During my psychology grad program back in 1995 I was stumbling around the internet and I found a web site that had some psychological tests that one could use to test one’s self and see if any dysfunction was found. I thought, what the heck… I tried a short personality type test and found that it agreed with my previous results administered by a counselor in my program a year before. I was found to be “INTJ” personality type according to this scale which was a short version of the Myers-Briggs instrument for personality type.

Then I saw the “ADD” test for Attention Deficit Disorder. Hmm, I thought… my brother has ADD and to a severe degree apparently. I never thought that I should get tested for it - but, let me take a look and see what kind of questions they ask.

As I sat there and looked at the questions, answering them in my head at first and then later, writing down every answer… I was mesmerized. These questions were describing a pattern of behavior that was E-X-A-C-T-L-Y me. I found it fascinating. I eagerly read each question and responded as truthfully as possible. I had no idea that ADD was this. Hmm…

When the test was finished and I totaled up my score I found that I had scored something like 77 points. Hmmm… Not bad, a “C” level I guess. I think nothing to worry about. Then I saw the “key” at the bottom of the screen. It said if you score 25 points or higher you may have ADD and you should be tested by a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist… or some other mental health specialist.

Huh? 25? Wow, I tripled that. I sat there for a minute and re-tallied my score and re-read everything on the page about the test. Apparently I had taken it exactly the way it was intended to be taken. It took a few more minutes for reality to sink in to the squishy grey. I realized that having ADD probably for years and years, maybe over my whole lifetime explained a lot.

I went to a friend I know that was a mental health counselor. I asked her to give me the official test, whatever that was, for ADD as I wanted to make sure this was all true. She did, and the instrument showed I had a profound level of ADD or ADHD more specifically, that was affecting nearly everything I did!

Wow. I knew that I wasn’t really like other people because I noticed that so many times I don’t seem to fit in with the program. I get incredibly bored with common things quickly. I always seem to have a variety of things I’m thinking about at any one time. If you picture your mind as a dry-erase board where thoughts arise and go away… mine is full of every color of dry-erase marker. The white is nearly hidden because there is so much going on there, and more thoughts need to get there…so, the mind starts to drag fingers across what was already written so it can write more with the finger bringing back the white of the board. Yes, it’s that bad sometimes.

As I focused on something, some topic that I had to think about, for work or for school I noticed that my attention span was in seconds. I was never able to concentrate much longer than 10 seconds at a time on anything. To say this was debilitating is an understatement.

My whole life has been a whirlwind of events and activity (book coming out soon). I’ve been on a rollercoaster of ADD for so long that I thought it was just normal. I thought it was just me. I thought that nobody could really concentrate for more than 10 seconds at a time on any one thing. I thought that everyone got bored in a few seconds with things.

Anyway, this post isn’t about describing ADD and how my life has been affected by it. Suffice it to say that my life has been a direct expression of the ADD!

I wanted to write this post for a couple reasons, one being to show some of the signs of ADD and ask readers to at least take an online test to see if it might be an unseen problem in their own lives… The second reason I’m writing this blog post about ADD is so I could share with you some of the things that helped me with ADD and that might be able to help you too if you are suffering from it.

What is adult ADD/ADHD (with Hyperactivity) like?

In the book Driven To Distraction, Edward M. Hallowell described an experience of the “hyperactive” aspect of the ADHD disorder from a patient’s perspective:

…It’s like being super-charged all the time. You get one idea and you have to act on it, and then, what do you know, but you’ve got another idea before you’ve finished up with the first one, and so you go for that one, but of course a third idea intercepts the second, and you just have to follow that one, and pretty soon people are calling you disorganized and impulsive and all sorts of impolite words that miss the point completely. Because you’re trying really hard. It’s just that you have all these invisible vectors pulling you this way and that, which makes it really hard to stay on task.

