Ask yourself a few questions below:

1. Are you open-minded?

2. Are you a team player?

3. Are you a good leader?

4. Are you a quick learner?

5. Are you a lifelong learner?

6. Can you communicate well?

7. Do you come up with good ideas?

8. Are you likeable?

9. Are you passionate about your work?

If you are like most people, your answer to almost all the questions will be Yes. If you are the optimistic kind, your answer to almost all the questions will be a resounding YES!

The trouble starts the moment you say “Yes” to a question like the one above because saying “Yes” seems like the right thing to do. Sometimes it is even fashionable to say that you are open, team player, communicate well etc.

Say it often and soon you will start believing what you are saying and THAT is the onset of self-inflicted brainwashing. Do it some more and you will start doubting those that doubt you.

Let’s take one of the above questions:

Are you a lifelong learner?

If you said the answer is Yes, the follow on question would be

How do you know?

I am not doubting what you are saying but all I am suggesting is that you should doubt yourself until you are proven right.

What if you had a simple way to prove to yourself that you are indeed a lifelong learner?

If you are a lifelong learner, by induction, you should have been learning in the last year. Assuming that you were learning for the whole year with reasonable intensity, how about this challenge?

Right at this moment, you are attending a conference and the keynote speaker is missing due to some last minute issues. They invite you on stage instead and all you have to speak about is what you learned in the last year?

Would you be ready and willing to take up that challenge?

More importantly, would the audience get the value for their time and attention from your speech?

If you want to escape you can answer “Yes” to everything I am asking OR you can take time to reflect and see if you are slightly brainwashed?

You are the only person who knows the answer to this question. If you are indeed brainwashed and get out of it, the first step is to acknowledge and accept the reality.

Have a wonderful year ahead!