Jolt! (2 page)
Jolt!
© 2011 by Philip Howard Cooke
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.
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®
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Scripture quotations marked NRSV are from the NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION of the Bible. © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.
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Page design by Mandi Cofer
ISBN 978-1-59554-773-6 (IE)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cooke, Phil.
   Jolt! : get the jump on a world that's constantly changing / by Phil Cooke.
      p. cm.
   ISBN 978-1-59555-324-9
   1. Change (Psychology) I. Title.
 BF637.C4C67 2010
 158. 1âdc22
2010034330
Printed in the United States of America
11 12 13 14 15 QGF 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Kathleen
CONTENTS
Introduction: Living in a Disrupted World
1. The Time to Change Is
Now
Let the Revolution Begin!
2. The Headache Is Worth It
The Joy of Hitting the Wall
3. The Real Truth About Change
Letting Go of Your Past
4. Start at the Finish Line
Knowing Your Dream and Destination
5. The Power of “What If?”
Expanding Your Vision
6. Jolt Your Priorities
Taking Control of What Is Important
7. Better Choices
The Keys to Strong Decision Making
8. Borders
The Map of Who You Are
9. The Power of Focus
Selective Thinking Is the Key to Breakthrough
10. A Change of Habit
Breaking Destructive Patterns of Behavior
11. Personal Growth Is Not an Option
Never Stop Learning
12. Creativity
The
Real
Wonder Drug
13. Embrace Ambiguity
Appreciating the Mystery of Life
14. The Power of Generosity
Getting More Out of Life by Giving It Away
15. The Key to Personal Confidence
Overcoming Fear and Insecurity
16. Build a Motivation Machine
Personal Cheerleaders Can Make a Powerful Difference
17. The Freedom of Accountability
The Secret of Real Independence
18. The Power of Perception
Why It Is Just as Important as Reality
19. Change Your Thinking and Change Your Future
The Incredible Influence of Your Thought Life
20. Discover the Power of Faith
The Awesome Power in Looking Beyond Yourself
21. Eliminate Destructive Distractions
Releasing Negative Baggage
22. Failure Is the Key to Success
Mistakes Are Just Part of the Process
23. Get Over Yourself!
It Is Not About You
24. Leave a Legacy of Change
How Will You Be Remembered?
25. Live a Blockbuster Life
Discover the Far-Reaching Power of Influence
» INTRODUCTION
LIVING IN A DISRUPTED WORLD
Jolt : To disturb. To shock. To interfere with abruptly. To shake things up.
I
don't have to convince you the world is changing. Globalization has changed business, the media have changed our perceptions, culture has changed our values, and technology has changed everything. We I live in the instant world of mobile phones, text messaging, and social networking. In the digital universe, word travels fast and change is overwhelming, often happening without warning.
For better or worse,
disruption
is the word that best describes twenty-first-century living.
But the question is, as the world around us changes, have
we
changed? How have we adapted to the turmoil that surrounds our lives? Perhaps more important, have our personal lives kept pace with radically escalating technology?
You're about to begin a journey that will have enormous impact on your life. The principles of this book will work for those with a passion to change their company, their community, or their lives. From corporate CEOs to rising visionaries to housewives, this book could be the answer you've been looking for. In a world where the very foundations you've believed in all your life are crumbling, how do you move forward toward your purpose?
Sure, everyone tells us we
need
to change, but how do we actually do it? Especially in a world where it seems as if the rules are just being made up? And it's not getting any easier.
» DISRUPTION IS NOT JUST THEORETICAL; IT'S PERSONAL.
According to John Freeman, author of
The Tyranny of E-mail
:
⢠65 percent of North Americans spend more time with their computer than their spouse.
⢠E-mail is addictive in the same way slot machines have been shown to be addictive.
⢠In 2009, it's been estimated, the average corporate worker spent more than 40 percent of his or her day sending or receiving some 200 e-mail messages.
⢠Information overload is a $650 billion drag on our economy each year.
⢠In a world home to 6 billion people, roughly 600 million e-mails are sent every 10 minutes.
⢠E-mail is changing the way we read and communicate.
⢠77 percent of workers report that e-mail downtime causes major stress at work, with 10 percent actually assaulting their computers.
⢠As a result, some psychologists are actually pushing to have “Internet Addiction” broadly classified as a clinical disorder. (136)
But Freeman isn't the only media prophet warning us about the impact of technological disruption. In his blog (
http://socialnomics.net
/) based on the book
Socialnomics
, Erik Qualman lists mind-boggling statistics about how social media has impacted our culture:
⢠In 2010, Generation Y outnumbered Baby Boomers . . . 96 percent of them have already joined a social network.
⢠One out of eight couples married in the United States in the last year met via social media.
⢠If Facebook were a country, it would be the world's third largest, between the United States and India.
