Are You Enthusiastic About Your Own Potential For Greatness?

Even though there will be rebellions manifesting within us in the form of various pathologies (psycho- and otherwise) there is still within us that which seeks for comfort in the known. Maybe it is the sheer demand of those billions of years of deeply programmed incentives aimed towards survival; that one ought not dare push the envelope too far; that one ought to stay safe; that one ought to remain in Plato's Cave, if you will.

Conflicting with that, though, is a discomfort with too much stasis and non-change. Boredom sets in when there is a performance and re-enactment of too much ritualized behaviour. Our being too deeply programmed makes us little more than machines--which was the contention of the cantankerous mystic G.I. Gurdjieff. We go through our days and we say, 'Same old shit, different day.' And even while we say that we know that something precious within us is being stifled. That there is untapped greatness buried within us like some fine treasure lost at sea.

A real leader of people--either in the workplace or as a parent in the home--has to deal with the issue of seeking to extricate people from their comfortable little niches. The tendency to get caught up in a rut and therefore deny the unfolding of further possibilities and potential is, by all accounts, pandemic. Yet, the leader faces the task of inspiring others to 'rise up' out of the comfortable little ruts of their lives without offending their need to feel safe and secure. In other words, as a leader you have to push... challenge... and instigate, but not too much!

In many ways it like dealing with a car stuck in the mud. Sometimes you have to 'rock the car' back and forth in order to gather enough momentum so as to get unstuck. It does no good to just push and push and push. So you push a little and let the car fall back into the hole, and then you allow the car to become like a pendulum, only pushing when the car is moving in the direction of becoming unstuck. Finally, provided the hole is not too deep the car will emerge from where it has been stuck.

Returning to ask the question of how we are to access our own glory--or assist others in realizing their own peculiar genuis--we could use the analogy of the stuck car as a starting point. As such, our pressure is not constant. We are not challenging them all the time to get unstuck, but only giving them that little push when they are already moving in the direction of their genuis.

Back to the car. When the car is rocking back into the hole it would be foolish to push. That would be a waste of energy. But when the car starts moving forward again our little assist in pushing is just the thing that is needed to get the car unstuck. And my sense is that the same thing works with people. Don't push yourself (or others) when you (or they) appear to be regressing. Don't challenge them. Challenge them when they begin moving in the direction of their genuis. Give a little assist. Add a little energy to their own (rather than trying to fight their momentum) so that they can emerge from where they have become stuck.

Push, yes. But know when to push.