Today's Miracle Elixers

Pictured above is an ad featuring my paternal great-grandfather, Eliza Craig (about 1869-1949). This was an ad in a local Indiana newspaper, The New Castle Courier Times, around 1940. I’m sure my ancestors were so proud that he was featured so prominently in this ad. I would like to point out that clearly the tv infomercials did not originate the idea of making an advertisement with the appearance as if it was news coverage. It was around as this ad illustrates back in the early 1900’s. My great-grandfather says “Ton Kal better than any other medicine taken.” Ton Kal was one of the miracle elixirs that were so prominent, often part of the traveling medicine shows, that were popular up to about the 1940’s. They were often sold in fairs or by traveling salesmen. Sometimes, as in this case, they were sold at the local drug stores. Most of these involved many ingredients which typically included a high alcohol concentration. They typically promised cures to a multitude of ailments. Some of you might remember one of the classic Andy Griffith Show episodes where Aunt Bee is taken by the medicine man and ends up intoxicated, embarrassed, and arrested by her nephew Andy.

The Medicine Shows had their roots in the Dark Ages of Europe, and they ended in this Country in the early 1950’s. While the medicine shows and miracle elixirs like Ton Kal are a thing of the past, I am reminded this week we have never been free of the various reincarnations of the medicine show even today. With the internet, I would venture that we are bombarded with much more quackery than the generation of my great-grandfather.

The good news is that the quackery and frauds are always eventually exposed for the lies that they are, and subsequently go away. For example, the Ton Kal which my great-grandfather proudly endorsed is now completely extinct. A google search for “Ton Kal” for example, yields absolutely no relevant hits. It’s as if Ton Kal never existed. However, the bad news is that there is always some new form of quackery. Did you ever wonder how to keep from getting drawn in by the quack?

This week, I was reminded (in a quite unpleasant manner I might add) just how difficult it can be for each of us to make good decisions and avoid quackery of all sorts. In the course of networking, I came across a potential opportunity for collaborative work with someone. Much of my own professional work is informed by the science of Applied Behavior Analysis that has progressively developed through a proud history of research since the 19^th Century. Today’s Applied Behavior Analysis is grounded in what is referred to as evidence-based treatment, which amounts to scientific research that supports the methods. As the Autism Science Foundation and other reputable sources encourage, choosing evidenced-based interventions are one of the most important considerations in avoiding quackery.

Unfortunately, other often well-meaning individuals don’t see the wisdom of evidenced-based practice. After a short networking meeting, we received a follow-up email from the other individual (whose favored method of practice is rooted in a theory which started in the 1970’s and has absolutely no reputable research to test it’s efficacy) stating: “…I have a problem in that I like you guys and think that we can make things work. However, I do not use and WILL NOT USE THE BEHAVIORAL PHILOSOPHY OF PSYCHOLOGY, in my practice.  I believe it in inhuman and in conflict with my Christian faith…” By the way the all-capitals (“shouting”) is an exact quote from the email, not my emphasis; and I will not be making things work here.

Each of us must make decisions everyday about a multitude of choices, and it is undeniably overwhelming at times. I don’t just mean choices of therapeutic interventions, but all sorts of choices. Take foods for example. If we were to eat every “super food” (currently a trendy term) that was recommended, I would guess that we would probably be lucky to stay at under 15,000 calories per day. The internet only compounds this overwhelming amount of choices and recommendations for the best, whether it be treatments, food, fitness, investment opportunities, what schooling or training to pursue, or any multitude of areas in which we must make decisions. We inevitably must turn down choices which seem to be good ones.

As for myself, my ideal for decision making is based largely in the idea of empirical or scientific support. Keep in mind that while testimonials can be very powerful and impacting, often we can find strong testimonials both for and against anything. Sometimes the seller and the testimonials are genuine. Other times they are intended to mislead. It can be nearly impossible to ascertain the difference. In the end, does it really matter much if the quackery was from someone who was genuine in their efforts but misguided or the person was intentionally trying to mislead and exploit. Either way, you come out the loser.

I offer the following thoughts for a few reasons. Obviously, I was quite bothered by my personal experience this past week, and I find writing about something is often a good way for me to resolve an issue, let go of it, and move on. More importantly though, it’s so very important to have a solid plan for our decision-making. None of us will make the perfect choice every time. Each of us will at times be misled. Each of us will at times make the wrong choices.

Sometimes, the wrong choice causes us great harm. This may be harm to our health, harm to our financial status, or various other sorts of harm. Other times, the wrong choice may seem to have no serious consequences. For example, often herbal remedies do not cause harm or injury, even if they do not fix what is purported to be fixed.

