The Poison That Sabotages All Human Potential

Convention and tradition carries with a great danger. That danger is invisibility.

When something is done time and again . . .

When it is propagated throughout a society . . .

When it is adopted, imbibed, and repeated . . .

It becomes part of the fabric.

In becoming part of the fabric, it becomes invisible.

And in becoming invisible, it never sees the sufficient light of day to be reevaluated, examined, or discarded.

Like a rotting apple it remains. Giving off a stench whose source is too deep to see.

If we examine the lives of human beings, we see that human beings live in endless problems. A human being awakens with problems, and he goes to sleep with problems.

Why?

If we examine the level of success, accomplishment, and drive of human beings, we find that less than 1% of them achieve extraordinary things. Despite the fact that every human being is born with a talent. And despite the fact that in today’s world there is more opportunity and connectivity than at any other time in human history.

Why?

If we examine the scores of athletes who seek to become professionals, less than 1% actually become professionals. Despite the fact that the talent of many in the minor leagues of most professional sports is equal to, if not greater than, those at the highest level. This is so consistent of a reality that if one tells another that he seeks to become a professional, he is immediately met with a litany of stats aimed at impressing upon him the grave unlikelihood of such a prospect. In fact, it can be said that humans actually have come to relish spouting such stats. Almost as if failure were a badge of honor.

Why?

If we examine highly successful businesses, we find that they are often saturated with inefficiencies. There are fires in every corner. And people and companies are hired at a fervent pace in order to put out these fires. But no matter how many “strategic” or “consulting” companies or “business coaches” or “psychologists” they hire, the fires never seem to be put out. No matter how many motivational speakers they hire, morale is lukewarm at best. No matter how many workshops they encourage their employees to attend, problems rarely get solved.

Why?

All around the world, on a daily basis, we find evidence of talented young athletes who have had their talent coached out of them. They were slated to be the “next big thing.” But then they disappeared off the map.

Why?

In every corner of the world, there are Vipassana retreats, spirituality seminars, meditation instructions, chanting, prayer, churches, temples, ashrams, silent retreats, and so on. There are millions of self-help books on the shelves. While such things do reorient people’s priorities in a more appropriate direction, man has not become peaceful. He lives his life bombarded by millions of involuntary thoughts that he cannot subdue. He is tormented by emotion. He is confused by conflict. And no amount of meditation or “self-help techniques,” self-talk, aphorisms, positive thinking, or “loving oneself” has been able to change that.

Why?

Wholly capable and highly intelligent leaders find that their talents are being wasted by tending to mundane things. Petty squabbles, and low-level tasks that keep them from using their talents in the best way. Things that keep them from fulfilling their aim of providing more to humanity or propelling their business into the stratosphere. But they have no choice but to enslave themselves to petty things, as the problems never seem to get solved, and the storms never seem to go away.

Why?

Parenting problems. Marriage problems. Psychological problems. Business problems. House problems. Automobile problems. Career problems. Money problems. Traffic problems. Computer problems. Hair problems. Skin problems. Heart problems. Overcrowding problems . . .

Why?

Because of the false paradigm that has seeped like a poison throughout every discipline and every domain in the world.

It has become so intimately a part of the cultural fabric, that it has become . . . Invisible:

The false paradigm of Prescriptions.

The problem with a wolf in sheep’s clothing is that the wolf truly resembles a sheep. The wolf that resembles a wolf is easily avoided.

The problem with ingestible poisons is that they are sweet. If all ingestible poisons were bitter, they would be easy to avoid. Sugar is a perfect example.

The problem with false paradigms is that, on the face of it, they appear logical.

The false paradigm of Prescriptions is a wonderful example of this.

The paradigm of Prescriptions is that every human must be taught the “how.”

Whether it is in life, relationships, business, sports, investing, or otherwise . . . humans around the world, at every level, are taught the “how.”

“How-to” has become a massive industry.

Coaches, in business and sports, teaching “how to.”

Managers and consulting companies teaching “how to.”

Gurus and motivational speakers teaching “how to.”

Has it worked?

Have all the problems listed above gone away?

Nature must have recognized this disturbing human tendency. Perhaps this is why it does not give babies the ability to speak and understand language until after they are able to walk. For if it did, mark my words . . . we would have “how-to-walk schools” around the world, with students aged 8, 9, and 12 years.

The problem with Prescriptions is that they fail to recognize a fundamental human Truth. And it is this grave error that imprisons all of those they intend to serve.

What humans do best are precisely the things they know not how they do.

I find myself releasing a sigh when I see a world class professional athlete on television demonstrating “how” to hit a particular shot. This is such a waste of valuable air time that if both the presenter and the viewer recognized The Truth, the network would, as a gift to humanity, remove itself from the airwaves.

The athlete who is demonstrating “how” to hit the shot does not know how he is hitting the shot. Yes, you read that correctly. What he is relaying are the “highlights” of the action that are most available to his conscious mind. And, yes, the highlights of the action are indeed learnable and repeatable by the novice.

However, what neither the professional athlete nor the novice seems to understand is that it is what the athlete cannot himself explain that contains the magic of the execution of the shot. It is in the slight twitch of the third finger, the suppleness of left shoulder, the smell of the sand at his feet, the trigger that impels him to begin the action and a thousand instinctive micro-movements that this professional athlete will never come to know on a conscious level.

Follow the “how-to highlights,” and you will simply be a novice who has learned an ineffective mechanical action. And forever be left wondering why, after having followed the professional’s Prescription to the letter, cannot create the same result.

It is the same with relationship therapists. They may tell one “how” to react, what to say, to be “empathic,” treat others with kindness, “look into the person’s eyes,” give a gentle touch, and on and on and on.

But these are the “mechanical highlights.” And such inauthentic-ness is immediately spotted by the mind of the recipient. For we all have inborn Authenticity Detectors within us. We can spot this “used-car-salesman” nonsense from a mile away.

And when we don’t, the relationship therapist will then search for a prescription for that too.

The three D’s, the four P’s, the five C’s . . . Power point presentations. Pyramids and inverted pyramids. Five-step plans. Charts, graphs, and squiggly lines. First this, then that, then this, then that. Do this, then that, don’t do this, do that and that and that.

How silly has man allowed himself to become?

How far from The Truth can a human being possibly stray?

It leaves one speechless.

A fundamental human Truth that must be understood is this:

A Prescription or a “how-to” may make one an average technician. But it will never make one an Artist.

It may make one a painter. But it will never make one a Rembrandt.

What then, is the cause of all failures?

Prescriptions are the cause of all failures.

In all that you do, whether it is in life, business, sports, craft, investing, spirituality, or otherwise . . . each Prescription or Prescriber that you come across will be the glue that keeps you attached to your problems forever.

The sad part is that if you search for the answer to a problem on Google, every single one of the one million search results will be Prescriptions!

I once proposed to someone that Google should create a new product titled, “Google Truth.” In the “Google Truth” search engine, only the one or two people or things in the world that provided the Actual Truth to the problem would be listed.

No problem in the history of the world can ever be “Prescribed” into a cure.

I must say that the most satisfying part of my work with human beings is to watch the power of The Truth transform, without a prescription in sight.

The only thing that has ever worked is the same thing that always works:

The Truth.

Namaste.