One of the side effects of incorporating Principle #1 of Jack Canfield’s Success Principles is that I have become acutely aware of how our culture influences us to abdicate our accountability and responsibility, most especially what’s being played on the radio.

Courtesy of Lady Gaga and Beyonce:  ”Stop calling, Stop Calling, I don’t want to talk anymore…”   Ladies, if you don’t want someone to call you anymore, that’s within your locus of control.  Turn your phone off or block the number instead of complaining about it to an inanimate object – your phone.  (And, by the way, phone-stalking after a break-up sounds like the beginnings of an abusive relationship, so perhaps a restraining order is in order?)

“You’re a victim” is being drummed into our unconscious in all sorts of insidious ways, which affects our productivity and our level of happiness.  It’s so easy to say, “You change it, so my life is better.”

Courtesy of Orianthe:  ”According to you, I’m stupid, I’m uesless I can’t do anything right… According to him, I’m beautiful, incredible…”   Here, it’s abdicating responsibility for feelings of self-worth.  The message here – “I don’t think enough of myself to tell you that you’re a overly-critical jackass, so I’m going to load up on compliments from my new sugar daddy.”  It’s wholesale giving the power of her well-being over to someone else.  <Much sarcasm> let’s sing that into our temporal lobes so that our brains can unconsciously have us act that out.

I bring this up because song has a way of bypassing our conscious filters, and along with other social cues it adds to the normalization of the fiction that we are somehow not accountable for our results.   Folks, this meme affects not only our ability to live happy and fulfilled lives, it takes away from our effectiveness in the workplace.  Be vigilant!

And, be your best you today,

Carolann Jacobs