Change Your Perception, Change Your Life

Every day today we’re bombarded by the media to believe that the sky is falling, you’d better run for cover … $700 Billion bailout … subprime market fallout … global recession. It certainly is true that we’re in for one helluva ride, but is there anything that we can do to make this ride a little less bumpy? Can we create for ourselves a sense of space that will keep us from falling into the black hole of media depression?

If you answer “yes”, then you  stand a chance to change your life, get that job that you really want and live up to your own fullest potential. If you answer “no”, you’re destined to follow a prescribed path that is conditioning us for failure.

Lord knows that I am arguably worse off now than i was just a mere six years ago. Remember the dot-com blowup? The media and pundits all told us that Silicon Valley was dead and that we’d better stick our heads in the ground and wait it out. Yes, the Valley had slowed down tremendously, but those who did not follow the masses continued to plug away and ultimately survived and prospered.

I was recently introduced to a book called, Kickback.  It’s about social guidance and our generation. We are influenced tremendously by what others say and do. We generally tend to follow what the masses are wearing, eating, drinking, etc. In other words, we are heavily influenced by peer pressure.

The author, Robert Urbanowski, asserts that we have changed very little since the stone age days. We use whtat he calls “social guidance” to determine how we should act, where we should live, and even how and when we should marry.

Urbanowski illustrates several examples of how social proof guides us in ways that immobilizes some from taking action, even when some tragic event is unfolding. One of the examples that he lays out in his first chapter explains how a group of 38 neighbors in 1964 failed to help a person who was brutally murdered right in front of their eyes. It was not until the victim was dead and silent did they end up calling the police. He goes on to explain the scientific reason behind their inability to react.

Some people might call this phenomenon “herd mentality”. In fact, marketers have been using advanced techniques to get the masses to buy for decades. They know that once the masses accept a certain thing as cool or acceptable, it will be easy to manipulate the rest of the herd.

Urbanowski continues to discuss how the ascpect of our social conscience has gotten us into trouble relative to excess consumption and debt. It is essentially driving us into a downward sprial. The real key to success is not driving toward fame, fortune and get rich quick schemes. But, to drive toward getting happy fast. This is the essence of the book. How can we achieve contentedness through the pursuit of happiness.

What does Kickback have to do with careers? It lays out a foundation for you and me to figure out what is important to us before we decide what job we want, how much money we need to make and what kind of car we want to own.

As Urbanowki points out … we don’t have to be like the American buffalo, heading toward impending disaster with our heads down. We have the ability to stop, look up and re-examine how we are approaching life. Is this the life we want to live or is it what everyone else is promoting around us.

Kickback by Robert Urbanowski.

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