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Living A Beautiful Life …

Posted by Joseph Riggio on Friday, September 01, 2006

Living aesthetically demands a different orientation to life ... one that respects the sensual and the beautiful ... then the future you are designing will be the one you want to be stepping into ... both on your own and with others

Moring All,

As usual, I've been scanning the *News* and I've found something for today's blog post. Let's say this will be in a "slightly" different direction compared to the news I've drawn from over the last two days (it may have something to do with blogging in the morning vs. late at night, however I need more data to confirm this ...)

So I'm scanning and reading, scanning and reading on SFGate.com, the on-line edition of the San Francisco Chronicle. This paper ranks among the great newspapers of all time ... a mainstream paper that reads like a tabloid - you've just gotta check out the articles they post ... start here: The Bondage File.... anyway I come across this headline :

Alfa Romeo's American Orgasm
Will the hot Italian brand's U.S. homecoming mean more sex for you? The Alfa Brera says, Hell yes

The title above refers to what I'd have to call an "opinion piece" and in the third paragraph I read:

Alfa Romeo will finally be returning to the U.S. auto market in 2009 after a nearly 15-year absence: the Alfa Romeo Brera. A.k.a. the sexiest coupe ever. A.k.a. an orgasm on wheels. A.k.a. another precious reason to live, to pray that the world's petroleum reserves hold out just a little longer. - By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist, Friday, September 1, 2006

Now I'll agree that he probably wrote this as a bit tongue-in-cheek - specifically his comment about "... the world's petroleum reserves ..." However, the thing that caught me was the use of the values-laden languaging that the author of the piece, Mark Morford, used throughout. He has written a very sensual description of the car, taking it well beyond what you might expect to be used in describing some cast and sheet metal, plastic, hosing and electronics. The writing draws the attention into the aesthetic domain well beyond "the facts" (the Alfa Romeo Brera itself takes this direction as well ... but, I have a penchant for sexy Italians ... hey, even the website is sexy ... check it out!).

What I found distinctive in this was his calling out to a specific audience to a great extent vis-a-vis the "values-laden languaging" I referred to above. There's a calling out to anyone who would rank eye appeal and the suggestive sensuality of the Brera as important of course. When you visit the website of Alfa Romeo and go to the "Alfa Brera" section you'll find an option to [+]Listen as one of the roll-overs and when you click on this link you'll hear a recording of the engine from the Brera, embedded in the "Flash Player," calling back to you (roll your cursor around over the engine compartment nearer the shadowed section driver's front quarter panel area to find this embedded link) ... very sensual ... very aesthetic.

But, the real question that this provokes in me continues onto ...

"Who are these values important to/for?"

First blush it might seem that these values are particularly aimed to appeal to men reading the column ... i.e.: sex, sexy curves ... but I'd argue this to be to simplified an approach to the appeal ... )men really do pay attention to more than just sex ... "more than just sex"). What we could begin to consider are the values sets that I've been pointing to in this week's previous posts (Reading the Times & and Making It Simple & Again).

The idea of "living the good life" I associate with the Graves Model Six values set ... what I've call the "Hedonistic Position." These are folks who've lived through, experienced and integrated the Graves Model Five values set. These folks (the Graves Fives) are all about individuation and material gain (that incorporates a lot of additional values tied into these aspect of the values set). The Graves Six folks are all about collaboration and plurality ... with an overlay of the Graves Five values mixed in.

So, these folks, Graves Sixes - with well integrated Graves Fives values, are going to LOVE a car that speaks to the "good life" and "being special" - what I'm referring to that simultaneously they can get affordably, while remaining part of the "in group."

When you get the specific values that a group holds you can communicate directly to them via those values ... and the message will resonate for them as a group because you are speaking "their language" specifically.

This applies regardless of who you are communicating with, and to whatever you are communicating about with them ... so:

  • Politicians will speak about politics to their constituents
  • Businesses will speak about products/services to their customers/clients

    • Another example of this from the Alfa Brea article by Mark Morford below:

    Is the Brera the sexiest production car on the road today? Very possible. But we also have the Merc CLS, the visual equivalent of having hot sex with your best friend's mom in a wine cellar. ... Then there's the new BMW Z4 Coupe, looking like the mutant offspring of an angry reef shark and a Goethe love poem. Beautiful.

    But the Brera, with its pinched razor headlamps and glass roof and edible rakish tail and lines like a Prada sports shoe, makes them all seem like so many VW Jettas. Well, OK, maybe not that boring. But you get the idea.     - By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist Friday, September 1, 2006

    First he writes well ... and beyond that he writes specifically to his audience! Futhermore ... he writes to the values they hold as well. Doing this virtually guarantees that his audience will respond to his message ... this doesn't mean that they will agree with him or his message.

    Learning how to communicate using values-laden language from inside of an aesthetic orientation will allow you to create powerful messages that connect to your specific audience in a way that resonates for them ... and a than a relationship begins ...

    When you've begun to build a relationship with your audience the possibility opens to building a system where the outcomes they and you mutually desire become possible. The "magic" in all of this of course resides in what happens when people come together on common-ground ...

    "Transcending the limitations of the moment ... pulling the entire system forward ... living inside of the aesthetic position ... steeped in the beauty of life ... oriented on the trajectory of one's intent ..."

    Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
    Princeton. NJ



    PS - Are you interested in coming to know yourself beyond the things you do - and as a result become wildly better at doing those things as well?

    Sometimes the most challenging thing we must learn to transcend can be our long-term "success strategies" ... the way we've always gone about being successful and generating our outcomes. Of course these strategies have gotten us this far ... and maybe they are no longer appropriate for where we are ... or more importantly for where we want to be going.

    Think about it this way - these strategies have gotten you this far ... and cannot get you any further ... they're just not designed to take you all the way. The challenge for most folks has two aspects:

  • You don't even explicitly know what your current "success strategies" are, nor which of them are limiting you from getting what you really want, and

  • Even if you did know what your limiting strategies are, you don't necessarily know what to do to get beyond them

    • One thing you want to know:

    YOU CANNOT BE EXPECTED TO KNOW WHAT YOUR LIMITING STRATEGIES ARE ... YOU'VE NEVER BEEN SPECIFICALLY TAUGHT HOW TO IDENTIFY THEM ... OR WHAT TO DO IN RELATION TO THEM ONCE YOU HAVE!


    But ... you can learn exactly how to identify both the strategies that serve you well and the one's that limit you. Then you can learn how to eliminate those that limit you AND build new strategies that will serve you much, much better!


    I urge you to consider the MythoSelf Process Advanced Program I'm running in Princeton, NJ this October. This program has consistently been one of our most well received programs by virtually everyone who's ever attended it:

    " ... this program literally changed my life in three days ... the way I'll interact with people will be totally different from now on!" - Rita Koike, NY, NY.

    Go ahead and take a look at the program description and get the details at: MythoSelf Process Advanced Program then go ahead and send in an application, if you still have any additional questions after you've read this drop me a line directly and I'll do my best to answer them: jsriggio@josephriggio ... (if you have any other questions for me personally go ahead and use this address to send me those as well).

    Consider this a personal invitation from me ... I look forward to seeing you in NJ ...

    PPS - BTW don't worry about the word "Advanced" in the title of this program ... this program will be accessible and appropriate for everyone ... so far I've worked with pre-teens as young as twelve-years old and post-teens in their late 70's ... so come on along!.

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