. Today. I want to appreciate those moments, the moments that I know you’ve had because I’ve had them, the moments when you’re able to see your own growth, to see how now your response, your reaction, the way you stand, in your countenance, shows and exemplifies the growth in your performance, in your way of thinking, to know that yesterday, yesterday’s Yesterday, you were not able to do it as well as you are today.

And to see the growth, to see the transformation, to see the blossoming of skills, the blossoming of a psychology, the blossoming of a realized, I dear. I love to witness that growth, and I appreciate that growth, because it shows me who I’ve become and I am becoming. I absolutely love the appreciations. It’s a great segue into another episode, and this one is no different. Today. We’re going to be talking about counter intuitive thinking outside the box, thinking in a way that gives you the strategic advantage. So this episode means a lot to me, because I like to consider myself resourceful, and hopefully throughout this episode, there’s some nuggets that we share that give you insight and how to apply it to your daily experience.

So right now, strap in your seat belts, prepare to engage. Grab a spare piece of paper, jot some notes, because it only takes one idea to transform your life, counterintuitive, playing within the rules, but outside of convention. I’ve chosen to do this episode because it truly reflects a deep core part of me. I wanted to tell this story because there’s a part of us that accepts status quo. We accept how people have been doing it for far too long, and what is required is to counter intuitively approach common situations with uncommon responses. What I’m trying to ignite within you, within this episode is a desire to look for the borders that our assumptions have called solid and figure out how flexible, plastic, malleable they really are, because building up our toolkit, building up our ability to exploit these flexible areas that were once rigid assumptions may put us in a position to win before those things actually become rigid.

Earlier last year, I was really excited. I was excited about the Conor, McGregor, Floyd, Mayweather fight. Now, obviously we’re talking about two people who are fighters. They have fighting in common. One is an undefeated boxer of a inclined a advanced age, and the other is probably arguably one of the better pound for pound fighters of all disciplines. You put them together in a boxing ring, and anything can happen. Now, early on, a lot of people were completely against Conor McGregor, but there was something, something within him that I knew was possible. I knew he could win. If he did a few things right now, by no means am I a mixed martial arts expert?

By no means am I a boxing expert? But I, like a lot of people, I tend to see the counterintuitive unintentionality of people subscribing, complete me, to the dogma of their domain. Now I believe that Connor had a massive advantage against Floyd Mayweather. He was fighting a crystallized version of what boxing had been up to that point by accepting the rules of boxing, he was going to put himself at a disadvantage by testing the edges of what boxing could be, by testing the rules, by figuring out which lines were more gray than binary, he could find an advantage. I really love that. And his competitive advantage would be a testament to the sanctum of minds that were in his circle, and one of the people he had in a circle was a gentleman by the name of edu portal.

Edu portal is a movement specialist, a generalist of movement. His number one goal is to move and learn from ballerinas, dancers, martial artists and people who loved moving. And he’s a counterintuitive he he transfers skills and adapts skills from all types of disciplines in pursuit of understanding movement, and this guy was in Conor McGregor’s corner. Now, in order for Conor McGregor to win, from my estimation, I was really excited, because I knew Ido Portal would push him and have those conversations of being counterintuitive, being operating outside of convention by pushing the lines what was possible. In order for him to win, he would have to make Floyd play outside of his comfort zone, and the more that you force people who are rigid with a dogma to play outside of their comfort zone, they’re spending more time solving the challenges that you’re introducing than playing their own game, evolving the Game places the demand on the players to work through the challenges like if you look at the NBA right now, one of the things that has become glaringly obvious is that a seven footer can’t just be the big man with his hands up on the rim.

He has to be able to switch on the pick and roll up top guard multiple players and knock down an open shot. This makes them versatile. But these these unicorns that exist now say, Christophe, Porzingis, Ben Simmons, Joel and D and E, whatever you pronounce his name, the Greek freak. All these individuals are seven feet, and they can play the game at such a high level. Also Kevin Durant, these are seven footers who can play the game like they’re six four. They are evolving the game. And you have somebody like Dwight Howard, who is also an athletic specimen, struggling to keep up with the change.

He solved it for what it was, not what it was becoming. And if Connor had a chance, he would have to evolve what the rules of boxing were allowed. And I didn’t know what the contract what he would be able to do, but just imagine Floyd trying to solve new challenges, approaches getting hit from places, movements that were sporadic and erratic, not conventional box. No conventional boxers would do what Connor could have done before. He would immediately lose if he ever played the game on the terms that Floyd has always played. History has proven that out he was going to have to advance the game.

Unfortunately, that didn’t really happen. And kind of tried to play his game. And when it comes to boxing, he obviously lasted a lot longer than anybody had anticipated, but he fell because he played Floyd’s game. Now, when you look at the profession of law, this whole counterintuitive thing. Works, because what lawyers look for are loopholes within the law whole counterintuitive thing. Works, because what lawyers look for are loopholes within the law that they can stand and build their case on. The law doesn’t change, but understanding the intricacies of the rules and understanding which rules that we can exploit work to our favor. What assumptions are you having on the rules that you’re playing in that can be broken, that can be augmented and that can be evolved?

If you look at somebody like curry, he evolved the game of basketball by going further out, shooting off the dribble and being really quick. What are your competitive advantages? The way that you think, the way that you move once you lock yourself down and buy to the narrative and the dogma of a domain you’re subject to, the big players you always hear in professional sports, you want to dictate the pace by dictate the pace by making other people play your game, encounter intuitively and playing outside a convention, makes them solve things they haven’t seen before, they haven’t practiced before, they haven’t developed the Muscle memory the to adequately respond and negotiate the challenge that you’re setting forth, and you have within your demand, within the domain that you have the capacity develop the tools that people aren’t ready for.

And I’m not talking about radical innovation. I’m just talking about tweaks. I’m talking about layering skills upon each other in ways that may not have been seen before. So this year, you’re going to be faced with an opportunity, a Conor McGregor, Floyd Mayweather, opportunity. Are you going to play to the game that’s been playing before? Are you going to play to the dogma that people subscribe to you? Or are you going to advance it? And that’s going to be the the ultimate test. Buy into the new, buy into the evolve, check out the loopholes, or do what everybody else has been doing. So something to think about, but I know you’re capable of.

All you have to do is sit down and solve it. Once you solve it, practice it. And once you practice it, put it in game speed, make it, make it work within the facilities and within the decisions that you’re making on a day to day basis. Now the world won’t be ready for you as long as you create some handles for other people to understand it, boom, you’re in there. If you enjoyed this episode, you might want to also go back in our catalogs and check out episode number 85 different doesn’t mean better, and episode 79 creating impact the 8020 way our entire library is available on our website, halftimetalks.net, as well as the iTunes podcast library.

While you’re on there, do us a favor, SUBSCRIBE and leave a review. Not only would we love it, but it would also make our podcast more findable, discoverable for other people like you who can gain benefit from the podcast. So until next time, go out there in the second half of the game and play to win you.