99 steps to reclaiming your individuality  Step #1

Identity:

How important is your identity to you? How do you identify yourself? What steps do you take during the course of the day to imprint your personal brand on your environment? What are you to your employer, a quantifiable cost of doing business variable, or an identifiable asset? Just a few key questions to jar you from the mundane drone of the compliant capitulation that today's society demands of you.

The inherent problem with today's revolutionary momentum is that is patterns itself behind the familiar activist rhetoric that whoever screams the loudest, the longest, and the largest will get the recognition eventually. (The screaming toddler in the shopping cart scenario revisited.)

What I would propose to you, is somewhat different albeit a similarly collaborative effort. Think of the success of the Movember viral movement. How many people would you estimate participated? Close to 2 million last year. Why? Very little sacrifice of convenience, notable cause, and water cooler conversation creds!

What I am asking requires a bit more sacrifice, a bit more commitment, and your willingness to promote the vision to all your friends. Think of the attention the movement would achieve if nearly 2 million people decided not to use their debit cards for 99 days, and the banks were made aware of the reason for the abstinence, by the social media exposure, tweeting and blogging. You would have their undivided attention.

This is the evolution of the revolution. what have you gained? for starters, You are going to be reimbursed for your inconvenience by a more intrinsic appreciation of monitoring your cash flow. You will bank, you will budget, you will be cognizant of the manipulation you have been indoctrinated into by all the slight of hand that both merchants and banks use to sift all those unnoticed pennies from your account consistently and persistently all 31 days of the month. The Mafia use to call it the skim, the banks caught on and never looked back. So long interest an loans move over for the new boss daddy in town service charges. What's in your wallet?

And again this is only one example of the 99 philosophy. You create the rule, You communicate it to your circle of friends, you promote it, and you will benefit from it. You cannot fail because in its least aspect, you have made a self empowering statement, and in it's potentially greatest you will have been the catalyst for change for a great many, and a realigning of the values that a free open society should possess.