I leave you though with this thought. Even those seemingly innocuous wrong choices are often harmful in this sense. The wrong “harmless” choice often does mean a missed opportunity for gaining the benefits of the correct choice. Most of the choices that we make require some sort of investment. When we say “investment”, we tend to think of money. However, the investment may also be our time or our energy. Regardless of which resource that we invest in a choice, we always have a limit upon that resource. I only have so much money. I do not have an endless supply of time, just as I do not have an endless supply of energy. When I make the wrong choice, I am often losing an opportunity. The opportunity to make that right choice may pass. I don’t have enough money to do all of the possible solutions, so I miss the best one through my wrong choice. Sometimes, there is only a limited window of time when something is possible or will be effective. May you thrive in your own decision-making and may each of us have the wisdom to avoid being the victim of the next Ton Kal.

Hope and Change

Hope and Change

I write today after returning home from a morning movie with my wife, my two children, and two of their friends. Like many who are fortunate enough to still enjoy the luxury of going to an occasional movie in these difficult economic times, we chose a morning movie for the much more affordable ticket pricing. Today, we enjoyed The Croods (www.thecroodsmovie.com/ ) by DreamWorks.

The Croods are billed as “the first modern family.” It is the animated story of a prehistoric family whose world is literally crumbling and their subsequent adventure. “THE CROODS is a comedy adventure that follows the world's first modern family through the journey of a lifetime. When the cave that has always been their home is destroyed – with the rest of their world not far behind it – The Croods are forced to set off on the first family road (or path) trip. Rocked by generational clashes and seismic shifts, The Croods discover an incredible new world filled with fantastic creatures, and a future beyond any they imagined.”

All six of us, young and old enjoyed this captivating story of the Croods. Although not advertised as such, The Croods reminded me how much movies can be a metaphor for our current times. Just think about how many popular movies over the past few years have shared that same theme of a changing times. Think about the wildly successful movie The Hunger Games last year. The Hunger Games took us to a world in which the world as we know it had collapsed and the subsequent dark culture that arose from it. Just this weekend, we had the premier of  Olympus Has Fallen ( http://olympusmovie.com/ ) where the unthinkable happens, with the White House and the President falling into the hands of a terrorist group.

The movies that we watch often serve as a metaphor for our concerns and worries. We may often fear the worst for the future. Movies such as Hunger Games allow us to identify with some character who survives against the overwhelming odds of the horrific cultural changes. Like the character of the movie, we see ourselves surviving in the challenging times.

The Croods though, I would suggest, provide us with a very important twist on this movie metaphor. The twist is so very important and offers us a lesson relevant to our happiness and maybe even our health. Typically these changing times movies provide us with metaphorical survival in a dark and depressing world. What makes The Croods different though is the fact that rather than the metaphorical survival in the dark, depressing new world order; the Croods as the synopsis suggests, “…discover an incredible new world…”

The difference offers us a lesson in how we as individuals approach the current times of change. All too easily, the news and our movies offer us a bleak, depressing vision of the future. We can envision a miserable future in which we simply survive; or we can envision a future in which we thrive. Personally, I hope to thrive!

Rethinking Risk

Thrive Author as Risk Seeking Secret Ninja, 2012

Although the computer and high tech industry does tend to have much youth, the world of the CEO is still largely dominated by the over-forty set. Generally, these individuals are in their fifties and sometimes we use terms like “power years.” When Forbes profiled the 71 most powerful people in the world, only twelve of these were under forty years-old (and all male by the way). Yahoo recently named a new CEO, Marissa Mayer, a 37 year-old woman. Interestingly, Mayer ascribes risk as being a part of her best decisions and important in leading to her great success.

In this changing Great Recession Era, the meaning of risk is different for those individuals whose earnings are less than that level of the very rich levels of income below those in CEO offices. Although for many, it may now seem like ancient history, a job with one of the giants of American business, such as General Motors or IBM or any number of Fortune 500 companies, once signified low risk.  Good pay, regular raises, health insurance, and a retirement plan seemed secure. Those days are now long gone with no signs of return.

Each of us varies along a continuum in one’s attitude toward risk. This can be conceptualized as risk seeking, risk acceptance, to risk avoidance. If we are at either extreme of risk seeking or risk avoidance, we probably already know well that characteristic. Think of risk acceptance as living somewhere in the middle between these two extremes. While not seeking out risk, this person realizes that some level of risk is simply a normal fact of life. He or she chooses to not be overly worried by possible unpleasant futures.

