The short video clip Lost Generation continues to be a big hit with keynote and workshop audiences as we discuss our choices to Lead, Follow, or Wallow when faced with challenging changes or setbacks. It features a poem written by Jonathon Reed for a “U @ 50″ contest sponsored by the American Association of Retired People (AARP) for 20 – 22 year olds on what future they see for themselves in 30 years.
Audiences love the video’s powerful message and clever construction. It’s a palindrome. That means can be read top down or bottom up. The message in reading top down paints a bleak and foreboding future. The bottom of the poem states, “and all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it.” The narrator reverses and reads the poem bottom up. The message is brimming with optimism and hope. The exact same words read in two different directions carry diametrically opposite meanings.
In less than two minutes, Lost Generation hammers home how we create our own reality. In researching and writing Growing @ the Speed of Change I came across this summary from author and physician Larry Dossey: “In the last three decades findings in experimental psychology have suggested that one’s belief about the world may actually change it. This idea is very disturbing to the usual conceptions of the mind, suggesting that mind can actually influence events at a distance — that it can ‘move matter’ and thereby shape the world around us.”
Most of us can accept that where we focus our own personal consciousness or awareness creates our perception, which then creates our reality. But science is now raising serious questions about whether there is such a thing as objective reality or unchanging facts.
Amit Goswami, a physics professor (emeritus) at the University of Oregon and author of ten books, is one of the pioneers in a new multidisciplinary paradigm of science based on the primacy of consciousness. He explains his theory of science within consciousness: “Establishment science is done within the metaphysical umbrella that says that matter is the ground of all being, including mind and consciousness which are brain phenomena. Science within consciousness turns this upside down: consciousness is the ground of all being; matter, including the brain, consists of quantum possibilities of consciousness. When we observe matter, we choose from among these possibilities to produce the actual event that we experience.”
Go to Lost Generation and for your own reality check. What future are you constructing for yourself, your team, or your organization?
Further Reading:
- “Thoughts That Make You Go Hmmm on…the Slippery Subject of Reality“
- “Quantum Mechanics: Now What’s the Real World?“
- “Choose Your Glasses Very Carefully“
- “Range of Reality: Choosing the Best or the Worst of Times“
Six Core Elements to Leading a Peak Performance Culture
My reciprocal post on Zenger/Folkman’s blog is now available. Click on Six Core Elements to Leading a Peak Performance Culture to read it.
For over 30 years, Jim Clemmer’s practical leadership approaches have been inspiring action and achieving results. He has delivered thousands of keynote presentations, workshops, and management team retreats to hundreds of organizations around the globe moving his audiences from inspiration to application. He’s listed in the World’s Top 30 Most Influential Leadership Gurus based on research with 22,000 global business people, consultants, academics and MBAs. His website is www.JimClemmer.com.
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