Fighting Back Against Fear And Why It Matters

Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.

Once again, welcome friends to the daily podcast.

Hope you like the last episode it's uh, it's done really well.

We were talking about, uh, the attention economy.

And how we need to be diligent on where we place our attention today.

I'm gonna go on fraction, deeper on that.

And tomorrow we're gonna move.

Onto one of the first of our recent listener.

Questions user generated content.

So, uh, you know, one of the best things I get to do on this show is just, uh,

take your questions, challenges, problems, cuz we are all on this journey together.

There is not a single person listening and me here behind the

microphone have not figured out.

How to do life perfectly.

We're all still traveling together.

So I get to.

I guess the privilege of working through some of your questions.

So we're gonna start that tomorrow, tomorrow, gonna be talking about how

we deal with things like self judgment.

Today, I just wanna take your fraction deeper on, um,

this attention economy idea.

I think it's really.

Important that we be across this concept and its implications for our life.

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Look, if you're like what you're hearing, uh, let me know,

jonathan@jonathandoyle.co dot COO let's jump in to today is the second part.

Of the quote that I was sharing the other day, and it's going deeper

on this idea of attention economy.

So let me share it with you and then let's unpack a little bit and see

how it could be relevant for your.

Life.

Here's the quote, the perpetual negative focus.

On problems and melodies and outrages.

Prevents the emergence of positive.

Plans and projects.

One more time.

The perpetual negative focus on problems.

And maladies and outrages.

Prevents the emergence of positive.

Plans and projects.

Okay.

So in the YouTube version, there'll be a link here.

I go pretty deep on this.

I talk about.

In terms of evolutionary biology, how we developed as a species,

we are hardwired towards fear.

Because of the need for self-preservation fear played an incredibly important

role in the development of the human species, the survival.

And, uh, flourishing of the human species had a great deal to do.

With the evolutionary adaptive capacity of fear, there were many

things worth being afraid of you put your head outside that cave 300,000

years ago, and anything was possible.

Pestilence would be stalking the land.

Sabba tooth tigers were not really because they were gone before then,

but you know, some sort of nasty thing would be there to eat you.

And if it wasn't that it was gonna be, you know, Neighboring

tribes that decided that, uh, your hunting grounds were better.

So they were gonna.

Basically start a tribal conflict.

So there was a real evolutionary benefit to fear.

Of course you fast forward to today.

And I've said this many times, The fears that inhabit our world are very different.

Um, they're very abstract, you know, in terms of, if you, if you could

choose a time to be born in human history, this is pretty much it.

You know, many of you have heard me talk about the, the flushing

toilet, you know, principle.

Um, if you're living at a time with a flashing toilet for you're doing pretty.

Well, compared to almost every human that ever lived, you know?

And, um, so the fears that we face are not immediate fears of death.

We understand that there's wars and conflicts in different parts of the world.

But the, the fears that we face abstract, can I pay my bills?

Will my kids be okay?

Will I find someone.

Uh, who loved me forever, all these abstract kind of fears and

what I wanna talk about today.

Is just to help you continually understand the role.

Of legacy and mainstream media and the kind of in penetration.

Of how we are governed with media and large corporations.

Because they're all kind of singing off the same song sheet, if you will.

And one of the things that.

They use is fear.

Government uses fear because the, the more fear that government can

inject into the system, the more.

The great mass of people will need to believe that we must be protected from

X fear, fill in the blank, whatever the fear happens to be economic.

Medical, you know, uh, military, whatever it is, fill in the blank.

I do not discount that there are genuine things going on in the world,

but I would like you to hopefully agree with me that the preponderance of

fear probably doesn't match up to the lived bear experience of most of us.

So what mainstream media understands of course, is that fear sells fear,

gains our attention because of that evolutionary biological basis.

We are.

If something is presented to us in a fearful sense,

something could happen to us.

They were more likely to pay attention.

The longer we pay attention, the more we are a set of eyeballs into

which advertising can be sold.

So you can see this kind of confluence of factors that increase

the level of fear in our culture.

And so what this does, according to today's quote.

Is it, I guess it's sort of soaks us in a mill year, a, a stew, if you will.

It's like a, we are baed in fear.

And when that happens, I think our energy and attention.

Well, attention's fragmented, but our energy levels can be slowly restricted.

You know, what's the point?

Why do we bother why we should we even try to think, you know, tomorrow's

gonna look worse than today and on and on it goes, we have this.

Deep sense that things are getting worse.

And no matter what happens, there's nothing we can do.

And then it restricts that optimism.

That leads to kind of growth and flourishing in our private lives,

but also in our culture in general.

Um, I read Ross do that's book.

Uh, the decadent society, which I, think's a really important book.

Uh, it's one of those books that, uh, you know, it's, it's a, it's a really

good read and you come away with a, with a, with an idea that stays with you.

And one of the points he makes in that book is that, that.

Exploration is central to human experience.

That a lot of the great unleashing of growth.

And potential in human societies happened.

As a result of exploration, you look at people like Ferd

and Magellan, you know, leaving Portugal, sailing across the ocean.

Naming the Pacific ocean.

He did, you know, Pacific Pacifica means peaceful the peaceful ocean.

And, um, you know, it was this exploratory journeys there, sort of the merchant.

Exploring class that left Venice in the, in the modern era, you know,

and began to open up different parts of the world in this ex, this

desire for exploration and growth.

