• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Why Do We Do What We Do?
Did you ever hear, “I can’t believe they, or I, did that?” Well believeit, for in that persons mind it seemed to be a perfectly logical or atleast balanced choice at the moment. Whether inspired by emotion,hardship, training or calculated risk, the action that was taken was thebest option apparently available to reach some desired outcome. Ishould obviously add one element to the action equation and that isfailing to fully assimilate all relevant factors prior to taking action. Butisn’t that the game of life, a game we all must play?As depicted in the diagram the way we respond to a stimulus ispredicated on a combination of our current environment, the society inwhich we live, our previous experiences, and our current work. Ourresponse to a situation is first influenced by our current environment,driven by our home and family life, the current dominant influences of those closest to us, and our physical, and mental, health and fitness.Next our societal views, influenced by the prevailing views of thoseclosest to us, the media, our perceived social status, our religiousbeliefs and the morale majorities latest point of view. Our views onsociety are constantly updated by these sources. In some situationsthese may have the greatest influence on our values and behaviorsand can be at the root of some of our most dramatic actions, orinaction.The next building block comes from past experiences that includeour education, whether formal or informal, our upbringing, jobs orventures we have had before, experiments we have tried, failures wehave experienced, and our prior social interactions with bosses, co-workers, friends, parents, siblings, and others that we look to forbehavioral cues.
 
Finally, our current work and our performance there, whichinfluences our feeling of security at work. These perceptions are shownby many studies to be influenced by our feelings of belonging, theworkplace norms, and our level of satisfaction, not only with the jobbut with those whom we work. Do you feel secure in your job? If so,you are likely to invest more in your happiness, a new patio set, afamily vacation or another child, and in general feel better aboutyourself. Note that the opposite may also apply.All these factors combine to influence our processing of any givensituation at that split second we make one decision over the other. They are all intertwined, and combine to provide some powerfulcompulsions to act or believe in one way or another, withconsequences for better or for worse. This does not imply that all ourreactions and decisions are from the gut, quite the opposite, if anything this better defines our “Gut”. Even if we have the time to
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...