“Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.” – Henry Ford
Belief is a powerful thing. It can define a life in either direction be it good or bad.
But belief is established two ways: via argument or hard evidence.
A really good argument could be made about the finding that fire burns. All sorts of facts could be brought to bear to reinforce the argument that if you put your finger near a lit match you’ll be burned by its heat.
“How the heck are you doing?”
I asked an acquaintance whom I hadn’t seen in a while.
He appeared outwardly optimistic but in a fatalist kind of way. Further discussion revealed that he was indeed somewhat worried about his job security with the local newspaper.
“They say it’s the worst economic downturn this generation has ever seen” he said, confirming my impression that he was preoccupied about something.
But this reaction was the exception. Often times if I meet someone and I introduce the subject of the current economic troubles they tend to clam up. It becomes obvious that they’d rather talk about something else.
Anything else. It’s making it difficult to get a good grasp on how people are coping.
Last week GM in Oshawa Ontario permanently closed its truck plant after 60 continuous years of operation. 2,500 workers
lost their jobs. Chrysler is set to axe a raft of dealerships in the US and GM will soon follow that action here in Canada.
“Don’t watch the news!”
I’ve heard this advice before. It was from mega-successful network marketer Mark Yarnell who authored several good books on that industry. He was saying things like ” Nothing ever happens anyway…”
Years ago I tried his advice myself and I did realize a lot more efficient use of my time. Of course I did get rid of my TV altogether so that had a lot to do with it. The reception in my area was crappy anyway and what with building a new dairy business I was always quite busy with little time to sit in front of a boob tube.
But all that was before 9/11. Today the news seems to be a lot more full of all the gritty stuff folks just love. It gives them stuff to talk about but, in reality, you’d better avoid in order to preserve your positive mindset. I understand that.
But is that the best or the only option? Is all negativity something that we should be trained to avoid at all costs?
I think not.
Not because I like negative news – I don’t – but I realize that sensational news sells and that’s why there’s plenty of it. Anything that get’s the emotions going sells. We all know that. Purchases happen because the buying response is triggered by the emotions and then is immediately backed by logic. That’s marketing 101.
I don’t really care for it myself because it sounds manipulative but… that’s how things are.
We’re human. We must live fully in the world good or bad. It’s not what we see or hear so much as what motivates us to act. If we are making choices based on how it looks we’re probably not going forward as we should.
My advice is to use the gut feel method to “see” if a decision is a good thing or not. It may not always work out to our satisfaction just then but perhaps later on we’ll see that it was for the best.
As for the news? It’s just information composed of letters and numerals which make up sounds and pictures. It’s ok to feel a well reported story emotionally but then engage your ability to detach quickly so that it remains “outside” of you.
(If you have trouble doing that then see this)
You are not the world.
You just live here.
William Shakespeare made that observation about the connection between the mental state and the rate at which we are able to function some 400 years ago.
I guess things don’t change much do they? Happiness, it seems, gives us more energy, while sadness makes us feel warn out.
Who knew?
“a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.”
One day over 50 years ago a group of physicists were talking over lunch at the Los Alamos National Laboratory located out in the New Mexico desert. The conversation got around to the strong possibility that extra-terrestrial civilizations exist in the universe.
One of the scientists Enrico Fermi wondered aloud: if indeed the conditions were favorable for the existence of extra-terrestrials why have they not been identified or, at the very least, their radio transmissions detected?
This one penetrating question sparked a debate that is still going on today, in and outside of scientific circles.
It’s a great question but it’s not got a lot to do with the subject of mindset has it?