Larson's Cultural Myths- Elizabeth Gilbert: Success, Failure, and the Drive to Keep Creating

After the huge success of her memoir, “Eat, Pray, Love”, Elizabeth Gilbert went from unknown novelist to a pop culture icon. While she loved the success, she found it difficult to write again. Her TED Talk discusses her journey to success and how both failure and success motivated her to keep going. - See more at: http://www.strayer.edu/buzz/success-project/10-speeches-that-will-inspire-you-to-succeed/#sthash.p7uIirM9.AW4f4Xu8.dpuf

lizabeth Gilbert: Success, Failure and the Drive to Keep Creating

After the huge success of her memoir, “Eat, Pray, Love”, Elizabeth Gilbert went from unknown novelist to a pop culture icon. While she loved the success, she found it difficult to write again. Her TED Talk discusses her journey to success and how both failure and success motivated her to keep going.
- See more at: http://www.strayer.edu/buzz/success-project/10-speeches-that-will-inspire-you-to-succeed/#sthash.p7uIirM9.AW4f4Xu8.dpuf

Larson's cultural myths concept posits that an audience will respond to different types of persuasion based on the subconscious cultural myths it holds. Persuaders rely on these myths to further enhance the influence they will have on an audience. Elizabeth Gilbert, famed author of "Eat, Pray, Love," effectively uses many of these myths to share the story of her success, her failure, and her drive to keep creating while she struggled to regain who she really is.

Larson’s wisdom of the rustic myth shares how Americans value humble beginnings while believing that they can learn from difficulties. Elizabeth incorporated this idea in her speech with her own personal story of how she started writing when she was young and failed being published all throughout that time. She then shared how she kept on writing while she was in college and then still as a waitress. For over six years she received one rejection letter after another in the mail. Despite these failures she continued on.

Another myth is that of the possibility of success. In this myth people believe that success is supposed to come to those who have been honest and have worked hard for it. Elizabeth worked hard as a waitress, but even harder as a writer. She felt that she deserved success, because she had put the time and work into it. Her efforts finally paid off when she was finally published and her book was an instant, huge success.

As her success ran out, she then faced a new problem, the presence of conspiracy myth, which is the idea or belief that big problems can't have simple solutions. She had immense success with her book, but now she had the dilemma of having to write an equally successful book in order to still fill her needs. She described how her success had actually taken her just as far from her true self, or who she really was inside, than her failures had. She wanted to get back to this "home"where she could do what she loved to do without worrying about what others thought. She again felt like the young waitress waiting for the rejection letters.

This speech also looks at the myth of the value of challenge.  This myth argues that wisdom can only be gained through challenge and suffering. Elizabeth established her challenge and suffering as she continued to describe how she took on her problem of returning "home" to the foundation of writing. She had to go on a quest to find herself again after the success of her book. She shared how she had to face this challenge of discovery and the suffering along the way in order to triumph.

The last myth she used was the myth of the eternal return. This myth focuses on the belief that Americans desire to return to the better times of the past in order to seek to create new beginnings from this foundation. Elizabeth fully embodied this concept of this myth as she described how she desired to return "home" to her roots of writing. She wanted to again be like the waitress, who was happy writing and failing for almost six years before finally seeing success. She felt that this is what made her strong and she wanted to go back to that feeling and place.

Elizabeth used the first process premise of needs very effectively throughout this speech in order to move the audience toward her objective. She used much of Packard's list of compelling needs throughout the speech. She shared her emotional securities while desiring a reassurance of worth and ego gratification as she shared about how her success was great but also how it pulled her away from her base. She shared how her sense of power from her success and accomplishments was just as much of a challenge to her desires as was failure. So, she worked toward finding her love of writing again as her sense of roots, which brought her back to her foundation while advancing her forward in her quest to find what would make her resilient and immortal.

Her ultimate goal for herself was for Maslow's self actualization. Through her quest to find herself she was able to endure much suffering and hardship. Her quest also led her to understanding who she is and what she really wants in life. The premise of pursuing self actualization is apparent through the path she choose. I liked how she was able to portray this to the audience in a brief but effective manner.

Through the process premise of needs and Larsen's cultural myths interwoven into the fabric of her speech, Elizabeth was able to move, motivate, and uplift her audience. This speech embodies many of the qualities equal to many of the best speeches ever given.

After the huge success of her memoir, “Eat, Pray, Love”, Elizabeth Gilbert went from unknown novelist to a pop culture icon. While she loved the success, she found it difficult to write again. Her TED Talk discusses her journey to success and how both failure and success motivated her to keep going. - See more at: http://www.strayer.edu/buzz/success-project/10-speeches-that-will-inspire-you-to-succeed/#sthash.p7uIirM9.AW4f4Xu8.dpuf

Fogg Assignment- Obama Speaks at Democratic National Convention 2004

For this post, I dipped into the archives of speech videos that have had a major impact in our society. The opportunity to view a speech in hindsight and to see its effects on society adds to the analysis of the speech through the BJ Fogg model of behavior.

