The Sisyphusian soliloquy - The Bungee effect

I want to bring to the table a new concept. I have thought about this for many years. I don't know if I necessarily have the answer but I would love a discussion.

This runs on from yesterdays blog on "paradigm shifting and paralysis" not by design but it must be my thought flow this week. I have a term for what we do, what we do when we are alone, when we are frustrated and down but we know better and it perplexes me.

Point 1

King Sisyphus was a mean old king who is thought to be the founder of Corinth - Greece, through his many actions and diatribes he was banished to the underworld only to be given the task of rolling a large rock up a hill, only for it to roll down again and this he was to do for eternity.

Do you ever feel like this, I know I do, often!

In experiments that test how workers respond when the meaning of their task is diminished, the test condition is referred to as the Sisyphusian condition. The two main conclusions of the experiment are that people work harder when their work seems more meaningful, and that people underestimate the relationship between meaning and motivation. So this then leads me to the thought, " Is my work here at WA, this quest for knowledge, meaningful? I think for me it is but then the boulder tends to run down the hill. The definition of insanity is 'doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result'

Point 2

So onto Soliloquy, We often in times of darkness or times of frustration speak to ourselves, "come on Mike, get with it, what the hell are you doing man, you know better than this" We speak outwardly from within, we speak to an unlistening crowd while hoping those close to us cannot hear. Much like the actor in Shakespeare up on stage, off to one side, as in Macbeth - "is this a dagger I see before me?" he speaks out to the audience quietly, while the players on stage hear not a word.

We speak to be heard, sometimes just by us but we are speaking, this mind of ours, this goal striving servo mechanism I have spoken of before in my POWER course, trying to focus on what we want but that Sisyphusian component of our being takes over and the rock rolls down.

Point 3

So it leads onto then my concept of a bungee effect going in withing ourselves. We know what to do, we know what to eat, we know what our goals are, but 'why Oh why', he cries out, can't we achieve that which we know is good for us.

Studies have shown that only 20% of us set goals to be successful, fit, solvent, whatever you like and of those 20%, 70% fail, WHY?

Author, Douglas Vermeeren states in his book, "Amazing success" that we fail for ten reasons. I am not going through his reasons here but I do recommend you visit his site

http://www.douglasvermeeren.com

I think the Bungee effect is a conditioning, its a set of beliefs that we hold that stop us from moving on. Yesterdays blog we spoke of Paradigm paralysis and Vermeeren talks about analysis paralysis. We are inherently scared of change and we will not 'allow' ourselves to change from that job, get up from that desk, take that course because we are afraid. Well you know what, people are doing it everyday while you sleep, while you watch your soaps, while you are on facebook and they are getting ahead. Its not luck or a silver spoon, it is that they did it and you didn't.

We know better and we want better, i know we do because we are in here and you are reading this but beware the bungee effect, beware that Sisyphusian soliloquy of speaking into the darkness, speaking out so loud, where no one can hear you.

God Bless

MikeyB