Sunday, January 30, 2011

Brainwashed: Seven Ways to Reinvent Yourself

http://changethis.com/manifesto/66.01.Brainwashed/pdf/66.01.Brainwashed.pdf

After reading Seth Godin’s “Brainwashed: Seven Ways to Reinvent Yourself”, I was shocked to discover how much I agreed with him. It was like he took everything I felt and thought about our education system and put it right on the paper for me to read. I didn’t exactly know what I wanted to do when I was growing up. I have a few ideas, but I knew one thing for sure I would never EVER in a million years need to learn how to do calculus or trigonometry or need to ramble off every factor of a number to any employer. I hated all that crap, I was never good at math and I knew whatever I was going to do would not involve anything like that. I did not understand why I had to take these pointless classes. Why couldn't I take classes based off my interests or what I was good at? I know one thing for sure, I would have done a heck of a lot better in school! Seth Godin talks about seven ways to reinvent ourselves. He gives us seven layers to follow to begin to reinvent ourselves. One of the layers he mentions his called “Acknowledging the Lizard.” He explains that the lizard brain is that prehistoric brainstem that everyone still struggles to listen to. You know that part of your brain that urges you not to do something in fear of being humiliated and laughed at. I can definitely tell you from my experience that I have listened to it one too many times in my life. I have probably missed out on some pretty cool opportunities and experiences because of it. Godin tells us we must ignore this part of our brain and take a risk on something. Forget all that crap we were taught in high school about being compliant and merely existing to punch a clock someday. Throw it all out the window because times are changing and your new ideas just might be exactly what this world needs.
Another layer that Godin talks about is “Learn.” He explains that this pillar is the key to the other six, if you don’t change the way you learn the other things won’t exactly make sense. He tells us how school used to be around for the sole purpose of merely learning a trade. Seriously who wants to go to school in the same town for four years, and then work at the same job in the same town for the rest of their lives? I know I most definitely do not! I want to get out of Ohio and see what the rest of the world has to offer. I want to continue learning and experiences new things even after I graduate. I want to fail and I want to succeed. I want to be challenged and be confronted with obstacles. I don’t want to settle for anything less than what I know I am capable of. So in the words of Seth Godin, let’s all throw out what we think we know, and learn what we need to learn!
I have found that being able to express how I feel about certain things and practicing ignoring my “lizard brain” has been quite difficult for me since I started this whole process. I want others to read my blog and feel inspired and say wow she has a lot of insight on these ideas and concepts. However, thinking like that only adds pressure for me and then instantly I have a writer’s block. I have absolutely no idea what I am going to write half the time. I know what I’m trying to say, but the thought that I must impress inhibits me from expressing myself the way I want to. Looks like I need to start ignoring the prehistoric part of my brain, and practice what I preach!
I feel like my entire life I have been in a waiting room. Kindergarten through sixth grade I was learning the basic necessities to prepare me for middle school and waiting for the day I could walk the halls with the “big kids”. Middle school teachers were throwing standardized tests in my face while I waited for high school. High school teachers were shoving useless information down my throat, and always jabbering on about the ACT and how important it was while I waited for for acceptance letter to college. College…well college is a little different. Sometimes I feel like I’m waiting for college to be over so I can start my life. Figure out if I was meant to change the world someday or merely just exist. Then there are other times where I feel like my life is starting now, this very second the things I’m writing and the words I’m reading are shaping me into the person I am supposed to be. Having the opportunity to make this blog and do these exercise has opened my eyes to a lot of new ideas and inspirations. As Seth Godin was explaining in his seventh and final layer it all began to make sense to me. Some classes are simply there to teach you the material so you can pass the class and raise your gpa. However other classes, like this one, were not designed to just teach us the basic concepts. These exercises were intended to challenge us to think differently, and then and only then can we start creating and inspiring people to do the same.

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