I chose the following speech because of the rich content it contains for analysis as well as the opportunity it will create for discussion or contention in this class. As much as people now say they dislike Obama and his “reign”, he understands what it takes to persuade and motivate people to action. At least he did in 2004 when he gave his now famous speech at the Democratic National Convention.

 

B J Fogg’s model takes the chaos of psychological theories and puts them into an understandable order. He groups concepts into three areas, motivations, abilities, and triggers. All of these must happen at the same moment in order to affect the desired behavior. He believes that when a behavior does not happen it is because one of these three main elements are missing.  

In the speech given by then Senator Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, we will show how he used each of these main elements of Fogg’s model to affect behavior. We will also look at any of the process premises used through this speech to determine their effectiveness. 

To begin we will look at the motivations described in the speech. Obama began with the story of his own family and how he and his family were able to rise above the pain of the oppressed to triumph and succeed in this country. In each instance he related how these same things have happened to everyone else out there. His message was that he is just like everyone else. 

He furthered the concepts of motivation by making a claim on hope. He explained that because we live in such a great country like America that we can always hope for something better. We can all use the freedoms enumerated by the Constitution to gain a greater hope for a better future. These inspiring phrases hit all of the hot buttons of motivation while dispelling fears of failure. 

He finished off the speech with the claim that we are all one. We are one America. We are one in purpose, not Republican and Democrat. We are not Red and Blue states. We are a United States. This image follows Fogg's concept of social acceptance. Challenging his audience to come together and be united in purpose is a great motivator to action. 

The next element necessary in Fogg's model cover abilities, or as Fogg also calls them the simplicity factors. These factors relate to things like time, money, and physical effort. Obama related again and again stories about how nice it would be when people could have their health care taken care of and going to college without worrying about how to pay for it. He mentioned that people were willing to make the effort, but the government should be there to help them to the top. Government would take away the hurdles that now stand in the way of people who truly want to succeed. He also focused peoples attention toward how quickly this hope and success could be achieved by sharing how quickly his success had come. 

The last element in Fogg's formula is the triggers that facilitate the action. This speech was for the nomination of John Kerry, yet every part of his speech pointed toward an action reflecting his intention to put himself up as the hope and change that this country needed at the time. The context and environment at the time was the facilitator for the needed spark. The spark was seen by his quick rise to stardom in the political world. This speech was a signal to the world that it was time for change. It was time to progress forward and chart a new course for America. People saw that spark in him. They felt like he really could bring them what he was proposing. They wanted him to bring a brighter future of hope and success instead of pain and misery that they had felt through years of war. The timing was perfect for the speech and Obama capitalized on it. 

When we look at this speech through the lense of process premises, there are many aspects that Obama used that were effective in motivating his audience further than just that of Fogg's model. He tied in many of the needs mentioned by Vance Packard. He began with a sense of roots by sharing stories of his family's American heritage. He rolled in a lot of emotional security as he talked of hope for a better future. He gave his audience a sense of power and a reassurance of worth as he shared how he is just like everyone else and how even he has been given a place here in our society. He built up the audience's ego by telling them that they have the ability to be as great as their efforts can carry them.

He also used emotion to carry his message to the hearts of his audience. He focused his attention on the more positive emotions in his speech like happiness and joy. He allowed them to feel a great pride in themselves and their country as he would lead them, through John Kerry, to a brighter future and a better America. 

Obama created dissonance in the minds of his audience by suggesting that things were all right now, but they could be so much better. He then suggested a solution of hope is the only thing that would fill the emptiness created by the lack of harmony that he had just suggested was in them. This was one of the most powerful tools in this speech.  

I know that I have looked at this speech from hindsight and know how it turned out in the next ten years or so. Despite this perspective, I feel that the objective view of this speech is that it hits all of the major elements needed in order to be a great motivational speech. It hit every one of Fogg's elements for affecting behavioral change in people and society. This speech is what propelled him into the spotlight and onto the stage of national politics and then onto the White House four years later. He was able to do this years before Fogg even came up with his theories and model. (Maybe he took a class from professor Young.) Whatever may have happened, I stand on the belief that this is one of the best motivational political speeches given in many decades. 

 

 

Lunch break update for Fogg assignment

In order to better understand the assignment for this week, I looked up B.J. Fogg's website and found some great information that you should read. Here is the graph that explains the foundation of his concepts: