There is much that takes getting used to when you start thinking like a dolphin.

You’ll quickly discover, if you haven’t already, that swimming in dolphin “brain waters” produces patterns of thinking that tend to become identifying, status-alert signatures for you. Suddenly, something within your awareness clues you to the reality that more is going on than merely thinking outside of the box. During these peculiarly dolphin-type moments, it is more accurate to suggest that you are outside the box and experiencing existence in a way that is radically different from others around you.

You learn, for example, to recognize that thinking like a dolphin can make you restless in ways that are unique and strange to your apprehension in other thinking modalities—and you come to realize that you are being privileged to tap into the telltale “tectonic shifts” of the mind. Deep down, something seismological is going on, like those little pre-tremors that sensitive earthquake-sensing equipment can pick up, not to mention the animal creatures of the field and air, prior to a genuinely felt temblor. In dolphin thinking, when sensations quicken, you rapidly learn to say to yourself: Pay attention. Something is coming up. You begin to monitor events more closely. You start assembling scenarios to see if any fit. You ask: What is morphing, disintegrating, metastasizing, mutating? What am I in touch with that could be nearing a point of no return—or a tipping point?

And then there is the connectedness factor. Whereas in carp, shark and Pseudo-Enlightened Carp waters, it is possible for you almost to totally shut yourself off from the rest of the world, this kind of compartmentalization isn’t really possible for you any longer. It’s a sure bet that the other thinking/valuing/deciding styles frequent “just slam the door in the rest of the world’s face” tendencies have deep roots in our oldest epigenetic rules for survival.

For most of our species’ history, it has been more necessity than luxury to live in the equivalent of today’s gated community: to be able to pull up the drawbridge and depend on the moat to keep predators and other ill-wishers at bay. Even when it is not a literal reality, “going gated” still tends to be a much too common emotional reality in pre-dolphin waters. Not, though, post-LEAP! waters. The realization that there is heart-stopping need, pain, danger, intrigue and potentiality for the irreversible confronting much of living creation at any given moment—for the dolphin thinker, this thought is a mental cloak that is never really removed. It is a constant governor on your hubris, your impatience or any desire you feel to censor or disdain others for their stupidity or inattentiveness. Dolphin thinking’s constant reminder: it isn’t always easy to stay alive, much less be alive.

Thinking like a dolphin is even going to affect how you react to react to the news, wherever you get yours in these news-around-the-clock times. We might call this The Consequentialness Factor. Personally, I find this to be one of the most consistently startling of dolphin thinking’s signature processes.

News tumbles in of an unexpected development—a slip of the tongue or a revealed moral turpitude by a politician, a dreadful natural disaster, something new in consumer technology, a scientific breakthrough, a counter-intuitive voter polling result, a counterfactual argument challenging the general consensus of how things are: you can never quite know what it will be. Your dolphin thinking mind sees most of most of every day’s news as routine. Then something happens that shifts it into analytical hyperspeed, and suddenly you just simply know.

✔ I can usually tell from the first news report about a politician’s missteps if their career is over.

✔I knew from the start that Bill Clinton would not be impeached.

✔I knew that Colorado was going to turn into another California.

✔I knew—almost immediately—that the 9/11/ tragedy would produce a psychological retreat for the American people from which it may never recover, appointing 9/11/2001 as the end date for America’s global dream of unending universal progress.

Or rather my dolphin mind knew. It is not always correct, of course. But when it pounces hyperspeed, it is very, very good, and even yet, when it pounces, because the experience is so pronounced, I still take pause to process—and marvel at—the process.

I think you will marvel, too, at your abilities as a dolphin thinker to just say no. One quick upfront “no” is usually worth a dozen or more “learning experiences.” This may involve a fast dismissal for telemarketers or squirrelly advertisers. Or not getting involved with a deal, a potential partner, a flaky customer or a too-good-to-be-true investment and thus, since there will never be anything to end, never having to face the pain of drawn-out personal recovery. Other times, you will understand immediately that you shouldn’t lend your influence or endorsement, intuiting that all is not as has been described.

On still other occasions, your dolphin mind will flash you a “go,” then soon turn around and renege. When using these thinking skills, your mind can be lightening-quick to size up whether promises are being kept, the truth is being told, anticipated gains are happening or whether you are being made privy to the total picture. Having you hang around to see if you can spot an insider’s advantage even if there is skullduggery afoot simply isn’t the dolphin-thinking brain’s typical style. Remember you read it first here: The dolphin thinker’s decision to disengage when it assays that something may be rotten in Denmark can be bone-rattlingly abrupt.

There are many of these kinds of signature thinking patterns for the dolphin thinker, and for the moment, I’ll mention but one more: The dolphin mind’s tendency to propel you into the thick of anything that effectively captures your interest.

This isn’t to say that you won’t ever be a foot soldier or a bystander, content to go with the flow. The dolphin mind’s overweening expectation of human enterprises, big or small, is that they be functional: is this working? If it is, you may stay close but not really be influential. Projects, opportunities or enterprises—especially complex ones—that genuinely challenge you are a much different story, however. In these instances, the dolphin mind nearly always wants the conn or at least a seat at the decision or planning table. It may or may not receive it. Much faster than most anyone else, you are going to find yourself asking significant questions or, even more jarringly to any pre-dolphin minds present, quickly pointing to solutions. This seldom sits well with the accomplished gamesmanship players of the organization—any organization. You may or may not be invited to stay. Accept that this is now part of your nature: your dolphin thinking nature. And you should, and most times will, enjoy the ride. You’ve earned it!