These days every waking moment is filled with someone trying to get you to do this, or buy that.  They use all kinds of sophisiticated techniques, developed in a lab, tested in focus groups, and spread across the world you live in.  You hear it on the radio when it goes off to wake you up, you see it on the billboards on the way to work, even on bumper stickers on the cars filling the freeway.  Then you get it again when you get home and turn on the TV to relax.

Some of them want you to do something to make them money… that’s probably the most common.  Some of them, however, do it because they think that whatever it is that they want you to do will make you healthier, like the anti-smoking campaigns.  Speaking of which, can’t they hire someone to make ads that aren’t so ineffective that they actually make me want to smoke, just because the ad is so bad (and I’ve never smoked in my life)?  They all have something in common, however… they all want you to align your life with their desires.

They break out all the tools to try to get you to do this.  They use guilt, they use peer pressure, they use sex… oh boy do they ever use sex.  All of it is designed to bypass your conscious mind’s ability to rationally evaluate a proposition.  They don’t want you to actually think about  what it is they’re pushing you to do, they want you to feel like youhave to do it.  If you want to get the hot girl, you have to go buy our product.  If you want your kids to love you, you have to go to our amusement park.  If you don’t want to die young, you have to stop smoking.

That last one at least has the benefit of being likely to be true, though my great-grandfather lived until he was 93 while smoking every day.  But true or not, they are trying to make you alter your life to follow their rules.  Now comes my turn, of course… what amI trying to get you to do?

Nothing… well, to be honest, I want you to subscribe to my website (it’s free!) .  But that’s not the point… I’m not going to try to push you to do it.  What I’m suggesting is that you break away from mindless consumerism (<– buzzwords), and reclaim your life.  Use your mind and actually think about why YOU should do whatever it is that someone is currently trying to get you to do.  Why is it that you, personally, would want to do whatever it is that they are pushing?

Here are five things that you might want to do when you feel like someone is trying to push you into something:

1. Engage your mind

   The most powerful tool in your arsenal, and what marketers and salesmen try to avoid, your conscious mind is capable of actually making rational decisions and choosing not to buy the new Mega Ultra Thingamabob when you already have the Thingamabob Max, and wouldn’t use any of the features added to the new Mega Ultra, anyway.  Or even worse, to them… you can realize you have no need for a Thingamabob at all.

2. Discard guilt as a motivator

   Guilt is a terrible motivator, and one abused by some marketers.  One of the worst ways they do this is through making you feel like you’re depriving your children if you don’t go here or buy them that.  If you feel guilty when it comes to your children… spend more time with them!  Buying them things and taking them to places where you still don’t pay attention to them isn’t going to help them.  Marketers also try to work the guilt factor when it comes to your significant other… the answer is still the same:  spend more time with them!  When it comes to guilt about yourself, like fitness/weight loss, just remember… you don’t need to look like or be like everyone else.  If you’re happy the way you are, who are they to tell you that you need to change?

3. Realize it doesn’t really matter what everyone else is doing

   Why do you care what everyone else is doing?  What difference does it make to you?  Are you that eager to “fit in”, that you would go out of your way to do something just because other people are?  I know the answer for some people is “Yes”, but why?  You are your own person, living your own life, making your own decisions… you are who you choose to be.  Why would you choose to be someone else?

4. Understand that no matter how many times they imply it, no product gets you hot girls (or sex)

   A HUGE number of products use the allure of sex to get you to do something or buy something.  They do this by showing you hot girls and their product over and over again.  Just remember… it doesn’t matter how many times they show the product with some hot girl… having it won’t get you that girl.  It’s highly unlikely to get you sex, even if you already have a significant other.  Unless, of course, you’re a guy, and you buy your significant other shoes and a purse… there’s something about those things that girls LOVE.

5. Figure out if YOU really care, and if so, why

   Finally, take a look and see if you really care about what it is they are pushing.  For example, if a marketer is trying to use sex to sell something to you, and you’re already married (hopefully happily), do you really care even if it WOULD get you a hot girl?  You’re already taken, after all.  Do you really care if that new diet pill will make you lose a few pounds?  And I mean YOU… do you care for yourself, not because of the way other people look at you?  Does whatever it is they are trying to get you to do really reflect who you are?

These really apply even to conversation with your friends or coworkers, when they try to get you to do something, not just the now omni-present advertising.  Make your life your own… do things on your own terms, because you WANT to do it.  Reclaim your life and do things that reflect who you are and who you want to be, not what someone else thinks you should be.