Celebrity Apprentice: Land of the NPDs

   

     With New Year's Day falling on a Thursday I allowed myself more television than usual this long holiday weekend, justifying that projects on tap for 2015, require I check out the current landscape of reality shows. (Note, this was simply me justifying. I confess I'm a sucker for certain shows and for once, as a last little weekend gift to myself, I sat down to watch with no laundry, no ironing, no multitasking before me... just me and the remote~ Like a guy, I was watching for sport.)
     I was thrilled to find a new season of "Celebrity Apprentice" had begun, though with no Nashville representation on this one, I may not last the season. (Nashville participants may be banned at this stage, given we've won the last two (#thankyouJohnRich #thankyouTraceAdkins). Suffice it to say, I am intrigued with the gamesmanship of the show, but I am also intrigued as to why people watch this show in the first place (myself included).
     It's pretty clear to anyone who has watched for more than one season, that the key to winning is CYE. (Control Your Ego) While egomaniacs like Gary Busey are no doubt kept on a few extra weeks for the sheer insanity of things, seems the trick is to "tame the beast" ESPECIALLY at the game's onset, for bragging on yourself, pointing fingers at others, taking credit for things you did not do is NOT cool (after all, we the viewing public can see who is doing all the work, or at least who appears to be by way of the edited footage we're shown).
     I was told by a friend who once auditioned for such a show that there is a specific type they go for in the auditions (thought of which made me LOL, but also made so much sense I was surprised I hadn't thought of it before). The ideal personality type? (It's actually not a type, it's a disorder ~ ) The NPD (as in Narcissistic Personality Disorder). In other words, the more self-absorbed the person, the better the chances of landing a role on Trump's show, which, when you think about it, makes sense, does it not?
     That said, when I think about past winners (especially as it pertains to our boys from Nashville), the take away (at least from my perspective) was that yes, they all have egos (not sure you can be a country star without one) but winners tame their egos,  submitting to the larger egos in the room (be that other players; be it Trump). If you'll note, both Rich and Adkins kept their heads low but level throughout the game...focused, yes, but they acquiesced like my lug-of-a-pup Hix to the older, wiser TJ (king of the alpha barking rights and dog with the biggest head around here) which (as Hix is wisely learning) is the only way to keep yourself from getting killed.
   

Clearing the Clutter --Including Debt

   

     True confession: I don’t like thinking about money. And guess what? Uncle Sam and light companies don’t care. A friend once said I’m allergic to it. It’s not that I don’t love it or  wish I had more of it, I just don’t like thinking about money for some reason, which means, by the time I have to, it’s often too late…(like the time I forgot I’d closed the bank account that had my auto-pay to the water company tied to it; nothing like having no water for a night to bring that little money matter front and center).

      Given a choice I’d much prefer to spend my days writing, pondering...washing dishes or pulling weeds if it means avoiding money matters.  After all, Jesus didn’t keep a checkbook and his apostles just up and quit their day jobs...No one mentions they worried (well, not about money anyway). A lady named Peace Pilgrim gave up money and walked across the country living on faith and the kindness of strangers. She seemed happy enough. And look at St. Francis.

      But sadly, I’m no Jesus. I’m no St. Francis and I’m not exactly dying to walk up to strangers and ask for a meal, though I’d gladly have spotted Peace a bucket of veggies if she happened down my lane.

      So what’s with my resistance, I’m asking myself? What about money (coming in or going out)  has me ranking it bottom of my priority scale. I don’t have a complete answer on this just yet, but I have a hunch it’s tied to that same gene that makes me cling to clutter…When given a choice, I go with the most sentimental of answers. Given a choice of remembering an old friend or clearing out space from the cards that friend’s given me over the years…no brainer. I choose Memory Lane. Given the choice of calling in my credit card payment or writing on a topic that comes to mind before it leaves me...(Wait. Is this a trick question? What day of the month is this?)

     But as much as my head to live in the clouds, my brain is smart enough to know if you’re gonna live on planet earth, you gotta play by earth rules.  You can only make poor choices for so long till they start backing up on you so as I see it, I have two choices: keep doing what I’m doing till something makes the change for me…or face this awareness head on and take a step –even a baby one, to rewire the neuropathways in my brain patterns so as to affect a different outcome.

    For today’s baby step I went back to my radio archives…Beyond Reason, being my favorite show I ever produced. I recalled an interview we did with a guy named Harv Eker who wrote a book called “The Millionaire Mind”. According to Harv, we each have a “set point”…a thermostat setting of sorts in our minds that becomes the default we revert back to when it comes to money. It gets set early in childhood when we’re not looking. It can come from something our parents taught us, or something we interpreted sideways, but once it’s in there, it’s the lens through which we view things, and being creatures of habit, it takes a serious awakening to rewire such long held beliefs (wrong though they may be). It’s why lottery winners eventually wind up poor again, and why Donald Trump can go bankrupt and build it all back in a year.

      In my never-ended quest to dig deeper for my own answers, I share for those perhaps spotting similar habit patterns in need of a fix, our interview. Here’s hoping you enjoy~

                                           http://beyondreason.com/mp3s/eker.mp3