These times must be particularly difficult for those who live at the extreme of risk avoidance or risk aversion. In the world of work, one has to wonder if there is truly any such thing as a secure position today. What position is not at possible risk for downsizing, outsourcing, eliminating the need for a person due to technological advances, or elimination due to increasing of efficiency? Recall that these eliminations started long ago with the blue collar worker, with jobs moving to international locales. When this began in the 1970’s and 1980’s, who would have dreamed at that time that the white collar jobs of accountants and engineers and others, would decades later follow a similar pattern. Even a highly trained service-oriented job as a physician is not safe from the effects of globalization in our uncertain future.

The changing economic landscape of our country means that if one’s personal tendency is toward risk avoidance or aversion, then much worry might seem unavoidable.  I would challenge the reader prone to risk aversion to contemplate whether or not some movement toward risk acceptance is in order. Leahy (2003) points out that many persons who worry a great deal believe that they can prevent bad things from happening. In reality though, we often simply cannot prevent every bad thing from happening. When we do worry about the potential problems of life that we cannot control, are we really helping ourselves in any real way?

Leahy (2003) suggests an exercise in “Practicing Acceptance.” The exercise amounts to first identifying what it is exactly that you are worried about. Next, identify and list the costs and benefits of acceptance.  Then, identify those things which may be unpleasant but that you accept them. Finally, reflect upon what is actually causing you to worry versus accept.

While worrying itself can be unpleasant and may lead to a multitude of difficulties, perhaps the greatest one of the greatest costs is that it can be so utterly paralyzing. While some level of worries about the economy and one’s personal economic future is almost inevitable, I have been able to come to a good level of risk acceptance when it comes to the world of work. Being able to reach that point to a large extent, came from my own observations of the many unfortunate circumstances of my own father. My father endured a long period of unemployment and underemployment during the time of his early married life and while I was an infant. This period was long before I am able to personally remember, but I have heard the family stories of those difficult years. As an older child, our family enjoyed the fruits of my father’s stable employment as a laborer in a union box-making factory.

His period of unemployment and underemployment was however a tremendous factor that led him to remain in a job for over twenty-five years for which he was markedly over-qualified, and to not explore other paths which would have likely been more suited to his interests and within a few years likely much more financially lucrative. He had completed training in electronics, television and radio repair, and had become a licensed electrician. What he had with the factory job though seemed stable and secure, and he was not about to risk losing that. On the continuum of how one responds to risk, he clearly fell on the side of risk avoidance.

In retrospect though, that security was really an illusion. As the company downsized, he felt safe because he was within the ten highest seniority persons. The factory would quite literally have to close before he was impacted. Sadly though, that safety was an illusion as the factory did ultimately close in 1988. Further, my father was one of seemingly above average rates of deaths from various cancers among his co-workers in their 50’s and early 60’s. Although we will never know, my mother has long suspected the exposure to various chemicals of the factory were to blame. I tend to concur.

How was my own approach to risk in work and career influenced by all of this? First, early on, I understood that risk avoidance was itself not equivalent to safety. Job security, in my mind, has always been an illusion…long before it became as clearly an illusion as it is now in the twenty-first century. Upon completion of Graduate School, I made the difficult decision to leave my home State of Indiana to move to the northern part of Michigan for my early psychology job experience. Later in my career, I chose to leave a secure full-time job for the less predictable pay as a contractual psychotherapist. In the former, I received the same salary every two weeks, like clockwork. In the later, I received a larger hourly rate but without the predictability. If I did a good job and my clients kept their appointments, I made a great paycheck. In weeks of fewer clients, my checks were lower. In the end, the risky choice paid off for me. I can also look back on my career related decisions and recognize that many of those decisions was a very conscious effort to try to stay in control of my future rather than being swept away in the currents of change.  

While risk aversion as discussed above must have been a tremendous factor for my father, I imagine that the difficulty of simply envisioning something different must have also been a factor. Until he had no other choice, could my father even fathom a work life other than the daily grind of a factory? I’m not sure that he could. After the factory where my father worked did close, he did find work after several difficult months of searching (as he was in his 50’s at that time). He accepted a position as an electrician. He enjoyed his new work immensely. He continued in that position for about six years, before his untimely death due to cancer. I can’t help but wonder if he would have been happier if he had been able to make that risky leap to an electrician job earlier in life.  However, I do take some comfort in knowing that he did finally work at something which he truly enjoyed.

My own natural tendency does lean like my father though toward risk aversion. I accept that as a part of my personality that I am probably never going to be an active risk seeker. However, I have consciously made the effort to move toward the middle to be acceptant of risk. I spend time consciously thinking about what else I might do. I really do not wish to reach a point where I look at what I do and conclude that this describes all that I am willing to do, can do, or am capable of doing. I strive to continually try to envision various twists and applications of what I do as a trade. As people, we often cling to ideas that may have been beneficial in the past, but no longer work today. Sometimes this is out of risk aversion.

