Living in a virtual reality
Posted on April 07, 2020 by Sonia Gonzalez, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
Remember the JETSONS cartoons when you were little? This is the kind of life I want to believe we are entering now more than ever.
My bouncer theory is in line with something I read. It is a quote that has been an inspiration for me in the last 12 years. Peter Drucker who was considered the father of “modern management” once wrote: “In a few hundred years, when the history of our time will be written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event historians will see is not technology, internet, e-commerce or even artificial intelligence. It is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time literally substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choices. For the first time, they will have to manage themselves. And society is totally unprepared for it” (Leader to Leader Journal, managing Knowledge Means Managing Oneself).
Remember the JETSONS cartoons when you were little? The best day of the week for me was coming down to my parent’s bedroom on Saturdays at 7:00 am to watch my favourite TV show: The Jetsons. I dreamt about a world where cars fly, robots clean the house, where just by clicking a bottom you could be transported into someone else’s life and where work and play blend together and life was easy and happy. This is the kind of life I want to believe we are entering now more than ever.
Our brains are a magnificent machine that works incredibly and can create wonderful and practical things. Just look around and see all the technology we have at our fingertips. However, this engine can work at its best when it has only a few things to focus on. The most effective and successful people on the planet know this and they have something in common. They have a bouncer at the door with a list of the guests, this bouncer decides who comes in and who stays at the door.
Here are three things that happen when you don’t have a bouncer at the door.
1. Making decisions in auto-pilot mode no considering the value of our decisions and sometimes the most important decisions just pass us by, hidden in the herd.
2. Our attention is under attack, especially now when we have to run the house, be a teacher of our kids, work or try to work while being bombarded by instant communication and unlimited amounts of information at our fingertips, every ding, tweet, beep is designed to interrupt and distract us from the things we should be focused on.
Science is telling us that the brain’s ability to think is overridden by the need to react. A lot of people think they have ADD because they can’t focus but they do not have ADD they have a “severe case of modern life”, according to doctor Walter Schneider.
Today, a large percentage of the workforce is paid to THINK we move from the industrial age of manual labour to the knowledge age of mental labour and just when we need our minds the most our ability to think is under attack.
3. Waste of energy. Making decisions when our brain is under attack is exhausting and it drains our energy.
Now, this is what happens when you have bouncer:
1. You will manage yourself better: You’ll invest time in understanding what’s important to you by setting a few goals in key areas of your life (less than five).
2. The bouncer will keep you focused on investing time and energy planning and scheduling actions based on the goals.
3. The bouncer says No to the less important, those things won’t get in the party.
4. You will act on the important and not react to the urgent unimportant.
These days my bouncer is not letting in:
1. My need to respond to every tweet, ding and beep that my social media is asking for
2. Draining conversations with people who are in the victim mode or who want to put you down by sucking your energy.
3. Wasting time in relationships that are unimportant.
4. Thoroughly cleaning of my house
Being selective in doing less is the key to accomplishing more. What you don’t do is every bit as important as what you do.
Invest your TIME, the most expensive currency in the world wisely by having a bouncer that will filter what’s important to you and stop leaking your energy and time in low-value investments.
