At the start of the oxen Pull, The team will start to pull at the command of the trainer.
Consider for a moment, The amount of noise that exist in these oxen-pull events.
There is the noise that comes from other teams and trainers.
There is the noise the come from the spectators with their ooh's and aah's.
There are the noises that come from different distances.
The noises themselves are all different.
The oxen team, However, Cuts through all the noise and listens for the voice of the trainer—no one else.
The trainer's voice is near, Clear, And familiar.
The teams are familiar with the voice of the trainer through consistently training and practice.
Just as the oxen team has a trainer, We also need a trainer whose voice will be familiar, Clear, And near to us.
It is easy to hear the voice of a trainer if everything else is quiet.
The question is whether or not we have each paid the price to recognize the voice of that trainer, Can hear the voice clearly—even when there are other voices around—and most importantly, Whether we will respond appropriately to the trainer's voice.
Before we look at choosing a trainer, Let's take a look at the other voices that may get us confused.
OTHER VOICES
There are so many voices in the world, Each trying to get our attention.
Some of those voices shout bad advice, While others grab the attention of our lizard brains or monkey brains.
All the while there could be storms brewing in our lives.
The key for us is to determine which voice is worth our heed.
Why is it that we can be so easily distracted at times by other voices that would take us off course? It would be helpful to look at the organization of other voices.
It takes more than just deciding which voice to listen to; There is also the matter of how often we should listen to them.
The voices around us are not just varied, But unrelenting.
As we choose to listen to the voice of character, Remember to listen to them more often than we listen to other voices.
Let's take a look at nature of the voices around us by looking at two voices in particular—television and advertising.
I remember in high school one of my classmates was writing about aliens from a far-away galaxy.
These aliens sent species to the earth to figure out what types of creatures the earthlings were.
After careful observation, The alien spies went to their leader and reported that earthlings were highly religious and devout creatures.
The leader wanted to know what lead them to this conclusion. The alien spies reported the following:
Earthlings lived in homes where there was a room dedicated for their religious worship.
They worshipped an object that they listened to intently.
The spies reported that the earthlings worked hard to earn a living and then would buy furniture so they could sit comfortably in their homes and worship this object.
The earthlings organized their furniture so that everyone could have a good view of this object of worship.
There were times when friends and other family members would come over just to worship this object together. After friends and family were done worshipping, They would leave.
The earthlings worshipped this object during mealtimes. When it wasn't mealtime, The earthlings brought in food between meals, So they would not get hungry during their worship of this object.
The spies is also said that some of the earthlings worshipped this object every night.
The children worshipped after school, On Saturdays, And first thing in the morning.
The rest of the family would take turns worshipping on the weekend.
There were even times when just the men worshipped this object, And they seemed to get very excited from time to time during worship.
Everyone seemed to always be very attentive, And there was little talking.
Sometimes as the earthlings worshipped this object, They cried together, Laughed together, And there were very few things they did more consistently than worship.
As you have figured out by now, The alien spies concluded that the center of worship was the television.
There is nothing inherently wrong with television.
TV can contribute good information and entertainment to our lives.
This is, However, An example of what can happen, When we don't choose carefully and deliberately the voices we listen to.
It is so easy to get distracted with enticing voices that would take us off our course.
There are many businesses and organizations that are committed to influencing the thoughts that go into our minds, As well as feelings inside our hearts.
These influences will affect our behavior if we're not vigilant.
Let's go back to the oxen-pull allegory for a moment.
Over time and after a great deal of practice, The oxen team can learn to recognize and follow the trainer's voice above all the other noise.
The wrong voice has the same effect.
If we listen to the wrong voice over time and with great frequency, We would follow bad advice and more away from progressing toward the people we want to be.
Consider the following question for a moment.
How long you can endure before you feel an absolute urge and need to turn on the television, Listen to the car radio or your portable music player, Surf the Internet, Play a computer game, Or check the e-mail just one more time, Just in case?
Most period of time, Congratulations! Really! You know that pulling off such a feat requires being able to listen to your inner voice long enough that you can block out the other noise.
A friend of mine once made an off-the-cuff comment about listening to his music while running a marathon.
He said, “I couldn't be alone with just my thoughts for the length of the marathon.”
It's interesting how we can be so familiar with the noise and other voices around us, Yet we can be unfamiliar and maybe even uncomfortable with our own inner voice.
UNRELENTING VOICES
How do they do it? How has the popular media crept into our lives to the point that we don't even recognize their grasp until we try to break free—and only then do we discover how difficult it is to escape? Advertisers and companies know that marketing and advertising is not an event.
It is an extended process.
It is nearly impossible to go through a typical day and not get inundated with advertising from the radio, Television, Internet, Mail, Billboards, And the products themselves.
The advertising done today is more clever, Ubiquitous, And consistent.
The intent of all organizations who advertise is to have you use their product or service if you haven't already, Or gain your loyalty you have.
It is the life blood of any organization.
That is why marketing and advertising are permanent departments and activities in companies.
Conduct your own investigation, And the next time you watch a show for a complete hour, Figure out how much time is spent on commercial.
According to some estimates, In the 1960s there were about nine minutes of commercials for every hour of a programming.
Now there could be as much as eighteen minutes of commercials.
The length of the commercials has been shortened from about a minute in the 1960s to less than 30 seconds in many cases currently.
This means that not only are you spending twice as much time watching commercials per hour, But you are also watching the commercials from as many as four times more companies in a given hour of programming.
Advertising is an unrelenting voice.
Not only are companies deliberate and consistent in their marketing strategies, But they are also methodical.
When I mention marketing strategy, Let me define strategy as resource allocation.
This is an important definition that implies that any company when considering its marketing plan must decide, With its limited resources, What it will do and what it won't do.
The inten of creating strategy is to channel limited resources and then focus.
They go through a Swot analysis.
SWOT is an acronym for strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, And threats.
This analysis will help narrow down potential options.
Careful consideration is given as to product, Price, Promotion, Place, Packaging, Position, And people.
This process further clarifies a company's marketing strategy.
The SWOT analysis and 7 P's are common considerations and practices in marketing.
My intent here is not to go through a lesson on how to create a marketing plan, But to simply point out that the voices we hear all around us do not happen by chance.
Every word used, The tone of the message, The voices we hear, The pictures we see with the varied colors, Sizes, And textures go through a sophisticated process that we can only begin to imagine.
I'm not suggesting that we have to go through a complex process to find our own voices.
However, I want to point out that we cannot be casual or haphazard in our approach.
Businesses and other organizations take their messaging very seriously.
If companies were casual about their marketing strategy, It could be threaten their very existence.
If we are casual about the voices we listen to, We might jeopardize our progress toward being the person we want to be.
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