When we consider risk as a continuum, perhaps we would be wise to reflect on the fact that like with so many traits or characteristics, that at the extremes there are sometimes great rewards and sometimes great benefits. Marissa Mayer is a perfect example of the great rewards that are sometimes possible for those who seek out risk. There are similarly tales of great loss at the extremes of risk taking. At the extreme of risk aversion though, we must remember that aversion does not in reality always equal safety. Bad things can still happen, even to the risk aversive; plus the extreme patterns of worrying that so often accompany this aversion can zap much of the joy out of life. Perhaps this is the greatest reason to consider a conscious effort to make movement toward risk acceptance.

Reference

Leahy, R. (2003). Cogntive Therapy Techniques: A Practitioner’s Guide. New York: The Guilford Press.

What Are You Being Sold Today?

For many months over the past year, I have frequently passed billboards that touted “MBA=CEO”. This only makes sense when I explain that the “M” of “MBA” on the billboard was actually the University of Michigan “M” logo, meaning that in other words a University of Michigan MBA (more specifically University of Michigan at Flint campus) equals a CEO position.

Let me first state that I have nothing against University of Michigan…or their Flint, Michigan campus…nothing against MBA’s…and nothing against CEO’s. The illustration was just too perfect to pass up for the current illustration. Let’s explore that specific ad a bit further. At face value, the ad is suggesting that a MBA degree earned from University of Michigan, Flint extension campus is one’s ticket to a highly desirable Chief Executive Officer position. Let’s explore that a bit more closely.

U.S. News in 2012 did an analysis of the educational backgrounds of the Fortune 500 CEO’s. Only thirteen schools had awarded at least ten degrees to Fortune 500 CEO’s. Not surprisingly, Harvard University far surpassed any other school and had awarded 65 degrees to persons who would later rise to CEO positions among the Fortune 500 (40 MBA’s; 14 other graduate degrees; and 11 undergraduate degrees). The distant second was Stanford University (27 degrees total; 10 MBA’s 11 undergraduate degrees; and 6 other graduate degrees). University of Pennsylvania was the only other university with over ten MBA’s awarded (with 13). The remainder of the 13 schools included some of those which you would expect like MIT, Columbia, and Notre Dame. My undergraduate alma mater, Indiana University at Bloomington was also among the thirteen and had a respectable 11 total degrees. Go IU! University of Michigan, Ann Arbor campus did have a very respectable 14 degrees total (5 MBA’s; 6 undergraduate degrees; and 3 other graduate degrees). However, I must point out that this was the Ann Arbor main campus, not any of their extension campuses. Now I am sure that UM Flint MBA is a very respectable program. However, the billboard does not really match the data. I am very much a data guy! So if you really want a shot at a CEO position, go after that Harvard MBA.

We are all constantly the target of marketing efforts. I am old enough to be particularly struck by the marketing efforts of colleges and universities, because when I was in my late teens and early twenties, higher education marketing did not include tv ads, billboards, or radio spots. Today, though, higher education is marketed to us just like the newest tastiest burger or chips.

However, the long term implications of an individual’s choice regarding the pursuit of higher education is a whole lot more important than the long term implications of one single meal. I guess that it bothers me that something like higher education is being sold so hard! Sadly, I have also known too many people who once they get into that higher education setting; the energy and resources expended by the schools to support them in successfully completing a program is nowhere near the level of energy and resources that were utilized to lure them into the program to begin with. (Note that I am not referring specifically to the U of M program.).

This goes far beyond  higher education. We are constantly the target of varying levels of sophisticated marketing efforts related to our diet, health, career, finances, and nearly every aspect of our life.  First, always remember that we are constantly a target of marketing. Second, from the perspective of the seller, we must always be aware that there is the possibility that the group who is marketing to us cares a bit more about the money that we will bring to the table…possibly more than the impact or consequences upon us the buyer. Third, remember that as the reader or target of any marketing effort many more man hours have went into planning that marketing to you as compared to the hours that you have to analyze the marketing. In other words, the marketing of the product that we are going to buy was likely the result of a highly trained and sophisticated team of professionals whose aim is to sell that product. When you put all of their minds together, they are smarter than me and probably smarter than you too! There is a concept within psychology called “collective intelligence.” This is simply saying that the efforts of a group will tend to reflect a higher level than the effort of even the most gifted person within that group.