Symptoms of Adult ADHD:

The Hallowell Center identifies the following indicators to consider when ADHD is suspected and recommends that individuals with at least twelve of the following behaviours since childhood— undergo professional testing:

1. A sense of underachievement, of not meeting one’s goals (regardless of how much one has actually accomplished).
2. Difficulty getting organized.
3. Chronic procrastination or trouble getting started.
4. Many projects going simultaneously; trouble with follow through.
5. A tendency to say what comes to mind without necessarily considering the timing or appropriateness of the remark.
6. A frequent search for high stimulation.
7. An intolerance of boredom.
8. Easy distractibility; trouble focusing attention, tendency to tune out or drift away in the middle of a page or conversation, often coupled with an inability to focus at times.
9. Trouble in going through established channels and following “proper” procedure.
10. Impatient; low tolerance of frustration.
11. Impulsive, either verbally or in action, as an impulsive spending of money.
12. Changing plans, enacting new schemes or career plans and the like; hot-tempered
13. Physical or cognitive restlessness.
14. A tendency toward addictive behaviour.
15. Chronic problems with self-esteem.
16. Inaccurate self-observation.
17. Family history of AD/HD or manic depressive illness or depression or substance abuse or other disorders of impulse control or mood.

6 Lifehacks for Managing ADD/ADHD:

1. Make lists and use post-its. There was a time after I found out I had ADD/ADHD that I was ‘list crazy’. Every morning I would wake up and write a list of what I needed to do for that day and what I wanted to do for that day, but that wasn’t essential. I followed that list everytime I got distracted with something that became important in my mind because when my mind becomes focused on something - it’s very hard to get away from that. Focus comes rarely, but if it’s there - I never remember what else I had going on and I can lose hours doing something (sports usually) that takes time away from my other activities that I needed to do.

A person with ADD/ADHD has thoughts all day that pop into the head that require action. Unfortunately, a lot of times the action needs to be taken at a time in the future, and can’t be completed immediately as the thought comes. In order to keep up with all the thoughts in my head I had post-it notes of 4 different colors so I could write up a quick note and stick it to the pile of other post it notes of the same color. I separated the notes by color to correspond with areas of my life… for instance: If I had a thought that I needed to study for my biology exam on Thursday instead of Wednesday I’d put that on a blue post it. Blue was for school. If I had realized that I had better run 8 miles slow instead of 4 miles fast because I hadn’t done enough LSD training (Long Slow Distance) I would put that on a pink post-it because pink was for activity/exercise/fun. And so on. I had post-its all over my computer, my wallet, in my pockets in my backpack, all through my books…

But, it made a difference since my level of stress went down a couple of notches because now - those thoughts weren’t just lost, as they would have been without the post-its. I HAD the thought written down, it was just finding it. Finding it on paper was much easier than bringing the thought back into my mind when I needed it. MUCH easier. So, post-it notes or some other list system might work for you.

2. Two words, Gingko Biloba. When I was studying for some of my graduate exams I used Gingko Biloba for a while and I experienced something I never had before… sustained concentration lasting for minutes… even up to an hour at a time. Not joking. This stuff is worked very well. I remember having to take it for a few days to build up a level in the system before it worked, but when I did so I found remarkable results. I couldn’t have been happier with the results. I’ve been away from the USA for a few years now, so I’m not sure what the health industry is saying about Gingko Biloba, but, if there are no real negative side effects I would strongly recommend someone with ADD/ADHD try this out as an alternative to Ritalin or other medications generally prescribed.

3. Take advantage of the time when you first wake up and you’re lying in bed awake, but relaxed. If you’re like me, even with ADD, this time when I first wake up in the morning is the time when my mind is nearly completely uncluttered with thoughts. I can think clearly for as long as I lay there, sometimes I do just that for an hour as it’s remarkable that the mind is in this quiet, anti-ADD state. I use this time to think about what best to focus on during the day and to resolve any problems that need looked at. I am amazed, and even to the point of being disturbed about the level of concentration that occurs during this time, it’s so unlike any state of the mind after I’m showered and running around during the day. Not sure it happens for everyone, but it’s worth a look.

