See What Works @F-L-O-W

I have a simple proposition. We are all perfect. Our lives unfold as we do and each of us in that unfolding over time becomes more of who we are. From small children we are raised to be someone else, to conform to "standards" that are made up of composites–a little of this, a best practice of that, and an alchemy of behavior, which none of us is able to perfect…! Hence the life of consumption, of fixing us, of comparing ourselves to others, of giving up the joy of who we are, perfect warts and all, to achieve some "composite standard" out forward by the thinkers and doers of our times.

My proposition is simple, but not easy.

In order to live in this life, there are tradeoffs.

We make tradeoff decisions everyday, and there really is no choice about it, so we become accustomed to trading-off our happiness to achieve greater levels of success.

All the while, we are guided by a set of notions that have emerged from our best and brightest that we are to live a certain way. And that living in that way, is to be achieved at all costs, even losing who we are in the process.

My proposition is a simple one.

Life is best for us, when we are who we are, warts, depression, addiction, narcissism, and all the other things that us humans do in the process of living out our perfect lives.

Since babies we are compared to each other.

As children we learn to compare ourselves to one another, we are dressed up to reflect our parents values, and how society says we should be…how we should act, life becomes a long to do list of "shoulds" from the very beginning, and it doesn’t get any better.

Those that can’t, won’t or don’t fit (conform) as cast-off into outlying sea of make it on your own because you don’t fit in our world of standards, of best practices, of consuming to be…!

YES, you heard me correctly.

Consuming to be, do, have and become, a product of and IN the system of global consumption, which everyone of us is supposed to depend. Keep buying stuff from one another so we have a job, so our companies prosper, so we can teach and train our kids to learn that buying, having, owning, using and most of, prominent displaying our consumption is key to winning the trade-offs.

I welcome you to the consumtariat.

Of which we are all card-carrying members for sure.

My proposition, as I’ve said is simple.

We just don’t need to consume as a lifestyle, as a way of being, doing, having and becoming. Consumptions has become our life, and we are unable to break free once we are indoctrinated to the the rat race that has been carefully setup for us to JUST about win…if only we would try JUST a little harder, work a little longer, strive just a bit more, reach for a higher bar, and that is our life, setting and achieving the next goal, reaching the next rung, getting the next good job…always imagining "someday I’ll".

MOST NEVER WAKE UP.

For many generations now, we have moved consumption beyond just basics, from needs to wants, to have to have, and on we march, to acquisition –> he or she who dies with the most toys wins, right?

The engine of consumption is alive and well, and we are thinking right now, about the next big thing, place, vacation, home, college, job we need, whew!

It’s quite a life, just look around, what do people think about?

Big Screen TV, plastic surgery, trips to the beach, vacation homes, ANYTHING, to get us away from having to look in the mirror and see how imperfect we are as people.

The next SPA trip, the next exercise camp, the next trip to the tailor, the dry cleaner, the jewelry store, and on it goes, we NEED these things to be, do, have and become what we need to be, do, have and become according to our "needs"…needs that society has fashioned for us, needs that have been created out of thin air, that we now believe are good truth and beautiful.

How did this happen?

It’s simple.

Over time, the smart people decided for us, that we were imperfect  and that we could be taught to believe that we needed what they had to sell us to fix these imperfections.

I would venture to say that if you actually started behaving in a natural way, that your family and friends would actually find you odd. You don’t dare behave, nor do you even know how to behave according to your nature, because they have taught you to believe that the only way to behave is like THEM.

It’s a funny thing.

I’ve been an entrepreneur and business person my entire life. I am now 60 years old or will be in a couple of months of this writing. I would have NEVER in a million years imagined myself writing to you like this, because I have been one of the most successful BSers, there is!

AND NOW?

I want you to believe I have changed, and it ok to drink my new snake oil, right?

Yes, I’m a recovering consumer, just like I hope you will be soon.

My ideas are really simple.

Don’t consume so much.

We know that we buy, and then rationalize, that has been proven over time. We don’t consume consciously.

We eat when we are not really hungry, we drive too far, so we can get away from each other, because we have been taught that we need our space, our independence, and our own domiciles, to get away from what, each other right?

All of this is part of the what we call the American Dream. The rest of the west, Europe, et al, Canada and all those aspiring "western" countries, you now share our dream of "having it all, right?"

Do you see this chart?

Figure 1. Base scenario from 1972 "Limits to Growth", printed using today’s graphics by Charles Hall and John Day in "Revisiting Limits to Growth After Peak Oil" http://www.esf.edu/efb/hall/2009-05Hall0327.pdf

GROWTH, through Consumption is NOT the Sustainable Much Longer!

At some point, the drive for consumption, the inculcation of the planet into growth, more, and unconscious consumption will just give way to decreasing returns.

Ok, let’s say that you believe my simple proposition?

What do we do?

If we all stopped consuming, it would be disastrous, and I’m not advocating that at all!

My proposition is not about halting consumption.

My proposition is that we consume consciously, in view of who we are and what we need to be more of who we are.

This is a fairly straightforward process I have outlined in a book called:

@F-L-O-W
Find, Design, Use Talent
to Emerge
Happiness & Success
in a Post-Modern World.

You may register for notification of when the book will be available HERE, or you may pre-pay a deposit and in addition to receiving the book, you will be helping feed a poor family this holiday season.

In addition to reading the book, I’m going to suggest a simple proposition:

Join Master Business Coach and Developmentalist Mike R. Jay as you are guided through his FastStart @F-L-O-W program to help you quickly begin to navigate along your Happiness and Success path in 2013. We developed the FastStart @F-L-O-W program to help you better understand the book @F-L-O-W. In 4 one-hour-long sessions you will be introduced to the highpoints and the implied models which were used to create the book. Please visit https://leadu.net/faststart to learn more.

While we can’t solve all the problem life has created, through collaboration and a conscious approach to consumption, we can buy ourselves valuable time we need to reconfigures our next momentous leap.

Sincerely,



Mike Jay, 2012

PS: Want to forward to a friend, please join our Friends program and become part of our collaboration to shift consumption consciously and carefully to sustainable futures.  Just click here to register for your Friends link and we will add your name to our partners list and send you referral commissions for sharing our work.