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It’s interesting to me that we often think that we have no choice.  “He makes me so mad” we say, rather than “he behaves badly and I choose to hold on to the anger that causes.”  OK, it’s not as emotional – but it is valid.  We may not choose our initial reactions, but we choose our long term emotions.

Here’s some proof…

Have you ever had a day when you look back on it and say something like “I should not have been that angry with her” or “I really was too hard on him”?  Just this thought says that you have some control over those emotions that you expressed.  Now we may rationalize it away with “well she brings out the worst in me” or “he was really arrogant” or other such nonsense, but the reality is out in the open with that first thought and nothing that we can pile on top of it will change it in any way.  Thus, if we can realize that we emotionally over-reacted, it logically follows that we can control that reaction, and if we have control then we can choose to control ourselves or not.  It’s that simple.

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One of the funniest (well, really the saddest) things I have seen in this economic downturn is people who are giving up.  They have been in business successfully for years, and they have made money, but with all the bad news out there, they are giving up what made them great.  They are essentially outsourcing their focus.  They are doing it with the best of intentions, but almost invariably it spells destruction.

What do I mean?  Well, in theory at least, when you start a new business, you do it because you have some unique element that gives you a competitive advantage somewhere or somehow.  Maybe you cater to a certain market segment, or to an age group, or a geographical area.  Maybe your product is faster but more expensive than others and you cater to customers who are not worried about spending more to get the extra performance.  Maybe your product is bigger than your competitor’s and you focus on people who want a bigger, more durable widget.  Maybe your store is closer to a certain neighborhood and you focus on building relationships with people in that area.  Whatever it is, you went into business with some sort of focus.  Over the years, that may change as market conditions change, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Giving up what made you unique, however, should never be done out of fear.

The problem in “the worst blah blah blah since the great flood” (or whatever the media pundits call it today) is that people believe what they hear and then they panic.  They start to lose their focus or worse yet, they outsource it entirely – (more…)

Mass media – it’s a term that is much maligned.  “Liberal media bias” is claimed by conservatives while “vast right-wing conspiracy” is touted by the liberal side.  But the problem of mass media goes well beyond the bias of the reporters.  I believe that the problem of mass media is that it is “mass” in the first place.

We live in a society where we care intensely about what is popular.  We have carried this popularity fetish to the point where many people do not even look for something new or interesting – they simply wait for the next hot topic to come down the line through their TV or web browser.

We have an educational system that is designed to produce factory workers.  The word of the day is “standardized testing”.  It’s tough to encourage a class of 25 children to be unique, so we make everyone draw pictures for a while (even those who are terrible at drawing) and think that it engenders creativity.  This was great in the 1940′s and 1950′s (more…)