Look around you. Massive problems urgently need to be solved: pollution, injustice, violence, and many more. These problems require the talent and ingenuity of many people. However despite the billions of people on this planet in need, they are nowhere to be found.
A large number of people are disengaged, burned out, or bored. We have massive problems, while we have a massively untapped resource with all the solutions. This is a massive human waste.
Think about it: Gartner says that 13 percent of employees worldwide are engaged. That means the rest, the other 87 percent, hate Mondays and love Fridays. In other words, 87 percent are wasting their talent, their potential, their happiness, their creativity… in short, their life.
This is easily explained when you hear the concept articulated by David Graeber, Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics. He talks about five types of BS Jobs:
- Flunkies: Their purpose is to make someone look good.
- Goons: You don’t need them, but you should have them because someone else has them.
- Duct tapers: They deal with the damage a problem creates instead of solving the actual problem.
- Box tickers: They allow organizations to say they are doing something they are actually not doing at all.
- Taskmasters: They supervise people who don’t need supervising.
Who can be enthusiastic doing a BS job?
Many of the jobs I did in the past were BS jobs. I was a duct taper, writing masterful words of advice for our customers to improve their businesses, just to find out the following year nothing happened. I was a taskmaster, pretending to make productive people work.
We do these BS jobs because we don’t see any other possibilities. Disempowerment and obedience have been hammered into our programming since childhood, while creativity, playfulness, innovation, and cooperation have been hammered out. This is evident in our school exams, economic data, and more.
We are victims of the circumstances.
Big multinationals, big government, the establishment, the terrifying, and distant “they” have the control. What are we? We are the tiny, helpless victims. We perpetuate our victimhood: “We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.”(There are a couple of attributions to this quote. I prefer to quote the film “Fight Club.” Just don’t talk about Fight Club.)
As we cannot do anything, we drink another glass of beer, go to a football game or the movies, or by some red lipstick. In other words we anesthetize our dreams and our potential.
How can we stop being victims?
I know from the perspective of the victim, it’s a big deal to quit your job and set up your high impact venture. The same holds true for changing around your company to make it a force for good. I know. It begs to change something bigger than your career, your financial situation, or your leadership skills. You need to change your psychology. Your self-belief needs a massive boost.
The techniques are there. There are so many books, workshops, therapies, and lectures to help you find your way out of victimhood. I’ve created programs that change lives.
BUT…
All this doesn’t work without you taking the first step. You need to decide.
If you look back on your life, you changed your course the moment you made a decision. Yes, you know it; change doesn’t take years. All change needs is making a decision and taking action.
Act now
Are you willing to continue seeing the world crumble around you while you attend meaningless meetings?
Can you cope with the very same nonsense repeat and repeat ad infinitum, while you have the talent to create a brand new future?
Can you look at yourself in the mirror when you see the massive world problems, when you have the skills, the compassion, and the creativity to change the circumstances?
Please, decide right now to become the superhero we so desperately need. Decide that you are no longer going to accept the passive victim that has taken over your life. Decide you are ready to be the one we all have been waiting for.
Once you make this decision, the rest will follow. You’ll receive the right support. Your mentor will appear. The most inspiring project will show up. The book you need will be given to you. When you awaken your inner superhero you’ll find your own power. You’ll find your will, voice, and self-respect. Before you know it, you’ll become who we always were but had, until then, been afraid to embrace and embody.
This decision is paramount. It’s the first step in a one thousand-step journey. Once you decide, you have to back it up with action. Remember success loves speed. When you take action right after you make a decision, your ego knows you really mean it. If you don’t, fear will creep in and you’ll go back to your comfortable sameness. I invite you to build, with tiny baby steps, your new identity as a superhero; these are your brand new habits.
Research shows habits are formed in an average of 66 days. In order to ensure you truly internalize those radically new routines, I chose the duration of 100 days for my “A Better Me in 100 days program.” During this program you’ll let go of the victim identity by combining consistent action and reflection. At the end of the program you’ll face a massive boost in your self-belief, as you will have made true a bold project with actual benefit. Learn more here.
Do you want to do something magnificent with your one and precious life?
Now it's your turn.
What do you think?
How can we stop being victims of the circumstances?
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