If you're reading this, it means you survived both Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
Good for you!
I did okay myself.
Spent Thanksgiving with a neighbor because she felt bad I was going to be alone. Drank a few before I got there just to make it tolerable.
Turned out to be better than anticipated.
And I'm not stupid enough to mess with Black Friday so I stayed in, worked, wrote, watched movies, and...survived the potential brutal slayings of retail shopping on the worst shopping day of the year.
How did you do?
It's amazing...the extents people will go to save a few bucks or to get something they perceive as being "free."
Isn't your time more valuable than getting a beat-down in the electronics department of Walmart? Isn't your life more valuable than getting killed over Big Hugs Elmo, Furby...or whatever other ridiculous toy is the "hot" seller for the holidays?
I'd rather pay the extra money and have Toys R Us mail the sh** to me than go through all that hassle to save a few dollars.
Sometimes people never sit down and do the "math" in their heads. They don't value their time (or their life) very much. And they waste time and take risks that really make no sense when you actually think it through.
We have some major cultural deficiencies.
We have the Instant Gratification Syndrome where Americans culturally want things right now...otherwise forget it.
We have the Get Something for Free (or Discounted) Syndrome where Americans culturally want something for nothing or at a deep discount, even if they have to waste hours of time and a tank of gas to "save" money.
We have the Forget the Future, Live for Today Syndrome where Americans culturally don't give a damn about anything happening tomorrow, next week, next year, or...definitely not in the next decade as long as our immediate needs and comforts are accommodated for.
We have the Entitlement Syndrome where some Americans think they are entitled to a check or some time of financial disbursement for doing nothing. This disbursement can come in the form of a government welfare check to a frivolous lawsuit for something like, say, a hot pickle on a burger purchased and consumed at a local McDonald's.
We have the We're Better Than Everyone Else Syndrome where Americans culturally think that we have the best country. This, perhaps, applied multiple decades ago when we were still cutting edge but...not so much anymore. Yet many Americans haven't figured that out yet.
We have the Government Needs to Make My Life Better Syndrome where Americans culturally think that it's the government's job -- not their own -- to make their life better in every way. And, unfortunately, many Americans haven't quite figured out that, compared to other countries where people still sleep on dirt floors, crap in a hole, and have no running water...our country really isn't that bad after all.
Does that make us bad people? To have all of these selfish, small-minded syndromes?
Well, sometimes you can change the wiring in your brain, especially if you were culturally raised a certain way. In that respect, I guess you just can't help it.
However, some of those syndromes can be abolished if you simply understood basic economics and took responsibility to write your own checks in life.
You can control your own destiny. Everyone can. It's just a simple choice.
The choice, of course, starts with your mind and how you process things including how you process making major life-altering changes in your life.
See you at the top!
Your mentor,
Monica Main
www.MonicaMain.com
