by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.\u00a0 ABPP<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I have learned a lot in my sixty years about the intricacies of the human mind.\u00a0 I have learned about intelligence, about federal politics and the criminal mind. \u00a0I have learned a lot about women, and especially when to keep my mouth shut.\u00a0 I am learning much more about children first hand, although I had a good handle on them before.\u00a0 And, I am also learning first-hand about aging and the process of going toward the \u201cfinish line of life.\u201d\u00a0 But, I have never learned how to predict the future.<\/span><\/p>\n I will confess, I did not like Hillary Clinton.\u00a0 I have talked to a lot of federal agents, secret service and the like, who were around her from her husband\u2019s presidency on, and they were not flattering at all to her.\u00a0 Him yes, her no.\u00a0 I also don\u2019t like the refugee situation she wanted to create, the destruction of evidence, the confiscated FBI files from when her husband was president, among other things.\u00a0 On the other side, a close friend of mine did business with Donald Trump, and he was told point blank that he wasn\u2019t getting what he was promised for work already done, for no other reason than Trump was cutting corners.\u00a0 Trump\u2019s brash, emotionally responsive, and unfiltered, and he says things that are just off.\u00a0 He takes politically incorrect to a whole new level, and although I am far from politically correct, I am not as extreme.\u00a0 Besides, I am mellowing with age.\u00a0 What a choice, but the process is over and we go through an inauguration this week, one that is guaranteed to make some happy and others disgusted.\u00a0 But, all said,\u00a0 I still can\u2019t predict the future.\u00a0 What I can predict is we voted for change, and we are likely to get it.<\/span><\/p>\n Change is always stressful and always a little disturbing.\u00a0 Sometimes we look forward to change; sometimes we are afraid of it.\u00a0 Some people handle change better than others.\u00a0 After all, if our lives didn\u2019t change we would remain in the same spot all the time.\u00a0 When I talk about change, I am reminded about elephants in circuses and the expression an \u201celephant never forgets.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Ever wonder why a circus elephant does not move.\u00a0 It is held in by a little stake in the ground.\u00a0 Ten thousand pounds and ability to uproot trees, and it is held in one spot by a small stake in the ground.\u00a0 The way they used to train elephants to stay in one spot was when it was a baby they would tie a chain around it\u2019s leg with a choke collar on the other end.\u00a0 They would hammer a little stake into the ground.\u00a0 The baby elephant would try to run away and move, and the choke collar would tighten and cause it pain.\u00a0 It associated pain with movement and an \u201celephant never forgets.\u201d\u00a0 When it is a big elephant, it could easily pull up the stake and move freely, but it doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 It remembers the pain and stays in one spot.<\/span><\/p>\n I read this many years ago, and thought how people have free will, but working for 30+ years as a police psychologist set me straight about how people use free will.\u00a0 Some people come in and say they can\u2019t have another relationship because they were hurt in the past.\u00a0 Circus Elephants.\u00a0 Some people say there is no use trying on anything because they have failed before.\u00a0 Circus Elephants.\u00a0 Some people figure that conservative politics with a man they don\u2019t have respect for will lead their life in a bad direction.\u00a0 Could be a Circus Elephant, but who knows.\u00a0 You see, Circus Elephants predict the future and are thus afraid of change.\u00a0 They do not exercise free will.<\/span><\/p>\n Some say, I must be an idiot because I can\u2019t predict the future with Trump.\u00a0 Almost perfect GRE\u2019s (the SAT for graduate school) and I am an idiot?\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so!\u00a0 Some major Circus Elephants around in my life, I guess. \u00a0I just want to wait and see.\u00a0 Building walls: I was at the Great China Wall and that was impressive.\u00a0 Changing Obamacare:\u00a0 I had insurance before that I paid for and I suspect I will have it at the end of this.\u00a0 Friends with Russia:\u00a0 I adopted a child in Russia and we made a few friends while there, and it wasn\u2019t that bad.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how any of these are going to change my life, but I am sure they will and I will look for it.\u00a0 I would like a better life for myself, my wife and my daughter.\u00a0 I suspect the same things that the Clintons and the Trumps want.\u00a0 Is the president going to change that?\u00a0 I can\u2019t predict the future, so I am going to relax and enter the future, keeping my free will to adjust to whatever change comes.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be alright.\u00a0 Will you?<\/span><\/p>\n One thing I have learned through the years is life is cyclical.\u00a0 In my life, we went from Democrat, to Republican, to Democrat, to Republican.\u00a0 Actually, I started with Eisenhower, so my life started with a Republican.\u00a0 What it seems happens is whether your politics are conservative or liberal, the solution doesn\u2019t work for everyone and we focus more on the bad than the good, thus we keep changing.\u00a0 If Trump does everything he promises, he is still going to piss some people off, just the way Obama did and Bush did, and, Bill and Hillary did.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we change.<\/span><\/p>\n I keynoted a couple of conferences for the FBI after 9-11 when they were changing into more of a terrorist focus.\u00a0 Many unhappy folks because change was coming.\u00a0 So I developed 10 ways to look at change for the people in the audience.\u00a0 I offer them to you today:<\/span><\/p>\nFree Will on the Horizon<\/h2>\n
Idiots Delight<\/h2>\n
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