4. Meditate! I meditated using a Vipassana type method where I just focused on the breath in and out and the feeling of it at the tip of my nostrils. After a while I found that the mind actually was able to stop during meditation. I had no movement at all. No thoughts existed. It was a cool state that I’m glad I found as it offered a lot of relief, whenever I sat I could either calm the mind or stop it. It’s a good feeling when feeling too frazzled or when the dry erase market board (mind) is overrun with 6 thought processes all trying to write on the board at the same time. The coolest tool I got from meditating is that anytime I choose I can stop what I’m doing and focus on a couple breaths - in, out, in out, in out, and the mind has calmed down remarkably from the state prior to watching the breath.

Grab my free Easy Meditation PDF file here >

5. Exercise. For me there are a couple kinds of exercise. There is competitive and there is solo. As I get older I prefer the solo type because I’m able to think a little bit as I do it. I especially find that LSD running or bicycling works well for thinking for extended periods of time. The faster I go, the less I am able to concentrate on anything except the movement - the exercise. This is also a good break for the brain and something that should be enjoyed when you can.

6. Try hard to catch yourself doing 8 things at once and eliminate 7 of them. Today as I write this I’m typing, listening to some Radiohead and other mixed music… I have drawing paper to my left that I pulled out because I thought I’m going to get this urge to draw something for a cartoon project I’m working on. I have the internet going in the background, though I’m not using it. I just made coffee and I’m sipping it occasionally. I’ve got all those things going on while I write, and since I’m used to this - I’m OK writing under these conditions. If I find that I’m NOT able to concentrate on writing, I’d eliminate the other things so I could better focus.

Persons with ADD/ADHD just naturally add things to their personal environment that causes new stimulation and pulls their attention away from what they really need to accomplish. If you can catch yourself doing this and eliminate all those extra sources of stimulation, you’ll be able to concentrate on what matters more easily.

I’ve never gone to a psychiatrist to seek medication for my ADD/ADHD. I am anti-medication, preferring to find lifehacks that work in it’s place. I fear relying on medication since I made it to age 29 without even knowing I had ADD/ADHD. I didn’t go insane during all those years, so as long as it doesn’t get worse - I think I can manage without medication.

OK! I hope these 6 lifehacks help some of you with ADD/ADHD!

Best of Life!

Do you realize how many blogs there are about personal development (PD)?

I realized I had a lot of personal development blogs in my bookmarks that needed to be ‘managed’ as FireFox calls it. I wanted to clean house, but also examine the blogs that were there to see if I could come to any conclusions about the PD blogs I found there.

I fired up FireFox and opened 400 PD sites in tabs which took nearly 30 minutes to load since I’m in Thailand and we have slooooow ADSL internet service all over the country.

As I cruised through the sites I decided that the PD folder name would need to change. I named it the “PDS” folder. The new initials stand for, “Pretty Damn Same”.

I then made another folder called, “A-List”. And another one, “B-List”. I also went into my Google Feed Reader and made folders matching these bookmark folders. I set the default folder to read upon opening Google reader to “A-List”. These are blogs I want to read everyday regardless if I have time. B-List I read at least every other day. PDS I might open once every couple of days.

Next I started reviewing all 400 sites one by one, looking quickly at a few things that are of extreme importance in my mind when I’m considering whether to read a blog, bookmark it, grab the feed, blogroll it, or share it with others through email, twitter or some other method…

I looked at:

• Originality and quality of topics
• Ease of blog use (design, formatting)
• Writing format… spelling, sentence flow, organization, layout, colors
• Blogging “voice” or personality in the writing

Here are my conclusions…

I chose 12 sites that were good enough for the “A-List”. Sites I included were very A-List and most would even make the A-Listers A-lists. Sites like Seth Godin; Problogger.net; Entrepreneurs-Journey.com; Natewhitehill.com; StevePavlina.com; Scott Adam’s blog (Dilbert comic creator, and I have no idea how he got into my personal development folder except that he has some unique views on topics of reality which I enjoy profusely); and others… I also included some up and coming blog authors that I believe are doing original work and putting a lot of effort into creating original, timeless material. I’ll keep those quiet for now because I want to watch them a little while longer before I start throwing endorsements their way.

29 sites made the “B-List” and I think I was very generous because overall the sites in this list were each missing some major piece of the puzzle, mine included. I think I need to define a tighter focus for my blog because I’m blogging about positive issues, life issues, reality, PD, lifehacks, and more topics. Would be better for me to narrow it down more. I’ll keep an eye on this B-List since some cream will rise to the top and some of them will grab an “A-List” spot in time. Aim for Awesome too?

The rest, I didn’t count them, went into the PDS folder.

Most of the PDS sites didn’t have the following:

Easy on the eyes formatting, text, ad placement, graphics, colors, etc. There’s no sense of any of that with most of the PDS blogs. It hurts to read them because I’m expending effort to conform to someone else’s idea of how things should be. Odd colors and huge bold fonts turn me off really quickly. Having every feed subscription service that exists on the planet is not necessary. Get a feedburner.com feed! Listing your archives by month is virtually useless to anyone. Listing archives by week or day should be considered criminal behavior. Oh, one more thing - please, for the love of cold turkey, DON’T name your blog something with the word “money” in the domain. Please… please… for me, please…

Smart ad placement. The amount of ads on a typical blog is atrocious. Not just the number, but the placement and the choice of ads. The ads should almost compliment your site. They should almost add something… the ads on most blog sites take away a lot of the easy-to-read format a blog has before ads jump all over it.

A VOICE. Yeah, there was just writing… there was no person behind it that I could find. This turns me off a blog quicker than spit. I found roughly 70% of the blogs I looked at to have no personality, or ‘voice’ behind them.

Unique content. I’ll say it just once… you cannot copy someone else’s ideas, topics, titles, or words, photos, graphics, slang, or anything else as you write your blog posts. You must create something that is unique and contributes to the minds of those of us that consume content everyday by reading blogs. I feel myself getting much dumber as I read a post that I know I’ve read 60 times before at everyone else’s personal development blog. Make me smarter for having read your blog, not wiping up spittle as I daydream about Haagen Dazs Coffee ice-cream instead of digesting what you’ve written.

I’d guess that in my PDS group there were about 10% of bloggers churning out original content. In my B-List I believe everyone was creating original content, but some of the ideas and ways they talked about them were very “Tony Robbins” or other guru that has already used their own unique language before to describe things. There is a lot of copying of the style of ‘the greats’ because the ungreats think they can reach greathood by copying ‘the greats’. It may or may not be true. But, if you reach greathood having copied ‘the greats’ everyone will know and you won’t be so great.

Clear focus. What exactly was the blog about? Most blog owners think that by blogging about making money sometimes they are going to make money by doing so. That’s a wrong assumption for the most part. Your blog must be entirely focused on one area. That area can be large, but, when you start crossing over into other areas - what would someone come to read your blog for? They don’t want to see Sam’s ideas about “politics, dog ownership, AND money making.”

If you are going to choose a blog about telling others how to blog or a blog about how to make money online you really had better dig in for the long-haul because there are 1000 awesome sites already blogging in that space. AND, you have hundreds of thousands of bloggers competing for that small space. If you don’t specialize within that space - you’ll be lost and never become an A-Lister or a B-Lister. I’d conservatively guess that you have a 1 in 1000 chance to make it as a “how to blog” or a “how to make money online” blogger. And that is against a LOT of good competition… 999 other “I want easy money in my pocket for writing full-time” type people that also want to be the 1 successful blogger out of 1000.

I’ve seen more than a few top bloggers say something incredibly ridiculous like, “if you start your blog now - there’s no reason, with persistent effort you can’t be making a living from that blog in a couple years.”

HUH?

No reason? If I had the finger strength I’d sit here and tap out 100 reasons you likely WON’T be making a living from your blog. My blog is supposed to be focused on the positives… but you know what? Reality kicks in when I read something like that.

That is one of the most misleading things coming out of top bloggers’ mouths these days. If I hear it again I’m going to go Rambo-type all over someone’s comment section. If necessary I’ll remove them from the A-List. I’m dead serious.

;) I’m usually not dead serious about anything - so if you ever see me say that, it’s a joke… OK?

It is incredibly difficult to rise to the top of any popular blogging category. Please believe that. Please only tackle such a thing if you have something unique to offer and you have or know people that have a head full of techy things you must know to get your blog up to speed and then to be on top of the game.

In summary…
I can generalize from these few conclusions that the rest of the blogs out there are going to be similar to this group of 400 that I have in my bookmarks, but actually my 400 site sample (approximately) is a few steps higher than typical PD blogs since the ones I put in my bookmarks folder had some redeeming quality (at least 1) when I first put them there. I’ve stumbled on thousands of other PD sites that didn’t get added to my bookmarks. So, those have been weeded out already. I’m guessing that my bookmarks include some of the better blogs - and none of the utterly worthless ones.

It seems to me, and not just from this exercise, but from the last year of reading personal development sites that there are so many bloggers just copying everyone else’s ideas, lists, points of interest, topics, and the rest of it. I know some A-Listers have already expressed similar ideas and apparently I’ve come to the same conclusion. If you read enough blogs in any subject I think you’ll come up with a very similar conclusion. The blogosphere is JAMMED with the same kinds of content just being recycled by everyone in the space. There are very few people that care enough to, or that have enough energy and resources and depth of experience to write unique content day after day after day for years.

A-List blogger Steve Pavlina is perhaps the greatest producer of unique personal development content that I know. He has something like 600+ articles on personal development for you to read for free. How cool is that? 600 articles is a couple of books. Though his writing style isn’t quite what I really enjoy reading, apparently there are like 2 million people per month that visit his site.

Best of Life!

I was reading another post about 5 Simple tricks to help you win any argument here… and I thought of a few more… so, there are 5 at that url - and thanks to them for giving me the idea for a great post!

6. Only argue one specific point. I notice that most arguments people attempt to suck me into start out as one thing in my mind, and a different thing in the other person’s mind. QUICKLY identify in your mind what the disagreement is - and ask the person so you can at least be on the same page… Most often I’m not in disagreement with the other person about what they THINK I am… when we define the exact point that we disagree on, sometimes the argument disappears.

7. Use, “God told me that (insert crux of your argument here)…”. Here in Thailand I spent the first almost 2 years telling Thai people this. They were at a total loss for what to do or say after that as they feared contradicting my religion. Whose gonna argue with god? Well, they don’t here anyway. Even if your opponent doesn’t fall for it and calls you nuts, at least you broke up the atmosphere and lightened everything up.

8. Sometimes I put my thumb and forefinger together up close to my face - in the vicinity of my mouth… I exaggerate the movement of touching them together hard… I then do a trick that looks like I’m pulling an imaginary thread across my mouth… if done correctly it almost resembles the closing of a zipper. Yes, that’s it - a zipper over the mouth. Sometimes that works (with children). Sometimes not. I use it with my girlfriend here and again, it lightens up the atmosphere and we can either keep arguing or that stops it because it’s too silly.

9. If I’m really feeling testy I’ll make a fist with one hand and start punching my other, open hand. I put on a very strange face - like, “go ahead and keep it up”… I stop looking at them and I just focus intensely on my two hands and that motion… usually the other person gets the idea… and we both end up laughing hard…

10. Bring other people into it. If you are SURE that you’ll have the general consensus and most normal people would agree with your side of the point, then bring others into the argument. First you gotta make sure that there are ‘normal folks’ around you during the argument. I’ve done this in the general public, and, as a man let me tell you that NOBODY will side with you when a man is arguing with his girlfriend. Nobody. Little kids will give you mean looks too. Other than that situation, if you are surrounded by normal folks and you aren’t arguing with your spouse… the argument situation changes because… it frees you up to think of more devastating attacks on the other person, and your opponent will quickly tire of arguing with more than 1 person.

