"Trust your instincts," is fairly common advice. I don't know where I come out on that.

When I was working in the outdoor industry, a co-worker of mine recounted a tale of a fishing trip he took in the Wallowas in northeastern Oregon. He fished a stream and was trying to find a new pocket of water to fish, so he made his way through the small strip of forest that abutted the river and came upon a giant meadow. Green grass for as far as he could see.

He was a bit confused, thinking he'd be trapsing through forest trying to find his way back to some other part of the river. Alas, he was basking in Nature's glory. Until ...

He came face-to-face with a cougar.

Less than 50 yards away he said. This mountain lion stared my buddy down.

What happened next was not "instinctual," as my friend lived to tell the story. Rather, it was learned behavior.

Before hearing this, my "instinct" would have been to run from the cougar. I would have been attacked, the lion would have licked the flesh clean off my body, probably dined on some of my flesh, and I would have died at some point in that sequence. No doubt about it.

I imagine that pretty much everyone's "instinct" would be the same as mine.

What did he do that saved him from a gruesome death?

He stared back.

This guy had been in the outdoor industry in one way or another for about 20 years. He'd heard of other people having encounters with wild panthers and living to tell about it.

Not only did he stare, he slowly lifted his fly rod tube (case) with both hands above his head. Apparently this made him look bigger or more bizarre to the cat. Perhaps the puma wouldn't know what it was looking at. Hard-telling, not-knowing a mountain lion's thought patterns.

So, he had a stare-down for a certain amount of time. He doesn't know. Said it felt like an hour. Could have been a matter of seconds or minutes. But it felt like a long time.

The cougar just turned and walked away.

My friend had learned this behavior. His instincts would have gotten him killed.

This afternoon, I trusted my "instincts" and it led to two hours of me being irritated.

The day started off great and then I decided to go get a haircut. I settled on a barbershop a couple years ago, post-coronamania. The one that is closest to my house and that I liked a lot had recently changed ownership in 2020. The new operators were fully invested in the corona mythology and mania.

I had to wear a mask while the barber was cutting my hair. Of course to get some cutting and trimming in, she had to remove said mask here and there. "What's the point?" I thought to myself.

I vowed never to go back.

So today, I went to the "new" barbershop. My mistake was that I went at lunchtime. Two barbers and a huge line of folks waiting to get a cut. So I drove over to the old barbershop.

I thought I'd "give them another chance" since coronamania is mostly over. Plus it is only a few blocks from my house.

Broken vow. First mistake.

Coronamania is not over, as I found out. Three of the five barbers were wearing masking devices of some kind. Not sure why. The guy whose chair I got into had the mask, but only on the mouth, not over the nose.

"What's the point?" I thought to myself.

He then made me wash my hair. He did it for me, actually.

Apparently the man was having trouble doing something with my hair because of all the "product" I had in my hair. He had not yet attempted to cut or even comb my lettuce.

The "product?" I use it to keep my hair from going crazy...that's why I was getting it cut. Otherwise, I just resort to a ballcap. Which I'm perfectly fine with in most situations.

Either way, I was having trouble following. English wasn't a language he spoke well, if at all. Plus, he had no visible lips to read and his voice was muffled.

I was still willing to give it a shot. My instincts are to forgive people for past grievances, I guess. I don't remember who the barber from a few years ago. Certainly not this guy, so I sat back in the chair.

He used the blow-dryer on my hair for about 5 minutes, rubbing my noggin a little north of the temple area all the while. No scissors or clippers to be seen. Nary a comb or a brush.

We're now a good 15 minutes into this operation.

I told him again, "I want this much taken off," and demonstrated it to him. "On the side I want it even with this beard I've been growing for a week or so."

Confusion and more blow-drying set in. The barber in the next chair came over, and in decent English told me that the guy wanted to know how I wanted my hair cut. I told her what I told him. They spoke back and forth in another language.

More blow-drying. "I don't think this is going to work out today. Sorry, but thanks for your time," I said.

The woman barber said, "When I'm done with this gentleman I can cut your hair."

"That's very nice. Thanks for the offer, but this isn't going to work out for me. Again, thanks for your time and I'm sorry it didn't work out." I left.

I drove back to the "new" barber. Waited while my barber of choice cleaned up another fellow. Got my haircut and I am now quite happy.

Point is, my instincts are often terrible. My learned behavior, on the other hand, is quite good when I put it into practice.

And that's what we're trying to accomplish with my new series of virtual masterminds—O'Leary's Inner Sphere.

We welcome instincts. Often they are quite powerful and usually beneficial. But we are using the power of other people's knowledge to help each other change ... for the better.

Learned behavior put into practice.

To find out more and to become alerted when registration opens click:

As always,

Brian

P.S. — If you haven't received a copy of the free resource guide I cobbled together this week — 5 Factors That Help Define an "Expert" — it is free.

Free, free.

As in you don't even have to give me your email address to get it, free.

This goes against my better instincts, but here you go:

https://attract.io/l/expert.pdf