You look at the migration west in the United States, the frontier spirit

that opened up this kind of growth.

So the was a, as much as there were risks and threats and dangers, there was also.

An optimism.

There was a hope, there was a sense that things could get better, that things.

Would be more interesting to be more potential and possibility as

we uncovered the world around us.

I've been talking about an article I read recently from the sociologist

Frank Ferrate who talked about it, the difference from our culture at the

moment, as opposed to previous cultures.

Is that previously when cultures were presented with threats and

fear, fearful things, They, they definitely experienced fear, but

they also experienced a sense of.

Opportunity.

What is the possible opportunity in what's happening here?

And his research suggests that we've lost.

The sense of opportunity.

We still have the sense of fear when things happen, but we've lost the sense

of, well, what might this bring about what potential things here could happen?

That could be positive.

So, what I'm getting at in this episode, my friend is to remind us all that.

This stuff is not neutral.

There are highly intelligent people, packaging, fear, and

selling it to you on a daily basis.

Now, what I've done is opt out.

So I just opt out.

I, I don't, I know I haven't watched mainstream television

in probably 15, 20 years.

Uh,

I deleted all my social media accounts.

I used sub stack because you can.

Really access some extraordinarily brilliant independent journalism there.

Um, I use a few other sources.

I think there is a lot of great stuff on podcasts and there's people that you can.

Follow who are really interesting.

So I've opted outta the system.

I just switch off.

Even when I go to the gym, they've got about 15 television screens.

I just pull my hat down, get my workout done.

Don't even look at it.

You can see the headline.

Sometimes I glimpse and it's like,

Uh, doctors fear new death thing happening next Tuesday at four.

Be afraid.

And I love how, you know, often with, you know, you, you see , they go

to the ad breaks and they're like, and when we come back, More fear when we

come back something else to worry about.

So I'm not being flippant.

I know some of you're listening here going Jonathan.

Seriously.

He telling us to be uninformed.

He's telling us to be unplugged.

What I'm saying is this, there is a huge global governance, media marketing nexus

that is trying to make you afraid, because if you are afraid, you are controllable

and you will do what you are told.

And I also think that it is stopping the creativity and optimism and

hope that needs to spring up in our hearts on a regular basis.

I know the other critique something you'll have was

Jonathan, you need to be informed.

Yeah.

I kind of get that.

I agree with that to a point.

But I actually think you, we all need to go and reread Steven Covey's

circle of influence and circle of interest and circle of control.

Right.

Because there's in many ways there's bug rule that we can control, like, unless

you're running the United nations world health organization, or you're leading

a nation there's, there's not a lot that many of us get to do to change the

issues that are being presented to us.

What I believe is that we get to, we get to change what's right in front

of us, the quality of our marriages, the quality of our parenting,

the quality of our friendships.

How we apply ourselves to worthwhile valuable things each day of our lives.

I think that what the fear does is it sucks us up into this great big narrative

arc that sort of roams around the planet.

And we forget the incredible.

Influence that we can have in what's right in front of us.

We can choose optimism in our daily.

Lives now I wanna say, choose.

I really want to get this point across.

Optimism hope are decisions.

They're not magical feelings that some of us have more than others.

I have had to work very hard.

I still have to work very hard on a daily basis to, you know, to not

give into some of the despair, to not give into some of the hopelessness.

You know, we, we were massively impacted.

By some of the decisions over the last few years in terms of travel

and speaking, and business, and, uh, I've had to work very hard not

to descend into a bitter cynicism.

It's a work, it's a project.

So this isn't just a nice idea.

Like, oh yeah, let's be more hopeful.

Now this is a decision.

This is a choice.

Something we do every day.

All some.

Summary.

I believe that not only is our attention being fragmented, I believe that fear is

being used is fear is being weaponized.

If you use that word in a way that it probably hasn't been before, simply

because of technology is a different, it can be mainstreamed and it's

more pervasive and endemic to the.

System than it ever has been in human history.

So friends, let us choose to fight back.

Let us choose.

To disengage from the system as much as it's practical for you.

What can you say no to what can you watch?

Less of?

What can you listen to less?

You know, how can you become more astute?

How can you choose more hope and optimism on a daily basis?

Okay, so just do the audit.

That's what I say in so many episodes.

Do the audit as you go through today, look around.

What are you listening to?

What are you?

I mean, you here, right?

You're listening to this.

This is hopefully an optic Optim, uh, optimistic message today.

I want you to be encouraged.

I want you to be.

Encouraged.

I want you to believe that you are not a victim.

I want you to believe that you can.

Find the goodness in life.

I wanna believe that you can improve your circumstance and the circumstance

of the people that you love.

So press on my friends, press on.

Disconnect get more mindful about what the inputs are and choose to

be a light in wherever you are today in your marriage, in your parenting,

in your workplace, in your school.

Go there today and just do the best you can to bring light and hop optimism

and joy and hope into that space.

All right.

God, bless you.

Go and check out the YouTube version.

Links you here, would you please subscribe?

Um check out the links you can book me to speak conferences events staff training

all that sort of stuff so go check it out god bless you guys love your heaps

i'm praying for you all i hope that we uh we can all make the most of this

moment in history my name's jonathan doyle this has been the daily podcast in

you and i gonna talk again tim tomorrow.