One side effect of not being able to sleep is the inability to stop the incessant mind chatter. But last night's chatter was a continuation of the question about "who is betting on me to succeed?"
This is not a "small" question. Meaning, I'm not asking a "woe is me, nobody is betting on me to succeed" kind of question. The question, itself, is rhetorical, of course. Because the "big" question is really about who are the collective we betting on to succeed?
Whose reality is it, anyway?
As I drove across town this morning my mind quickly created a list of Reality TV shows that are nothing more than a watered down version of the Hunger Games: American Idol, The Voice, Big Brother, America's Next Top Model, Project Runway, Survivor...the list could go on and on and on. And, the only real difference between any of these Reality shows and the Hunger Games is the degree of the elimination...that's it.
We are living the Hunger Games, with entire industries created to promote it.
And we all bet for or against the people in our lives every single day!
Statistics. Odds. Potential. Call it what you want, but this is the betting system our culture uses to make real-life wagers on or about the people in our lives.
I do it, too.
It makes me feel sick to my stomach to own this truth, but I do it too...I bet on people without ever realizing that I've done it! I bet against my dad every time I get scared about the way he manages his diabetes...and this list of all of the ways that I bet against the people in my own world could go on and on, too.
No more predictions of gloom and doom.
From this moment forward, I want to start betting on the success of the people that I love and care about...and that includes my self! I am the WORST offender in the "betting against me" camp. I undermine myself...I minimize my own strengths...and I pathologize my process to such a degree of painful shame that I stop my forward momentum before I ever get started.
I do this...to my self!
I am the one who has internalized the voices betting against me...I have done this to my self!
Well, no longer, because all bets are off!
