red or blue pill?

The Red Pill or the Blue Pill?

How Vast is Your Rabbit Hole? What Would You Have Done if You Were Alice? Would You Tell Them to Shove the Red Pill Right Where the Sun Ceases to Shine?

Do you freak out when someone parks in your spot in your work's car park? Spitting out profanities, resisting the temptation to key their car, with the smug thought, they won't do that again! Of course, you don't, but let's not lie, these are not uncommon thoughts. We just refrain from airing our darker sides! Our reaction to the micro moment, in that moment, is ludicrously macro, but not rare.

Do you insist on frequenting the same coffee shop, despite their unethical values? You know the one up the street endorses greater principles, but the cup size is smaller, and you need a jumbo caffeine fix; plus, it adds two minutes to your walk, and you just can't be bothered!

Are you a Big Mac kinda person? Or have you been known to order the odd Fillet of Fish in your lifetime? Standing for far too many minutes pontificating over the menu you are troubling familiar with; a menu you could recite in your sleep!

Deliberation, then contemplation, your mouth poised to make the 'F' sound; to order that Fillet. A sudden switch that your brain does not even have the time to register and out of your mouth comes the plosive 'B' as you verge back to the familiar path. The all too comfortable trajectory you remain on for the zillionth time!

Change: Humans are hardwired to kick and scream; resistant to variation, even a slight modification can cause us uproar and strife!

Undeniably, we are all to some extent creatures of habit. Assimilating newness and change can make some of us recoil like a hare in flight. Our preference to seek out security and comfort from the familiar is inherent, and at a base level a necessity, but it is the invisible boundary we create for ourselves, that some dare to cross, some occasionally cross and some never cross that interests me. Do you believe yourself to be free? Or are you chained to the walls of the prison we call our minds?

Our amygdala's guard us from threats. They provide the 'hormones for fear, fight, or flight. Your body is actually protecting you from change'. (Pennington)

So perhaps your rebuttal of the Fillet of Fish was a wise decision after all!

Jesting aside, if you were posed with the question, which pill would you take? What would you do? Consume the blue: a sedative, which maintains your ignorance in a blissful manner, keeping you safely wrapped up in a reality with little truth, as you consume unquestioningly the inherent biases of the mainstream media. Or do you like Neo from The Matrix, consume the red pill and step into the darkness of a candid reality, unplugging yourself from propaganda and flinging back the curtain the world has drawn over our eyes.

You would like to believe that the function of the media is to assist us to facilitate truth, and at times it does. 'The media controls a wide range of roles in our lives. Some of these roles are constructive and some are destructive.' (Rizvi) It would not be fair to say otherwise, but, the leakage of corruption and hypocrisy is vast, and can you afford to ignore it?

Stepping out to make changes can be excruciating for several reasons, who does not at times do anything to avoid 'uncertainty'. I certainly do, it is a sure way to maintaining ease and comfort. Even keeping your hair, the same style forever, is often a safe bet. Sat in the chair, you resort to, "just a trim please", after spending hours contemplating a change.

Or the swelling of incompetence can keep you stuck in the same scene. Change can equate to starting at a new beginning, and the likelihood is you will feel incompetent. Being a 'beginner' is not always pleasant, but if you warm to the idea of evolving as a human being, then leave your ego at the door, and embrace your vulnerability and add a further layer to yourself.

There at times when change is forced upon us, this evokes the fear and feeling that you are being controlled by others, and it can cause serious pain and discomfort. You are likely to battle it, perhaps, your partner has announced they want to leave you. But ultimately this involuntary change could be the start of a whole new and more exciting world.

Conscious change takes a titanic amount of energy. It can sap the life out of you; it can bring you to your knees; it can be and often is gruelling. 'It takes 'energy to adapt and mental effort to learn new things'. (Pennington) Although this may be a slightly embellished description of you before you arrive at the hairdressers! I hope you catch my drift.

Here is a formula that is worth considering. In the 1960s a guy named David Gleicher created it to help overcome human resistance to change, later a woman called Kathie Dannemiller refined it.

D x V x F > R (Dissatisfaction x Vision x First Concrete Steps > Resistance)

In other words, the pain of loss is greater than the power of gain. (Pennington)

Gleicher's Formula in Action:

Imagine this, your home has been up For Sale with an estate agent for the best part of a year. During this time, you have moaned incessantly, at the pub, at work, at the school gate, to yourself, on social media. They have made errors with the details; they have not turned up for viewings; they have not rung with feedback; they have put your For Sale board in next door's garden. You are fed up, and so is everyone else around you, who is forced to listen to your disappointment with their service. You even go public on Facebook! Despite this poor conduct, you resist change, it maybe you cannot be bothered, or you think what is the point, they are all the same, or you lament, that in the past, they have sold your parent's house, your previous house and your neighbour's house, so how can this be?

Finally, you do something about it and after some investigation you decide on an alternative, you make the call, you instigate the change, and whilst it takes some extra steps to do this, it becomes well worth it in the end! Youe (D)issatisfaction with the current place, multiplied by your positive (V)ision of the new place, multiplied by your (F)irst concrete step to actually move was much greater than your (R)esistance to change.

This may simply be an article stealthily designed to reduce your resistance to not trying geek, or perhaps to trying geek. How would you see what has been written? Have the advantages been emphasised and the disadvantages concealed to create a positive opinion about us!

Have you taken the red pill, and become a human of chance, a human of change who will still have regrets, but will always remain a human who has more, than the one who takes no risks. (Paraphrased from Luc Jorgart – Whispers of Wisdom.) We are here to evolve, perhaps you should try it.

Bibliography.

• Pennington, C. "We Are Hardwired to Resist Change." Emerson human capital consulting. April 3rd, 2013.
• Rizvi, I, Dr. "Media and its Effects on Society." Sociology Group. January 6th,2022
• Ryback, R. "Why We Resist Change. How Behavioural Inertia Affects Success in Exercise & Weight Loss Goals." Psychology Today. January 25th, 2017

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