Finally, and probably most importantly, if you are in time of transition, crisis, or change; then chances are you are more vulnerable. You need hope! You need a plan! You want that right now! That makes you vulnerable. Beware. This point is not lost upon sophisticated marketing efforts. For example, recall when the mortgage crisis began, and the marketing for the high risk mortgages went away. As these disappeared, so did the jobs of many who sold the high risk mortgages also disappeared. A fact that is less widely known is that as many new organizations rose up to “help” the troubled homeowners who were desperate to save their homes; that the “counselors” who were helping were often the individuals who were previously involved in selling the bad mortgages in the first place.

The point here is not to believe that everything is just one big scam or conspiracy. I don’t want to foster pessimism or overly misanthropic beliefs about our fellow man. Rather, I want to encourage planning, seeking out objective information and resources as much as we can, and seeking out support. There are few things that we can do better alone than we could do if we sought support and wise counsel. Whether the change you are seeking is a new career path, renewed health, weight loss, or any other number of paths to some ideal of fulfillment; there are always very sophisticated marketing efforts out there to influence our decisions. On our quest to thrive, we must do our best to seek out data, reliable information, and support. May you thrive in these difficult times in which we live!

Introduction to Thrive

May each of us adapt better to change than the dinosaur!

     In my work, I spend a fair amount of my day driving. I travel to my clients instead of them traveling to me. Except on really icy days, I like it that way. My drive time gives me time to listen to music, listen to my favorite speakers, sometimes just think, and sometimes just relax.

     As I drive about, I often pass individuals dressed in goofy costumes of someone else’s choosing;  costumes made with the intent to catch the attention of those driving by like myself. Where I drive, the most common such sights are individuals in a Statue of Liberty costume holding up signs selling tax preparation services and individuals in a Roman Caesar costume selling $5 pizzas. Sometimes the individuals have no costumes, just large signs, such as the ones proclaiming that “we buy gold and silver.” I have nothing but respect for those individuals. As I drive by them (particularly on cold, snowy days like today), I can’t help but speculate that their current vocation probably was not part of their life plan. If we were to have met that 25 year-old man or woman when he or she was a 16 years-old and in tenth grade; and asked about dreams; we would probably not be told us that at 25 that he or she hopes to be standing on a busy street dressed in a“Lady Liberty” outfit and holding a sign for $8 an hour.  Please understand, I do not mean that in a flippant or disrespectful manner. I am simply making the point that it is most likely that life just is not working out as planned. Again, I have nothing but respect for such persons. Each are doing what he or she needs to do to try to feed themselves (and sometimes children) and keep a roof over their head.

     The fact is however, in one way or another, we live in challenging times in which for a growing number of people, life simply is not working out like they planned (nor anything even close). We live in a society in which more and more people are falling out of the Middle Class. As someone who will be fifty this year, I remember back to my own High School days. In those times, the fast food restaurant was largely the work world of my High School peers. The fast food job was a means to save for college, obtain the experience of the “first job” which would help one to begin to build a work history and demonstrate work ethic and dependability. For many, it was simply a way to earn some extra money for the small luxuries of life, such as the first car, gas for the first car, money for dating, or money to buy the nicer clothes (in those days the alligator or horsy on the polo shirt).

     When I take my lunch break in a fast food place today though, I am just as likely (if not more likely) to be served by someone in my own age range or within a few decades (sometimes younger and sometimes older),  than I am to be served by a High School student. I always try to make a point of being pleasant with those service people, because I speculate that life simply is not working out like they planned.

     This is the heart of my page; to address the issue of what does one do when life does not work out as one planned. I would suggest that this is one of the most daunting concerns of our American society today, and it is one which we seldom address directly. In one way or another, often not as drastic as my illustrations above, life is not working out as planned. I myself would be the first to say that I have nothing to complain about. However, at the same time, life has not worked out as I planned. Some may experience that difference from plan and reality as poverty and having to worry if they will have a place to live next week. For others, like myself, that difference is experienced as stress or to use a good psychobabble word “angst.” Both though are very real, and both can have some very real adverse consequences.

     The intent of this page is to explore these sorts of issues. I will strive to keep my topics related to these sorts of areas/issues which include: consequences on an individual level of the discrepancies between dreams/plans and reality; and how does one start over or re-create oneself once one realizes that life is not working out as planned. I hope that “Thrive” will be a blessing and inspiration to some. I dedicate it to all those individuals whose life plan and reality have diverged in an unwanted way. I sincerely hope that even if the original life plan is lost and mourned, that my page will in some way help you find a path to a new, meaningful, and fulfilling future.

Eric E. Craig