⢠A 2009 U.S. Department of Education study revealed that, on average, online students outperformed those receiving face-to-face instruction. One in six higher education students is enrolled in online curriculum.
⢠The fastest-growing segment on Facebook is 55-to-65-year-old females.
⢠Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres (combined) have more Twitter followers than the populations of Ireland, Norway, or Panama.
⢠Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé . . . In 2009, Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen.
⢠There are more than 200,000,000 blogsâincreasing daily and 54 percent of bloggers post content or tweet daily. Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, word of mouth now becomes world of mouth.
⢠78 percent of consumers trust peer recommendations, but only 14 percent trust advertisements.
⢠25 percent of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video . . . on their phone.
⢠In the near future we will no longer search for products and services, they will find us via social media.
At the start of 2010, marketing expert Seth Godin called the upcoming ten years the decade of change and frustration. As Seth elaborated on his online blog:
Change
: The infrastructure of massive connection is now real. People around the world have cell phones. The first Internet generation is old enough to spend money, go to work, and build companies. Industries are being built every day (and old ones are fading). The revolution is in full swing, and an entire generation is eager to change everything because of it. Hint: it won't look like the last one with a few bells and whistles added.
Frustration
: Baby boomers are getting old. Dreams are fading, and so is health. Boomers love to whine, and we love to imagine that we'll live forever and accomplish everything. This is the decade that reality kicks in. And, to top it off, savings are thin and resource availability isn't what it used to be. A lot of people ate their emergency rations during the last decade. Look for this frustration to be acted out in public, and often. (
http://sethgodin.typepad.com
/)
In so many ways, media and technology have overtaken our lives, and along with great benefits, they have also brought great frustration. We can't escape the advertisements from video monitors embedded in gas pumps and elevators. We used to fear “billboard jungles” in major cities, but today, technology is allowing companies to target us far more effectivelyâoften without our even realizing it's happened. In fact, some researchers indicate that we're being exposed to the phenomenal number of five thousand media messages per person, per day.
That barrage is impacting our behavior. For instance, people answer mobile phones in the most inappropriate places. My wife, Kathleen, and I attended a wedding recently where a member of the audience refused to take off his wireless Bluetooth earpiece. As the church lights dimmed for the wedding procession, he sat there with the little blue light blinking away in his ear like some cheap disco ball. I wondered what phone call could be so important that he couldn't even take off his earpiece for the bride's entrance.
Our close friend Fred Applegate is a respected musical theater performer in major roles on Broadway in shows like
The Sound of Music
,
The Producers
, and
Young Frankenstein
. One night during a performance, the cast was interrupted by a cell phone ringing in the audience. To the astonishment of everyone in the theater, the patron actually took the call! The actors paused onstage to hear the audience member say in a loud voice: “Hello? No, I can't talk. I'm at a Broadway show.”
» THE INVASION OF TECHNOLOGYâESPECIALLY IN THE HANDS OF STUPID PEOPLEâIS A HORRIFYING THOUGHT INDEED.
But it's more than technology that's changing. As I write this, we're experiencing a major financial recession. As a result, most people are cutting back financially in key areas to weather the storm. But according to a recent poll, 32 percent of respondents said they're spending less
across the board
. More telling, however, is that these consumers expect this cutback to be their “new normal pattern” for the future. One study found that 75 percent have altered their purchasing in the last year. While some have traded down, most seem to have evolved into a completely new lifestyle. Steve McClellan quoted David Kenny, an advertising agency executive: “People are going to emerge from the current recession forever changed.”
» THE RECESSION IS NOW, BUT DISRUPTION IS THE “NEW NORMAL.”
That's why it's so critical for all of us to master the principles that will allow us to survive
and thrive
in the culture of disruption that is rapidly becoming our future.
I'm a writer, filmmaker, and media producer, and I started my career directing television programs. I'm a cofounder of a television production company in Los Angeles, as well as a company that focuses on helping nonprofit organizations use the media more effectively. I'm not a doomsayer. I'm an enthusiastic media user and probably value my iPhone, iPad, and laptop as much as anyone. But the truth is, we're living in the midst of the greatest shift in our culture since the invention of the printing press. And it's not the calm eye of a hurricane; it's the heart of the stormâthe belly of the beast. As I write this, America is experiencing one of the most serious recessions in its history, changes in technology are disrupting our lives, and cultural norms that have held true for millennia are eroding before our eyes. We're losing family, cultural, and religious frameworks that have stabilized and supported earlier generations.
NAVIGATING THE WORLD OF DISRUPTIVE CHANGE
Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony.
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
âALBERT EINSTEIN
How do we choose to deal with these radical changes in our culture and in our lives? Do we follow the Luddites, who in early-nineteenth-century Britain rebelled against mechanizing the textile industry by destroying looms they felt were leaving them without work and changing their entire way of life? Or do we just let go and allow technology to overtake us in a wave and wash us away like a boat with no rudder?
