Addicted to Drama
Conscious leaders seek to decrease unnecessary conflict rather than escalate it
Since 1997, I’ve had a daily ritual. Every morning I visit the Drudge Report website to see the top headlines driving the news narrative that day. When I worked in politics, I was constantly looking at the site throughout the day for breaking news. It’s almost addictive, the desire to be among the first to know about world or national news.
As my level of consciousness increased, I started to realize that most of mainstream media—including websites like the Drudge Report—promote drama. News is factual information without commentary. But what most news websites promote is division and drama.
When I interacted with political reporters, the majority of the time their questions were designed to maximize conflict and drama between political interests rather than get to the root of the issue and help resolve it.
In a sense, our culture is addicted to drama. Addiction can be defined as continuing a behavior even when it’s causing negative effects in your life. And drama thrives on conflict. Being addicted to drama means being so interested or engaged in conflict that it becomes destructive to yourself and others around you.
In popular culture, reality TV couldn’t exist without the fake drama drummed up by producers. They know viewers want to see conflict and fights between the show’s actors. So, like an addict, they keep producing drama after drama, one fake controversy after another, in order to entertain viewers.
Being constantly tapped into the news, or watching reality TV, or participating in negative gossip, is addiction to drama. It’s destructive to our emotional wellbeing and our relationships when we get sucked into the conflict promoted by pop culture, news media and social media.
Conscious leaders understand that addiction to drama is damaging to ourselves, our teams, and the conscious culture we want to build. In fact, conscious leaders seek to stop the drama and create a culture based on understanding, empathy, and collaboration.
If you think you or your team might have an addiction to drama, there are several things you can do:
Ask yourself what it is about drama that attracts you.
Limit exposure to media that promotes drama over facts.
Evaluate your relationships. Which ones drain your energy because of drama?
Discuss with your team ways to identify and stop drama before it festers and destroys.
Use coaching skills to get to the root of conflicts and decrease drama.
Just as we’d address any other addiction, the first step is to admit we have a problem. Our culture is addicted to drama in a way that is destructive. As Gandhi wisely admonished us, BE the change you wish to see the world. That means each of us identifying ways we’re addicted to drama and then shifting to news, relationships and ways of BE-ing that decrease drama.
I’ve personally learned that drama and unnecessary conflict drain my energy and make me feel more pessimistic and cynical. So I choose to be aware of what’s going on around me, but not engage in the drama. I hope you’ll help BE the change by gauging your own participation in society’s divisive dramas and choosing to create a more conscious culture.
Work happy. Live happy. BE happy.
Meredith
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The way we work and build teams is rapidly changing. Leaders often feel unprepared to navigate the transition. As a conscious leadership coach, consultant and communicator, Meredith helps leaders and their teams create new ways of working and relating so they can prepare for the future by consciously co-creating it.
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