Ok, those are my tips. Hope they’re helpful. Please let me know if you have success with one of these techniques.

Best of Life!

If you’re reading this blog - AimforAwesome.com you are likely different from most of society. I’m going to make some guesses about my readers that isn’t based on anything other than knowing that you seem to like the articles I’m churning out for you here.

See if any of these apply to you…

• You’re driven to do something better with your life… or to maintain your current level of greatness.
• You’re probably college educated with a Bachelor’s degree or more. I write at a fairly high level so I know that high school dropouts are not likely visiting this site en masse. I know there are some of you that have not graduated high school - and that’s neither here nor there. Your desire to make your life a little bit more AWESOME by reading this blog is all that matters. Though I don’t have the names, you can google “famous persons without high school diploma” and find some nice results.
• You’re a bit more intelligent than the average person. I’m guessing that the average IQ level of my readers falls between 110-130 mostly.
• You are older than 20 and younger than 65.
• You are mostly men. I write about far more men topics than women topics since I am a man, by all definitions. Ha ha!
• You are a thinker. You are a questioner. But you know what? You haven’t questioned something yet… and that is, whether society and the advertising conglomerates that are feeding you ads in your TV, newspapers, radios, magazines, over your computers and cell phones, PDAs and loudspeakers, billboards, photos, signs, and the rest of it are smarter than you.
• You’ve already accepted that they are smarter than you and on to a good thing. How do I know this? I know you’ve likely fallen for the game that they’re playing with all of society. Those at the top of society, those that are successful monetarily have fallen for the game head and foot.

I know your desires…

I had the same desires for a long time in the USA. I know your desires because I know EVERYONE’s desires that live in the USA. A broad statement yes? Desires don’t differ all that much among individuals in a society. Our American society has been victimized so profoundly… we’ve been psyched out over the years… To our credit it has taken billions of dollars in advertisements to do it, but despite our hard to crack psychology we’ve been cracked and hacked and we’re now complete pawns to the advertising industry and their evil plans for us.

America is funny.

We have all these subgroups in America that want to appear as if they are against the typical people in society… that they are anti-American society… not pawns in the game… I’m talking about subgroups even in high school… in about 8th grade there is a subset of the students that will start smoking. When asked why - it’s “because I can” or “I can do what I want”.

Looking just one step closer to the “why” and we find that they are the ones that REALLY want to be accepted by someone, because they aren’t getting enough of it. Typical ways for students to be accepted is to be part of some group.

There are those that play sports… each sport has students that are well-bonded and get a lot of positive reinforcement from their friends.

There are those that are the “smartest” - the “brains” they were called back in 1984. The brains were the good looking smart people that joined debate team and played stupid trivia and thinking games that allowed them to travel to other schools to compete while the rest of us suffered through Political Systems class with Mr. Lucas.

There are the funny people. The funny people might not even have a whole group of funny people, but the may. A kid could literally stand on his own and not have a group if he’s funny enough. He might not play sports or join any other group, but, by being funny he gets acceptance and a lot of positive feedback from so many different groups that he can stand on his own if he wishes. That’s the exception.

There are the fashionables in high school always a group of girls, sometimes they are cheerleaders, and sometimes just a group whose parents can afford to buy them the latest fashions so they can always appear to be at some higher level than the rest of the students in their grade.

There are the geeks. These are the not good looking people that are interested in technical things and are amazed at things like calculators that do advanced functions. They are amazed and consider it magic until they read enough books and figure out how to build their own calculators. These students, if they begin wearing Matrix trenchcoats band together and sometimes plot to shoot the other students. Bad joke.

Then there are the smokers. Some of those further refine by being the ones that take drugs.

When kids get older and they finish with school they may move into other groups… there are many adult subgroups too. There are the people that are artsy… they love to dress differently but not really differently, they just copy what they think they saw from the 1950’s. They rip their jeans and make safety pin zippers and things. They paint their own clothes and call it unique and anti-fashionable. It’s all a very lame attempt at making themselves a different sort of fashionable among themselves so they can get some positive feedback like the other adults that wear Armani and Donna Karan.

