This has been the most interesting presidential election of my life. Sorry Al Gore, Bob Dole, Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale and the other guys, (remember Paul Tsongas? I know, neither do I) you’re all completely dry and boring compared to Barrack Obama and Sarah Palin. It doesn’t matter who you’re voting for. I have never seen candidates that can energize their side and set off the opposition as well as these two can. They have been lightning rods for adoration and villification like nothing I’ve ever seen. Past candidates for president like Dick Gephardt would drone on in such electrifying monotone with ”The dream started as the son of a blah blah blah…” You’ve already lost me Dick, click.
Does it mean that this election is bigger than any previous election? Not necessarily, they’re all big. This election has been more entertaining which means it can be more of a distraction. There has been so much rhetoric that it can be very confusing and overwhelming for a lot of people. The amount of attention and partisan energy going into this election is without precedent.
This is NOT a political post but rather some guidance on current events and how to put recent events into better perspective so that you can manage your life more effectively. The rhetoric and partisan sniping can be very draining for a lot of people if its not managed properly. It can lead to arguing amongst friends, poor sleep because you’re still po’d about something Jack Cafferty said on CNN or worst of all, being overwhelmed by it all. If you’ve got a lot going on or are trying to reach a goal that requires all your energy then you can’t afford these power leaks.
The key until Nov 4th and afterwards is to not lose your feeling of control over your life and your focus. For the vast majority of Americans, their own personal actions have a far greater impact on their lives than who’s in the white house at any given time. Your choice of a college, spouse, group of friends, starting a family, deciding on a major goal like law or medical school or starting your own business will have far more significance for your future than who wins the election.
But these political pundits make it sound so all or nothing. That’s their job. A political talking head has two messages. One is the news itself, the other is to sell that news as important to you and your life. If Chris Matthews or Anderson Cooper or Candy Crowley can sell you on how important their message is then you’ll have to keep coming back for more information. Another agenda is that if what they cover is important then that means they’re important. But how important are all these daily updates on election coverage?
Are you better off than you were eight years ago? I love this slogan because it reasons from the specific to the general. There are displaced parts of the economy at every point in time and these are emphasized by the opposition in campaigns during every election. The last eight years have given us the ipod, iphone, texting, IMing, facebook, myspace, Skype, Google, Jamba Juice, Chipotle, Starbucks on every block, megaplexes, Costco, high speed internet, HD tv, flat panel tvs, satellite radio, portable DVD players, Netflix, Wii, Xbox 360, new construction of commercial and residential buildings all over this country. How many of America’s youth would want to roll the clock back on all these changes? There’s now a whole generation of Americans that think life without an ipod and texting would be like living in a cave. Its a double edged sword, if the incumbent points to all the progress then the opposition says they can’t take credit for it. The end result is we are continually told that we’re not better off and this negativity gets recirculated like stale air. Somebody open a window.
But really, are you better off than you were eight years ago? It all depends. Did you start a family? Did you start a new business or go back to school for more training for your career? Did you take up smoking? Did you quit smoking? Did you get out of a bad relationship and get a fresh start? If you don’t take any action then you’ll be in the same position in eight more years no matter who’s in the white house.
But don’t just take my word for it, I am deferring to an old economy star and a new economy star.
The old economy star is Ben Franklin and his timeless essay titled, “The Way to Wealth”.
“It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one tenth part of their time, to be employed in its service. But idleness taxes many of us much more, if we reckon all that is spent in absolute sloth, or doing of nothing, with that which is spent in idle employments or amusements, that amount to nothing. Sloth,by bringing on diseases, absolutely shortens life. Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright, as Poor Richard says. But dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of, as Poor Richard says.
Ben Franklin also uses a very interesting literary device in this essay. He repackages a lot of his old sayings from ‘Poor Richard’s Almanac’ by introducing a new character, Father Abraham, who freely quotes Poor Richard in his essay, “The Way to Wealth”. Click on this link to read the entire essay, a lot of the advice is timeless.
The next piece of advice comes from a new economy star, Tim Ferriss, author of ‘The 4 Hour Workweek’.
He introduces a concept called ‘The Low Information Diet’ on how to cultivate selective ignorance. This is one of the best chapters in his book. He starts out the chapter with this great quote.
“What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it”. Herbert Simon, Nobel Prize recipient.
Tim is relentless at his approach to information management. Basically, if its not actionable, its pretty useless. Tim has not read a newspaper in five years. Would Ben Franklin have approved of not reading the newspaper?
Using Tim’s low information diet approach, I picked out my favorite two sentences from the chapter.
‘Most information is time-consuming, negative, irrelevant to your goals, and outside of your influence. I challenge you to look at whatever you read or watched today and tell me that it wasn’t at least two of the four.’
Chances are good that if you were watching CNN, MSNBC or FOX news about the upcoming election, it was four out of four.
