So, in Part 1 I briefly discussed the use of active self-programming to yield either positive or negative results. Many of you have heard of, and possibly even read, one of the authors or books referenced in the short paragraph on the use of active positive reinforcement to achieve personal, interpersonal, and/or professional success. Therefore, it was not too much of a leap to accept that persons may actively pursue negative programming to achieve their personal, interpersonal, and/or professional goals. I am going to spend a little time here, but not much as neither of these topics is anywhere near where I wanted to take this discussion.
Why would anyone actively pursue negative reinforcements? Once again I do not want to advocate censorship. However, for example, let’s say someone, a young male, is attracted to the life/lifestyle of a character form a book or movie. Let’s say the character drinks scotch (only good scotch), smokes (socially, not habitually), fights, and hangs out in dark (jazz) bars. Actually, it’s not hard to like this guy. It’s also not hard to be like this guy. OK, I’m thinking I better move to a more generic and less reflective example.
Actively pursuing negative programming is simply choosing to surround oneself with negative influences for personal, interpersonal, and/or professional accomplishment. Whether that be to live up (down) to a negative role model for personal reasons, accepting a destructive path of gang life for interpersonal reasons, or pursuing criminality for professional gain. It is an active choice to go down a clearly destructive path.
OK, at this point we can agree that there are active measures that we can pursue to reinforce positive or negative traits. These practices effect how we see ourselves, how others see us, and to an extent the reality that we create. With a little reflection we may all be able to recall a time when we have engaged in active positive and active negative self-programming. What I really wanted to discuss is the impact of passive programming on our personal realities. However, the music in this coffee shop (not a jazz bar) is getting a little loud, so I am going to have some lunch, find a related quote to go right under this sentence, and sign off for the day.
“Former thoughts, words and actions became our present state and right now we are sowing the seeds for our future” (16th Karmapa Meditation).
Thanks for stopping by.
Saturday, February 15, 2014