As I have just moved to the Atlanta metro area from a medium-sized, economically divisive Northwest Florida city, the issues of class and diversity of thought smack me in the forehead every single day. I live in a sometimes rough, but pretty and culturally diverse neighborhood in the city, but work in a fairly bland, neutral, culturally lacking area in the suburbs to the north. I suppose you could solidly call it “middle class.” While I pursue what could be called a middle class income, I try to cultivate a way of thinking that is anything but. The pursuit of ultimate satisfaction and superficial dominance means death to a species that MUST swim to stay alive. But I look around me and see an awful lot of people who, despite the benefit of a university education, still have no idea how to think for themselves or what they should really be trying to become. The suburbs then, are a slow motion voluntary killing field of the psyche and serve as an effective means to corral the unthinking while they shop, disinfect their surroundings and wait to die. My sense of drama here is partially due to a healthy dose of selective misanthropy toward the ‘burbs that my childhood planted, and objective critical thinking as an adult cared for and harvested. 

The post that follows is a direct quote from http://thoughtrenewal.blogspot.com. This line toward the end sums it up well and echoes something I have been saying for a while…that you are born into what you are, and you have to run like hell to get the escape velocity to achieve more:

The middle class have also deluded themselves into thinking that they are where they’re at because of their hard work. Most middle class folks thought they hit a double when in fact they were born on second base.

Poverty vs Middle vs World Class Thinking

The two greatest influencing factors on how we think (and thus how we live) are:

1. The books we read, and …
2. The people we associate with.

The types of books we read reflect how we think about ourselves. Are we constantly in “fantasy land” trying to escape reality by reading novels with little or no moral redeeming value? Or are we learning from history, engaging in personal development, and understanding how money and business works?

The types of people we associate with is also critical in how we think about ourselves and even where we end up in life. Take our income level, for example. Add up the annual salaries of your several closest friends and divide it by that number and you’ll likely have your annual income. We are who we hang around.

What this means is that we generally gravitate toward five broad categories of thinking and living based on the books we read and the people we hang around. According to Steven Siebold (author of 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class), those categories are poverty, working, middle, upper, and world class thinking.

Those with a poverty or working class mentality talk about (and mostly grumble about) the past. They are constantly blaming others for their failures, for not getting ahead, for their bad breaks in life. Could be a boss, a parent, a teacher. They got screwed over by someone and that’s why they are where they are at. It’s a victim mindset.

Those with a middle class mentality talk about other people - comparing up or down and always trying to position themselves a little better than their peers. It’s either keep up with the Joneses or it’s bragging about their latest toy. The middle class have also deluded themselves into thinking that they are where they’re at because of their hard work. Most middle class folks thought they hit a double when in fact they were born on second base.

Those with an upper, or better yet, world class mentality talk about ideas. They are always looking for ways to grow, increase, become better, build, influence more, impact more, do more, be more. And so they are reading books that help them think better. They associate with positive, excited people and avoid negative, limiting people.

Questions to Ponder:

• Are you focused on the past, other people, or big ideas? 
• What books are you reading that support the direction you want to go?
• What people in your life do you need to limit your exposure to? 
• When will you begin to implement the answers to these questions?

I’ve been slaving away for weeks, revising and revising. I’m still not finished, but it’s at a great place, so up on the server it goes. If I can find some of my editorial layout and ad work, I’ll throw that in. Click here to download the PDF.