Goals, gurus and getting over yourself
Life is an odd thing. We decide that we know what we know and we settle into that. Well, maybe you don't but I did. I'm fighting that a lot now. That's not to say I can't still be obstinate and downright opinionated but there's something about getting older that makes it easier (for me at least) to re-visit some of the stuff I used to believe as fact and find it pretty risible really.
Take goals for instance. I have spent my life setting them - hitting some, missing a lot and wondering what in God's name made me set a few of them. And I have almost every business book and personal development book ever written. One problem this has caused is that because I am ridiculously attached to books, I treat them like family - once they're in the door I have to keep them and look after them. That means I have a new set of shelves behind a door with books that I frankly don't want anyone to see. I go into other people's homes and start to work out who they are by the books on their shelves. In my case, that bookshelf says stuff I don't want to be said.
So, over the last few months, I have taken them out and re-read them just to work out why I bought them and what I was looking for. And the outcome of this frequently cringe-making and ultimately illuminating experience was this.
A lot of the stuff written over the last decade or so is not just derivative, repetitive and banal, it's downright damaging. There are droves of people visualising success and wealth and wondering why it isn't happening. People who think that they can do anything, no matter what their actual talents. People who think success comes from wanting it, not working for it. Youngsters who can't see what the point of work is and middle-agers who are dissatisfied with what their lives have become, and this in a country where we have more than we could ever have dreamed, even in my lifetime.
It crosses my mind that it's about time more of us who can see that the Emperor is butt naked ought to be doing something about it. And as it all starts with the individual, I'm sticking my neck out there. So that is what this is going to become. My little bit of world-changing.
Welcome to the grand opening of your mind!
