We are all brainwashed and trained at a young age by parents, teachers, and society to believe that getting a job is what we are supposed to do. Maybe this was a cool thing to do in the 50’s, 60’s and even 70’s. I’m not sure.
But things began to change rapidly in the 1980s with technological advances and the first great wave of corporate downsizing. Corporations no longer provide employment for life, and technology has allowed anyone to start a business from anywhere.
What is true today is that having a job is not a good way to build wealth or achieve financial security. Unfortunately, our schools still train people to be good workers. They are not equipped to teach people to be great entrepreneurs.
Bill Gates said at the 2005 National Governors Association meeting that “high schools are outdated… Our high schools were designed 50 years ago to meet the needs of another age. Until we design them to meet the needs of the century.” XXI, we will continue to limit, even ruin, the lives of millions of Americans every year.”
Schools teach children to sit still, be quiet, memorize information, and take tests. Schools teach kids that they are worth more when they get an “A” than a “C.” These are not skills and beliefs that make people good entrepreneurs.
Schools send children the message that they don’t know what is best for them. They must look to teachers and administrators to decide how they will spend their time. It doesn’t matter if they’re enthralled with a book or a science experiment, when the bell rings, they better stop what they’re doing and hurry so they won’t be late for the next class. No matter if they are hungry or thirsty, they must wait until lunch time to nourish their bodies. And it doesn’t matter if they are tired, they can wait until they get home to rest.
These are the lessons I’ve learned in my 23 years in school, college, and graduate school:
Lesson #1: My value as a human being is determined by my performance. This has become an adult belief that I’m not okay unless I get A+’s in life: big jobs, promotions, lots of money, a big house, etc. (After all, our culture tells us and shows us what material possessions you need to show the world that you’re getting A+.)
Lesson #2: I must look to outside authorities to show me how to live my life. This has become an adult belief that my inner intuition, feelings and bodily sensations cannot be trusted. I lived my first thirty years in my head, practically cut off from my inner world.
Lesson #3: Life is NOT supposed to be fun. I have lived my life with the belief that life was full of struggles and difficulties, that work is not fun, and that I have limited options.
Schools condition us to look outside of ourselves for answers and guidance. Schools show us that we are not responsible for our own well-being. The school conditions us to ignore our internal guidance systems.
Some of our most innovative contributors to society were not model students, remember Albert Einstein?
You may be thinking, “Come on, Debra, a lot of kids don’t like school. It’s not the end of the world!” And I say, “Well, why can’t we create a school system where kids love to learn? Why can’t we trust kids to know what’s best for them?” This won’t happen until adults begin to be unbrainwashed from the lessons they learned in school. Adults need to stop passing misery onto their children.
I intuitively knew what was best for me at a young age, but I was not even allowed to express this knowledge. I spent most of my 20s following society’s false promise of happiness and most of my 30s trying to unlearn the destructive lessons taught to me at school.
The good news is that it is possible to take control of your life by undoing destructive social brainwashing. But first, you need to be clear about what false beliefs you still hold and replace them with fear-free positive beliefs. It is a journey worth taking.