There are guys that get fat, smoke, drink a lot and buy a motorcycle. They are anti-advertising and are quick to tell you how they don’t succumb to the usual advertising ploys… some of them call themselves thinkers or skeptics. Then, they go and buy the loudest motorcycle that exists on the planet, a Harley Davidson, which is also one of the most expensive, some as expensive as new cars now… so other people will look at them and they’ll feel special too. Everyone seems to have this need inside that makes them want to be special. Even if you’re special for a socially negative or societally negative reason, it’s still “special” and it counts for some reason.

There is the Abercrombie and Fitch group that want to appear as if they are not really trying to dress as anything fashionable, but they have the uncanny knack of consistently dressing in a very similar style to each other. They further refine with gross exaggerations of attempting to go against the grain (pulling their jeans half-way down their butt) that really just serve to make them a stronger subgroup with clearly defined needs to be looked at.

There is the pierced group that either wants sympathy or something, I’m not really in-tune with what they’re looking for except acceptance among each other that they all feel the need to hurt themselves to prove that they can take physical pain as well as the mental pain that has been building there for years and maybe decades… They wear leather or some other drastic fabric and they do crazy things to their hair… why? So others look at them and they get SOMEBODY to look at them as nobody was before.

Into which group do you fall? This wasn’t an attempt to cover all the different subgroups in America, but you can probably place yourself into one that you either see here or that you can create and assign yourself into.

You know what every one of these groups has in common?

They are all marionettes (puppets) to the advertising industry that has so shaped American society that we look at everything they do as the definition of what American Society IS. We think we’re living like “Americans” if we act in the way that the advertising conglomerates have been pushing us to live.

That’s really sick to me.

It makes me want to spit…

Billions and perhaps TRILLIONS of dollars have bought the minds of the general public. Yours, mine, your mom’s and your grand mom’s.

While Americans think we are smart because we can “see” instances of advertising that is trying to change our minds and cause us to purchase… it’s too late. There is already a change because the first thing that has already changed is the “NEED” to purchase something else… the NEED to get something better, something different, something newer, something more trendy, something more expensive, something more…

Well, just MORE.

Let me try to clarify with an example…

We think we’re smart because we see that Lexus has used a fancy metallic gold lettering in their ad for the new SUV they have in a 4 page spread in Time magazine. We say to ourselves… ha, they have so much money that they can afford to spend that on their ad… We think we’re smart because we recognize the attempt to persuade us based on some glitzy looking lettering in the ad.

But, the real manipulation of your mind took place much before you saw the ad. The real manipulation by the advertising industry as a whole took place over decades as you grew up and watched what your parents, friends, and co-workers did over the years about buying cars. They bought too much car, and upgraded their cars when they really would have been MUCH better off financially to keep their present car and ignore what everyone else is doing.

The fact that you took even an extra 1 second to look at the fancy Lexus ad means that the car industry has already won your mind. Why would you look for even 1 second longer than necessary to keep thumbing through the pages if you had no desire to upgrade the car you presently had? In your mind is this idea that upgrading your car is always something that is a way to keep you on top of society… in good standing so to speak. It’s like if you were thumbing through the magazine and came across this ultra suave concrete mix powder that was setting the construction industry on FIRE. How many extra seconds would that ad grab your eyeballs for?

For me, none. You too?

You know why? The concrete industry is not something I saw many ads about. They know they are not for EVERYONE. Cars are for everyone. Shoes and clothes are for everyone. Soda, for everyone. Computers, for almost everyone. The car industry has been working you and spending billions of dollars over the years to make you, not just buy their cars on impulse… that happens a lot, but not everyone is fooled that way.

How nearly everyone IS fooled is that they’ve already bought into the idea that getting a new car is a good thing for your standing in society, for your happiness, for your safety, for your well being, and for your peace of mind…

THAT is where they’ve already bought us.

