Your mind is as empty as the space you occupy!
Take a moment and process that statement.
I came up with that gem of wisdom on a recent day trip to Derby of all places, or rather on the way back. I was driving back with my very good friend Kevin and we were discussing a rather hot topic….media and how it influences us!
Your mind is as empty as the space you occupy….
(Actually, Kevin said it as he summed up our discussion and I nicked it!)
In today’s media you never really know who or what to believe. Everybody seems to be reporting or commenting based on an agenda that is set to influence the viewer in one way or another. (Depending on whom you are listening to or watching.)
A prime example was just the other night when the great Cristiano Ronaldo was on the bench for Portugal as they faced Switzerland in the World Cup. After the final whistle, the media portrayed Ronaldo as a sulking child, skulking off down the tunnel rather than celebrating with the team and the fans. That is not the Ronaldo I saw on TV. The Ronaldo I saw on the TV celebrated every Portugal goal, running off the bench to be with his teammates and applauding the fans at the end. Ronaldo looked in a happy place to me!
Unfortunately, the media agenda is set to:
“No matter what he does, make him out to be the bad guy!”.
Why?
“Because bad news sells!”
The agenda they went with is there to influence what we all think about Ronaldo. To steer our impressions of who he is and what he represents in a negative light.
Another example, let’s go back to the mini-budget of Kwasi and Liz. What a day that was.
“Sterling crashes after Kwarteng delivers reckless budget”
Yes, the pound sold off and his budget was a little eye-watering, to say the least, but a few days later, when the pound was back at the levels before the mini-budget, I saw no mention of it on Good Morning Britain or the BBC. If it “crashed” on the way down surely there would be a “Sterling rises like a phoenix” headline somewhere to give the man on the street some balance? (Sometimes I feel the desire of being asked to do ‘Strictly come Dancing’ or ‘I’m a Celebrity has something to do with mainstream presenters needing to shock and be noticed…) Again, bad news sells!
However, back to me and Kevin on a road trip from Derby. Our conversation centred around the influences we receive every day. Influences from the media, conversation, people we come across, experiences, home life, and work life to name but a few. We are constantly bombarded with fresh information which shapes the way we think, the choices we make and the actions we take. Every thought we have, and every choice we make comes from an external influence. If there were no external influences what would we be thinking?
I tried to explain my theory to my son.
“If you were created and existed in a space of nothingness. No world, no light, no other people, no body, just your mind…. what would you be thinking?”
He replied, “Where is the light?”
To which I replied, “But you have never experienced light, you don't know what it is so how could you be thinking about light?”
“Ok, where/what do I eat?” he put forward.
(I knew he would bring up food. Never stops eating that lad!)
“Food? What is food? How can you be thinking about something you don’t know about? You have never experienced it in nothingness, it does not exist” I replied as I rolled my eyes and plonked a bacon sandwich down in front of him.
In my humble opinion, you would not even have the ability for thought about external influences because there would be no external influences for you to think about. As every thought comes from an external influence there would be no thought. Life would be so uncomplicated!
But life is complicated because we have so many conflicting external influences coming at us non-stop and that gives us choices to make, all the time. How can we possibly make all the right choices?
I found myself recounting my days in the financial markets to Kevin, where I would have a thought in my head of where the market would go and make the right trades to capitalise on it. My thought on the direction of the market was formulated from external influences. Economic data, momentum, technical and positioning data to name a few. But then I had all the opinions of the traders surrounding me, the client flows, the flash headlines. All these influences contradicted my initial thought. How often did I get talked out of a winning trade? How many times did an external influence come along and convince me that I had the wrong trade on and cut the position and then watch the market do exactly what I thought it would do in the first place? My fear of being wrong kicked in because of all the influences I was receiving and talked me out of taking the risk. On the flip side, sometimes it talked me out of taking a risk that was not going to profit and saved money.
(I must say, it is easier to trade on your own at home where the surrounding “noise” does not exist or rather is… quietened down should we say.)
And that is where our fears come from. External influences which we don't know to be true. External influences shape our thoughts, beliefs and actions. External influences we feel may be judging us. The fear comes from the external “noise” and how we interpret it.
FEAR = Future Events Appearing Real
Most times, nothing is ever as bad or as good as you think.
As I used to say to my traders and have always said to my kids:
“To think clearly, discount at least 50% of anything you hear. Everybody has an agenda to market.”
Many people go through life not making the changes they need because of limiting beliefs they hold, manifested from external influences.
Beliefs are an unwillingness to admit what we do not know. They would not be called beliefs if they were fact. There is a whole world of difference between “I believe….” and “I know….”
Most of the time we make choices based on what we believe and not on what we know. Sometimes our choices can lead to good things and sometimes our choices can lead to bad things. Would our good and bad ratio improve if we could make our choices in a “quieter” world based on what we know?
To make the choices in life that satisfy our needs we have to get past the conflicting external influences, limiting beliefs and noise that can hold us back. We need a space to think clearly about what we do know. Somewhere we won’t be judged. Somewhere that assumption does not cloud our thought.
Your mind is as empty as the space you occupy!
Comments