The World’s Most Prolific/Valuable Currency

The most horrendous abominations and our greatest triumphs all are rooted back to this most prolific currency of all

Picture by Jingming on Unsplash

The most horrendous abominations and our greatest triumphs all are rooted back to the most prolific currency of all. The currency that far out-beats dollars or dinars, the economy as a whole, or anything materialistic commodity your brain can conceive of.

The #1 currency? Emotions, and more specifically, what we pay attention to.

I’m not demented as far as I know, but your concerns are absolutely valid.

· The Puppet Masters Upstairs
· The Projection Disorder
· Shame Sells
· The Twist
· Actionable Plan
· Final Thoughts

The Puppet Masters Upstairs

A feeble attempt at not sounding dramatic, but I think the matter is of pivotal importance.

Let me propel your mind in a time capsule and take you back to 1929.

One prolific name: Edward Bernays, dubbed “the father of public relations”.

Back in the 1920s, smoking was an activity mainly regarded as masculine in nature. Women were not to be seen or caught smoking as it was frowned upon.

Women being out of the equation, smoking companies were irritated, since losing half the globe’s potential customers is kind of a big deal. Poof, nothing to be done there.

Comes in sly and malicious Bernays, understanding a profound fundamental of human behavior.

In 1929, back when parades were still of devout importance, the Easter parade in NYC was coming up.

Bernays leaped towards the opportunity, having one simple goal: entice women to fume their lungs and flip the script in terms of social norms.

His attempt was probably the catalyst of marketing for centuries to come.

Labeled “Torches of Freedom”, the movement was an immediate juggernaut for its message. The cause was women’s freedom to engage in equal opportunity for expression, as well as messing up their lungs.

“Torches of Freedom” went on to become a national sensation. And Bernays arguably created a profession that is widely used nowadays.

Ladies and gents, Bernays was Freud’s nephew. It kind of makes sense doesn’t it?

The Projection Disorder

Our species fail fatally the moment we outsource our problems and issues in the hands of tyrants. Whether marketing tyrants or actual tyrants, all deceivingly similar.

See, emotions are merely a sensation of the strand of thoughts manifesting in the body. When we’re sad, we hunch our shoulders. When we’re happy and confident, we raise our heads and pump our chests.

Nowadays, a generation is being raised on the pitfalls of emotional manipulation. The tools are available and the psychology of the human mind is comprehended. What’s to stop massive corporations to abuse such power?

Waking up, our instincts kick into high gear. Chase immediate gratification, eliminate pain. We grab onto our phones, whining for a dopamine fix in order to get ourselves going.

What first comes up on the feed? All whom you follow living grand, flaunting their capitals, portraying the pitch-perfect, happy-ever-after euphoric reality that is their existence.

We haven’t even opened up the discovery feed on Instagram yet…that is where all hell breaks loose.

How do we expect such a generation to be motivated and ambitious on creating something bigger than themselves when their brains are hijacked and numbed out of the stratosphere.

What inevitably occurs? Well, simply utter insecurity and the projection of one’s own power and drive onto fake realities and virtual transcendence.

It might look innocuous on a surface level, but in truth, infants’ minds are getting bombarded with an implicit message: you’re inadequate, and you’re flushing your life down the toilet.

Shame Sells

Guilt is natural. Painful events are supposed to be painful because it sends out a message that such action isn’t to recur.

Sales pry on such mechanisms though. In order for it to work effortlessly, it has to be based on reality though. They briskly prey on innate desires such as food and comfort.

Guilt is a propellor towards action. We strive on building mental advertisements for ourselves to get moving.

Working out? You rarely think about the sweat you plop on the gym floor, rather you picture a whole cheerleader squad circling you like sharks on the beach while you effortlessly flex your oiled-up abs.

Career? Same thing. Insert ad on living lavishly on boats/digital nomadic life.

Upon giving you a mental image of where you should be in your life, your guilt skyrockets, rendering you more vulnerable to take in sporadic and aimless action, working yourself to death with no true results. Or, what marketers hope for, impulsive purchases for fear of missing out.

Beware of such tactics, and make sure you always sleep on a purchase before you vehemently buy it.

More often than not, my erratic behavior displayed before I go to bed vanishes out of thin air the next morning. I wake up, look around, and I’m glad I didn’t succumb to emotional highs the previous night.

The Twist

Look, I believe in the power of marketing. But, there’s a fine line between selling a product that you believe is your one true purpose in your life and outright manipulation.

For every good in life, the truth can be twisted and distorted and pulverized into bad repercussions down the line.

Put yourself in the shoes of a certain buyer, or even reader, or whatever audience you’re targeting. Proceed to ask yourself: Is this product something that would’ve solved a pain or problem I experienced in the past?

A good habit is to check off this list of questions before you publish any certain product:

1. Is this something I would promote to my family and perhaps even children? Am I proud of the artifact of my efforts?
2. What is the ultimate purpose of such a product? What’s the why behind it? Am I looking for external gratification or do I stand by a notion that is being swept under the rug by society?
3. Am I regurgitating the same old superficial level advice and tips, trying to make a quick buck?
4. Am I chasing money or impact in this piece of work?

Look, I’m guilty of chasing quantity and numerical success. I do have a deadly fear though that my articles are coming off as shallow and full of fluff and dilly dally. If I am, you would do me a favor and notify me alright?

Actionable Plan

We probably inherently understand this at times, but it can be easy to get engulfed by the barrage of notifications and sales pitches we receive daily. For that reason, heeding the few following steps could radically reduce digital garbage:

1. Inbox Zero. Get your email down to zero, and stop getting bombarded with useless notifications all day long.
2. Use Self-Control to block everything except what you’re working on. It’s totally, but is it pretty hardcore. I’ve heard that you cannot undo the focus block unless the time runs out. Deleting the app or simply closing it won’t do the trick.
3. Protect your attention in the morning. Get 2–3 hours of highly productive work in the morning, then be as lazy as you’d like for the rest of the day. Check out the Monk Mode Morning by Cal Newport to skyrocket your productivity.
4. Either play hard or rest hard. You’re either focusing everything you got for a few hours, or you resemble a panda lying on his back looking like he just got smoked out by Snoop Dog.
5. Do not multitask. People who multitask simply switch back and forth between two endeavors rapidly, rendering both negligible.
6. Stop watching the news. They prey on feeding you the worst the world

Final Thoughts

You have to look out for yourself because companies aren’t exactly competing for your well-being.

Double down on self-improvement and regaining your personal power. Only by doing so will you be able to decipher the emotional rollercoasters ads take you on, filtering the fluff from the truly impactful content out there.

When in doubt, trust your own intuitions because no one knows you better than you do. No matter what they throw at you, your reaction to it is something they can never control. Do not give them your inherent power.