How many known and unknown beliefs/patterns do you have that have never been questioned?
Recently, the books I’ve been reading have made me think about the blindly followed rules of society in my life. One book in particular titled ” The Code to the Extraordinary Mind” by Vishen Lakhiani called these un-necessary rules we follow “Brules” (Bull S**** Rules). A common quoted example of this (in the entrepreneurial books I have read) is go to college, get good grades, get a degree…so you can get a JOB with good benefits. Once you actually get that job, you’re more than likely to be underpaid, over-taxed, forced to put your family in 2nd place, unable to pay more than likely huge college loan debt and your position isn’t even “secure”. In reality, the belief of that path can very easily turn out to be a limitation in the long run…even if it starts out as a blessing.
What if you went against the grain and didn’t follow that limiting belief as you were making decisions about life’s path. There are so many scenarios to consider; here are a few, such as don’t go to college and focus on building a business while working, or work a job the rest of your life and focus on climbing the “corporate ladder”. One thing worth mentioning is that the entrepreneurial path may not be guaranteed to work out for the best for everyone but it could also potentially work out better than the blindly enforced standard.
One particular unquestioned societal standard that goes back as far as any of us can remember is fashion…essentially what goes with what. This question initially popped up for me when my wife said a certain pair of dress shoes didn’t go with the clothes I was wearing. The question that came to mind was who decided and shaped the human perception of what goes with what when it comes to fashion? The reality is if you mix two colors that don’t match, the world doesn’t end and your life doesn’t end either. What if history’s shaping of our perception actually said the colors we perceive not to match presently actually did go together? Has any of you actually thought about this? Reality is most people don’t see the point of questioning something like this. I think it should be questioned because to me the revelation that the things we perceive as “matching”, or “naturally working together” are based on a perceptions whose development we had no say in.
One of the reasons I’ve thought of for people not questioning things like this is because it would take a lot of mental energy if we questioned every blindly followed belief…known or unknown.
Regardless, I think it would be worth the time and effort to take a good look at some of our beliefs and social norms and see if some of them don’t require some FACT checking for validity.
Training and Brewing 