A front page headline on USA TODAY read:
90% of the Ocean’s Edible Species May Be Gone By 2048, Study Finds
Having Hurricane Irene and the worry over the coming of the 2nd recession isn’t enough. They have to devote half their front page to scaring us about the potential scarcity of Mrs. Paul’s fish sticks thirty- seven years from now.
Since I will most likely be dead none of this really matters to me. I find the reading of the daily paper taking less and less time – no more than the drinking of one cup of coffee. The reason – most of what is in there is of no interest to me and has no bearing on the achievement of my goals. Some may say this is selfish and I would plead guilty – but successfully guilty.
These headlines and stories are nothing new. My first recollection of this type stuff was “The Population Bomb”, a best-selling book, written by Paul R. Ehrlich and his wife, Anne Ehrlich in 1968. It warned of the mass starvation of humans in the 1970s and 1980s. It didn’t happen. And then we had Y2K and the whole idea that all there would be a technological meltdown. It didn’t happen either.
Scientists, psychics, cult leaders, politicians and ignorant, irresponsible journalists have frequently predicted the end of life as we know it – starvation and famine, flood, asteroid attack, the earth veering from its axis, killer bees, or – the latest – mad cow disease, etc. – and they have all been wrong.
God knows how many times one religious group or another has declared that the end of the world was near. So far nothing has happened. Nada. Now we have the fruitcakes who are saying that the ancient Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world in 2012 – that is if the sunspots don’t get us first. Geez, you would think the public would wise up to this journalistic hype and realize that that all this does is sell newspapers and books and get government money for wacky research.
Eventually something, maybe an asteroid will get us and those left will say, “See I told you so”.
I counsel my sales training clients to be wise and not pay attention to any of this hype that simply clogs their brain with useless dribble. If you are really, really smart you will be ruthless about NOT paying attention to anything that doesn’t advance you toward your goals, enhance your important skills, or inspire and motivate you to be your best self and achieve your greatest ambitions.
NOTE: Hobbies don’t count. You get a pass because everyone needs an escape from the ‘nose to the grindstone’ relentless toil that it takes to become rich and achieve total personal autonomy to do what you want, when you want, with whom you want.
Anything that does not achieve this goal has to be filtered out. Blocked. Ignored. Just because USA TODAY feels compelled to fill its front page with silly, scary stuff about the future-without-fish, decidedly unscientific drivel, does NOT mean you must swallow it.