Not just the car industry either. What about the diamond industry? How many American girls will accept marriage without a diamond ring? Not that many. You know why? Even though a girl might accept a ring that isn’t a couple months of the guys paycheck, she knows something…

It should be that expensive if he really loves me and I’m worth it to him.

Yeah, they think this. I was engaged to my son’s mom at one time… I gave her the ring in a very unique way… and you know what? I saw the disappointment in her eyes when she realized it was only about .35 carats and worth $2000 USD. Yep, I KNOW I saw disappointment in her face and in her voice. Positive. It bears revealing that her first husband gave her a ring that was easily 1 carat and very good quality, I’m guessing the ring was around $10K. If it were up to me I’d have given her a gold band… but you know, it’s NOT up to me… it’s up to whatever standard was created in the minds of Americans that are going to get married. The girl thinks her worth is tied up in that ring! Is that the silliest thing you’ve ever heard? If you’re a guy, maybe. If you’re a girl, you understand.

Here’s another example… how many of you bought the video IPODs? This is something I’m totally lost about. It started for me with the MP3 players. Here are my questions…

1. Why do you think you’re going to enjoy watching a 2 hour movie on a screen the size of your palm? Remember when the large screen TV’s were such a fad? Oh wait, they still are. How did we go from that idea to the complete opposite idea that watching a 1.5″ x 2.5″ screen is something cool and something fun to do? I watched some short videos on my friend’s 80GB IPOD and I had to laugh right there as I watched. Even on that screen it’s not perfect graphics. If that screen was RAZOR sharp like the screen on my recent e65 Nokia slider phone I might be able to begin to understand. However, it was horrible to watch. There was obvious artifacting in every scene and all areas of the image on the screen. He paid something like $700 Canadian dollars for the thing and I thought - that’s nuts, he could have bought a NICE computer here in Thailand instead. That computer would have an AWESOME screen and DVD dual level recorder, DUO chip, Intel Centrino, and just a cache of other things that when compared to the cigarette case sized IPOD that played micro video and mp3’s was 19 times more valuable in terms of common sense.

2. Why do you think people bought them?
Answer. Apple has created this subgroup of applets - people that think Apple is the bees’ knees. These applets think that anything Apple does is to be praised and worshipped… and purchased at all costs.

3. How did Apple accomplish this?
Answer. Apple tapped into the geeks that didn’t understand IBM computers and that felt they wanted to go against the grain. The grain being Microsoft’s huge “we do everything that you need the computer for” mentality… and so they swung hard the other way. They supported the only other option at the time… Apple computers which had ‘nice styling’ and colors. Their marketing campaigns were genius, and though they too have spent over a billion dollars in advertising, they have created a group of applet clones that don’t even question with common sense WHAT they’re doing - they just buy up every stupid thing Apple creates because to them, if they own it - they are seen as desireable among other applets. This increases the concept known as “face”. Applets gain face among the other applets if they own more of Apples products.

All kinds of people are subject to becoming non-decision making dolts that buy whatever a company is selling…

Harley Davidson did it above. Alien computers are a hit among gamers for their whacky ads and styles of computer cases. Nike has done this wonderfully, expanding from shoes to all manners of clothes, bags and accessories.

So, the point of this post is that we need to be SMARTER than we are. We think we’re smart, and we’re not. We’ve already fallen for the advertising industry brainwash. They now OWN all of American’s mindset. We accept without question that items that are better, newer, faster, more colorful, have more exotic materials, are lighter, smoother, softer, flashier… are what we NEED.

You don’t NEED what the advertising agencies are pushing. You don’t NEED to have this general concept about Americans and what we NEED. You must decide for yourself what you need. You must be smarter than those geniuses that spent billions of dollars to outsmart you. You MUST be. You CAN’T be the marionette anymore. Don’t let them pull your strings. YOU pull your strings. ONLY you pull your strings. If someone tries to pull your strings, you cut off their hand.

Otherwise they’ll own you and your children…

GET OUT!

Best of Life!

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