MM142 - Looking without Seeing

Sometimes we look be we don’t really see and we hear but don’t really listen.

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[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Welcome to Morning Mindset. A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel. Each episode will focus on positive and productive ways to strengthen your mindset and help you improve your relationships, career goals, and overall well-being. Please welcome your host; Paul G. Markel.

*Professor Paul*

And here we go again, it's time for another Morning Mindset podcast and I am your host Paul Merkel as you know, I like to get out from behind the desk. I like to go out into the field out into the world. To find my inspiration and the topic for today is one that I came up with at least that I remembered while I was out taking my rifle for a walk one of the things I like to do to clear my head to get some inspiration to have some quiet time as I will grab a rifle and I will go out into the field and we'll take my rifle for a walk.

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Sometimes I will see things that need to be shot and sometimes I won't but either way. I take the rifle for the walk and I get some fresh air and some sunshine on my face and it helps me to think and I was remembered a situation something that happened many years ago, but I was at the public range used to have to shoot at. A public range was a members thing you signed up for membership and then they gave you the code to the gate and you would go in there and so on and so forth, but it was generally open to the public as long as you got yourself a membership.

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So there you never knew who you're going to run into or who was going to be there and I talked to this guy we were on the range of are exchanging pleasantries is like, oh, yeah. I remember you I was here, you know. Whenever last month or a few weeks ago or whatever and he said your you were having all those misfires and I thought to myself. “What is this guy talking about?”

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Now a misfire in case you don't know a misfire is when you load a cartridge into a rifle or pistol shotgun you load a cartridge in you, press the trigger and instead of going boom. It does nothing right doesn't go off for some reason whether the gun is mechanically screwed up or the ammunition is screwed up or something. Something has gone wrong, and so I'm sitting there.

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I'm thinking I would probably remember. If I had a rifle or and he was talking about me sitting he was said I was sitting at a bench and I kept having all those misfires was like I would probably remember if the rifle ammo combination was not working and it was Heaven misfires because that's something that's genuinely pretty rare and it would stand out and I thought to myself.

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I don't remember that happening to me. Anytime recently. I don't remember that then it occurred to me. See this guy had been on the Range when I was on the Range. I was sitting down at one of the benches and I was testing out a rifle and some ammunition and he'd been on the other end of the range and apparently he'd been watching or looking at what I was doing.

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What I was doing what I laughing. I'm like, oh, yeah, everything's cool or whatever and we you know said our pleasantries and what about our ways and what I realized is that he was looking at me, but he wasn't really seeing when I was doing because what I was doing is I was dry firing at the bench.

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For those of you who don't know what dry firing is it's to work the action and all the controls and everything on the rifle or pistol whatever but then this case rifle without using a piece of live ammunition. Basically you go through all the mechanics you get down behind the gun you find your target in the scope.

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You can run through your breathing remove the safety, press the trigger. You know you hear feel the hammer fall, the firing pin and all that stuff because if you can do that the ammunition knows what to do the moment the millisecond that the firing pin makes contact with the primer. The gun is on it's on autopilot.

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It's doing whatever it's going to do. Nothing. You can do after the hammer strikes the. Primer or the firing pin strikes the primer you can't affect anything as far as the bullet travel after that has happened because it happens too fast. So what you have to do is you have to train your body to do everything right correct up to that moment, and one of the ways you do that is through dry fire. So what I realized and as I laughed to myself because what I was doing.

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From a precision rifle Precision Marksmanship standpoint is exactly what you do if you're going trying to get the absolute most out of the rifle scope ammunition combination you learn everything and then once you've learned everything and mastered it, then you put the live ammunition in and you launch it and hopefully things work out really well.

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But this guy obviously did not understand the concept of dry firing and he was looking at me and he saw me but he didn't really see he looked without seeing he did not understand or comprehend what I was doing what he thought was that I was sitting down there on the bench having a bunch of misfires.

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He thought the gun wasn't working. Come was working just fine, but he didn't understand what I was doing. How many times do you encounter someone in your life who looks but doesn't see who hears but does not listen. That was exactly what was going on. Now a person who had the same type of experience or training that I have had throughout my life.

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I've had the great Fortune to have some of the best instructors in the world teach me someone who had a similar background to me probably would realize they would have realized exactly what I was doing. That I was basically warming up with dry fire before I put the ammunition in the gun and they would have understood that but from this guy's standpoint from his basis of experience.

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He thought what was going on what's wrong and really it wasn't wrong at all. It was absolutely right for what I was doing so he looked but he didn't really see how often does that happen to us in our lives. How often do we look but not really see how often do we hear? But not really listen or understand and why is that?

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Well in this particular case it was because of this person's their own obvious and I didn't get into it with him. I didn't go into his background or anything, but obviously he was not familiar with the technique of dry fire. He was not familiar with that. He did not have that experience, and so when he encountered it he thought it was something else.

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Has that ever happened to you in your life. Do you see something and think it's wrong and it turns out that it was wrong at all. It was actually very right, but you thought it was wrong or incorrect based upon your limited amount of experience in education. Now as an instructor as a professional instructor and I have been for I don't know take 1990 and come up to today and that's how long I've been actually teaching people professionally as an instructor off and I will demonstrate something and people won't understand or they will see it and think that it is wrong or think that they have a better way because based upon their limited experience in education.

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What I'm doing, they can't understand the they look but they're not really seeing it they here but they're not really listening and why is that a great deal of the time when people look but don't see or hear but don't listen. It's because they're allowing their own personal prejudices to Cloud their view.

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They can't let their they can't get out of their own way. They can't push their emotions or their egos aside long enough to actually see and perceive listen and understand. So whether whichever side of the equation you're on you, maybe the in the position where you're demonstrating you're showing and people just aren't seeing it.

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They're not understanding it or maybe someone's doing something you think that's not right at all. But actually it is and the reason you're not understanding it. The reason you're not perceiving it is because either a you don't have the experience or education to understand. Or maybe you're allowing your own prejudices or your own ego to get in the way of understanding.

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I don't know. That's just something to think about. So sometimes people look but they don't really see them here but they don't really listen and I thought that was an interesting topic for today. So there you go. If you'd like to join us according to my show note production calendar, which I'm looking at right now.

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The very next episode of Morning Mindset is going to be Morning Mindset book study. Number one. Yes, indeed. I'm looking forward to that. I hope you are. Well, and I've already told you enough how you can get the book. You can go to Amazon or Kindle or the Morning Mindset podcast.com and you can get yourself a book. But either way I would love it. If you would join us for the Morning Mindset book study, which we will be kicking off next week. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I am your host Paul Markel. Talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Thank you for spending time with us today. To get show notes, submit a topic request, for more from your host Paul G. Markel, visit MorningMindsetPodcast.com. That’s MorningMindsetPodcast.com. Please leave a review of this podcast on your favorite podcast player, we appreciate your time & effort, and we look forward to reading your honest feedback.