Spend 60 seconds looking around the room and take note of everything that’s red. Any shade of red will do. Crimson. Fire-engine red. Burgundy. Maroon. Even hot pink.

Commit as many red things to memory as possible. Don’t over-think the process, or try to figure out the point of the exercise. Don’t write anything down, and use whatever memory or recall method you feel will give you the best result.

Now close your eyes. Wait a minute or two.

Then, with your eyes still closed, try to recite a list of everything in the room that’s colored ... brown.

Open your eyes, and you’ll instantly see what you hadn’t before: all things brown. As Lifehack reports:

“It’s amazing what becomes apparent when you look at the same thing (room, relationship, career, business, opportunity, person, health) with a totally different focus. What was once invisible becomes immediately apparent. Obvious even.

This brief activity (looking for red) is a simple yet effective one. When you have a narrow focus, you don’t see the entirety of what’s there. The potential. The gifts. The joy. The fun. The good. The opportunity. When you look for bad, you’ll find it. When you expect rejection, you’ll find that too. If you’re constantly searching for problems, you’ll never see the solutions.”