03 Apr From disposal to recycle mode?
We are a product of both our genetic map (which we can do nothing about) and how we have reacted to the various issues and events we encountered on our life’s journey to date.
During this journey we have been socialised to be part of the crowd. While growing up, the middle ground was considered to be the safe space. If you stood out from the crowd, you were likely to get a clip on the ear or a kick on your backside. The herd instinct was generally a bigger influence on our lives as we became part of the club / gang / peer group.
Over time many of the supposed pillars upon which society has been built have been subsequently eroded and are now being accepted as being disposable. These include marriages, honesty, beliefs, respect for life and many more. This change process has been energised by others influencing our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, resulting eventually in their desired agendas being achieved.
Marketing is about triggering emotional desires for the advantage of the marketer.
This is achieved by communicating emotionally with the inner brain and manipulating the target to be someone else at that decision moment. Consumerism is a form of herding. Much of the herd directional influence has been led by agenda leaders using the range of media channels in very creative ways. One of their most effective tactics is their selective use of role models. It’s the association of their agenda with someone their target craves. The herd seems to follow the antlers of the celebrity and is following on the road fuelled by others. Many of these role models will over time be seen to be built on sand.
The new you, is supposed to be cool, fit, confident, good-looking and act as a Billboard for the latest designer labels.
The trigger for this recycling back to solid basics will come via some unexpected macro event, which will challenge us to stand back and reassess where we are at, where we want to be and how best we might get there. Nature has a way of rebalancing itself. Evolution happens through a continuous process of micro variations, some of which eventually gain legs. Some of the most exotic plants in the world weren’t carefully bred, but evolved via mutation, where the gene pool got mixed up due to some combination of factors.
We can’t choose the family or circumstances we were born into, but we can choose our new extended network of contacts. Life is an input / output model. We cannot get out what we don’t put in. The quality of our input is the biggest contributor to our output. We mustn’t allow ourselves to be defined by what we haven’t done. We must have more clarity about our desired destination and its various staging posts. We need to build some identity capital. We need to optimise our network of genuine supporters to help us start travelling down our planned route. If we know where we are going, we will always suck in the required support. One cannot help those who don’t know where they want to get to.
Everything in life has a price and we must consciously or subconsciously decide if we are prepared to pay this price.
- Who have you been influenced by on your journey to date?
- Who in turn are you influencing? How good a role model are you for your potential followers.
- Where are you leading them?
- Are you facilitating them to build their latent capacity to travel towards their desired objectives?