We are in the “keep it short” kind of world. People have a short span of attention nowadays. If interest is not captured instantly we loose their interest. What if we have the tendency of writing much text to make our point? I do for I have a lot to say. Do people want to listen? Some do, some don’t. Should that worry me when blogging?
Well yes and no. Let’s try to reason through my own inner battle.
Yes, it should worry:
Churchill once wrote to a friend “sorry for writing you a long letter, I had no time to make a short one”.
Churchill is known to have been a person who had many points to make. New issues take time to explain because they are out of the ordinary. Change is never very democratic. Why would you present something out of the common understanding of your public? Because you are convinced that it is important.
In the world of the ordinary we take instant decisions. Our attention is minimized due to habits. Surrounded by impulses that want our instant attention we tend to communicate in bullets if we have something to sell. Those bullets are delivered with fast emotions such as fun, excitement or anxiety.
Our current world is based on transactions and we are the target.
But I have nothing to sell!
I invite people to a specific understanding, a new worldview and social structure that may offer better perspectives and securities than where we come from. I am asking them to join! That takes a bit of explanation. And it requires an audience that is willing to consider change. But how do I get the volatile surroundings to pay attention when it reacts instantly to anything as if it were a sales pitch? Churchill is suggesting that I should take time to describe complex issues in a concise way. He is right.
The general public is not at all interested in what I have to say unless it affects them personally. The whole secret is “the audience”, not me!
I need to attract those people who are open for change. So if I “sell change” the pitch should be short and maybe adventurous. Those who “buy” may just have that little more patience with me to try to understand where I am heading for and what’s in it for them? Then they may even tell others.
E=MC2
Einstein said: “If you can’t explain it in a short way you probably don’t understand yourself.”
Wow, that’s confrontational and a challenge. I often tell people that I write books first to see if I can put my own understanding into words in a structured way. If I can’t how on earth can I explain others? If I can then I have already a book to give away. In a way a blog is that too. A test of my own understanding. The reader is a victim of my own learning process. Can I do this to you? Well, that is up to you to decide. Some may find a morbid kind of pleasure in watching me struggle. Maybe because they recognize their own in me?
But can I shorten it?
Einstein’s E=MC2 is indeed short but do I understand? No, but that’s not the point. Einstein understands. He makes it available to us as a simple to remember formula whether we understand it or not. We only accept that it is important and can subsequently spend the rest of our lives trying to understand the meaning with or without his help.
I made one of my own:
Other’s say that a picture says 1000 words, so I also make a picture that says the same as the formula:
Do you understand? Maybe not, maybe yes. You can trust me that I understand as I work with it on a daily basis addressing the key issues of human evolution today, the crises and how it affects business, society, politics etc.
So yes I should worry because it takes this flash second to enter a human being’s perception and remain there for ever, or never get in at all. My biggest worry, if I understand myself (thank you Einstein), should be to take time to be short and show that it is ME that understands while inviting others to figure it out too.
No, it should not worry me
Prof. Jaap Ham (University researcher and department director on “perception”) said to me: “Awareness? Nothing awareness! People do not change behavior through awareness. They massively copy behavior of others”
Who am I writing for? I have nothing to sell. My blogs are to inspire people to the new world of absolute spiritual freedom and take responsibility from there. When I describe the new world to people I just invite them to read my own adventures and experiences.
My texts tend to be long. But Jaap suggested that I have to learn to distinguish long text by considering what I want to do? Do I want people to become aware? Or do I want them to follow me?
Well, I do understand what Jaap is saying but also believe that the ones that we blindly follow do have a sense of direction through awareness. So I need both.
The 10/80/10 rule applies:
10% of the people are always in for change and follow blindly (adventurous)
10% of the people are never in for change and block with arguments and obstacles (conservatives)
80% haven’t a clue and follow the one that convinces most in the “sense of being part of something and not being left behind”.
So for me there is a bit of both, the awareness of the 10% adventurous and curious, and the 80% potential followers who think it’s a good deal. The conservatives we do not pay any attention too no matter how hard they shout. As a “changer” we always have a lot to prove, especially to ourselves. But never to the opposition who always tends to be right basing themselves on wealth from the past.
In this mix of progressive optimism there are some dangers when we apply long texts to explain what we are doing:
Preaching: the danger is that I become a preacher rather than an inspirer. People don’t get aware through preaching. Preaching is another manipulator telling people what to do. Awareness comes when they are inspired to try something out and learn in the process.
Ego: the danger is that I try to convince people that “my way” is better. People don’t follow ego’s, they follow out of self interest.
So when writing long blogs they should tell stories that inspire some to set out and try it their own way and others to follow. It is only “my world” when I am the only resident. It becomes “our world” when the population grows. The stories may have started a long time ago about me but should slowly grow to talk about others and “we”. Interestingly it does in reality. I often take the initiative and after a while others take over who do a better job than I. Then I have nothing to say anymore, just to enjoy. Shorter than my silence is impossible ;-). Just maybe this again:
Last but not least
In “my world” we have accepted the absolute freedom of the human being as a uniquely born living entity of the universe. We surround ourselves with a commitment to life and structure our sustainable progress through a new democratic complexity called Sustainocracy. In my own surroundings I find myself in the lucky circumstances to be able to apply this freedom also to the transformation of society and economy with support of scientific research, governmental organisations and business enterprises joining in as experimenting members and participants. I write about this as a transformation of the past towards the future in which we let go of something dominant to replace it with another dominance. But……
We (I) have to realize however that not everyone in this world can safely free themselves from the reigning old human dogma’s and impositions. Individual freedom is a spiritual breakthrough of the consciousness but the new, purpose driven democracy is a collective evolutionary process that may show important differences around the world, even where the freedom of speech through Internet reaches out without being seconded by the local circumstances. So telling my story may initiate individual processes in places where the surroundings are more hostile than others. That does not mean that the Quantum Leap described in the previous blog does not happen, it just may be a more dangerous and less obvious process.