The Road Less Travelled
http://www.careerfeed.net/articles/11419/1/The-Road-Less-Travelled/Page1.html
John Berling Hardy
John Berling Hardy is a sought after business consultant, author, speaker and originator of "The Hidden Game"; a strategic plan to increase the success of your personal and professional life. To learn more about John and to download his free ebooks, visit http://www.johnberlinghardy.com By John Berling Hardy
Published on 01/19/2010
When confronted with a world in which the ruling ethos is 'catch as catch can', looking out for number one would appear to be the logical survival strategy. The problem comes when you ask yourself: where will this lead me? For if you subscribe to the zero-sum game metaphor created by the Hidden Games of life you reduce life itself down to one of two possible outcomes - winning or losing.
When confronted with a world in which the ruling ethos is 'catch as catch can', looking out for number one would appear to be the logical survival strategy. The problem comes when you ask yourself: where will this lead me? For if you subscribe to the zero-sum game metaphor created by the Hidden Games of life you reduce life itself down to one of two possible outcomes - winning or losing. Losing is not an option, so everything you do is now channelled towards winning. In your thoughts, in your choice of friends, in your beliefs, winning becomes the filter that decides what you keep, and what you discard. It is not so much that you have to win; you have to look like a winner.
Since society, through the media, is provided with a narrow set of templates regarding what a winner is supposed to look like, act like, think like -we make every effort to sublimate our innate tendencies, and idiosyncrasies and become as close to the ideal template as we can get. The only way this is sustainable over the long term is if we can hypnotize ourselves into believing that this is who we truly are.
Some of us try to deceive ourselves into believing that we can play a kind of double game. One in which on the outside we give every indication to those around us that we conform to the template, while on the inside, we remain true to who we really are. What we forget is, that like it or not, we are integrated beings, rather than a collection of subroutines (as adherents of NLP would have us believe). The boundary between this inner and outer self is extremely porous - we cannot play a part for our whole lives and not have it impact us in some way. Over time, if the actor plays a character long enough, he cannot help but become the character.
From another perspective, having 'sight in the valley of the blind' will drive you mad in the long run. It only isolates you and creates a tension between your outer and inner world. Over time as this tension grows, one side or the other must give way. Either you leave the Game and pursue your passion, or you become the 'mask' you have been wearing.
The path you ultimately follow is not so much a matter of choice but of character. The overwhelming majority will naturally follow the path of least resistance (or that which appears to be so). A small minority will then follow the road less traveled. This will be a hard road indeed!
The Game that engulfs society is a kind of trance. Any trance only work so long as all are complicit. Those who will not play, the moment they declare themselves as such, become an immediate threat to those who wish to maintain the illusion. Therefore, those who still remain under the spell will have a driving need to marginalize these mavericks, to discredit them in any way they can. For if there is even a speck of truth in what these outliers suggest, than their world is exposed to be nothing more than a huge sham. What group, what family, what religious sect, or what organization, could ever tolerate that?
Since society, through the media, is provided with a narrow set of templates regarding what a winner is supposed to look like, act like, think like -we make every effort to sublimate our innate tendencies, and idiosyncrasies and become as close to the ideal template as we can get. The only way this is sustainable over the long term is if we can hypnotize ourselves into believing that this is who we truly are.
Some of us try to deceive ourselves into believing that we can play a kind of double game. One in which on the outside we give every indication to those around us that we conform to the template, while on the inside, we remain true to who we really are. What we forget is, that like it or not, we are integrated beings, rather than a collection of subroutines (as adherents of NLP would have us believe). The boundary between this inner and outer self is extremely porous - we cannot play a part for our whole lives and not have it impact us in some way. Over time, if the actor plays a character long enough, he cannot help but become the character.
From another perspective, having 'sight in the valley of the blind' will drive you mad in the long run. It only isolates you and creates a tension between your outer and inner world. Over time as this tension grows, one side or the other must give way. Either you leave the Game and pursue your passion, or you become the 'mask' you have been wearing.
The path you ultimately follow is not so much a matter of choice but of character. The overwhelming majority will naturally follow the path of least resistance (or that which appears to be so). A small minority will then follow the road less traveled. This will be a hard road indeed!
The Game that engulfs society is a kind of trance. Any trance only work so long as all are complicit. Those who will not play, the moment they declare themselves as such, become an immediate threat to those who wish to maintain the illusion. Therefore, those who still remain under the spell will have a driving need to marginalize these mavericks, to discredit them in any way they can. For if there is even a speck of truth in what these outliers suggest, than their world is exposed to be nothing more than a huge sham. What group, what family, what religious sect, or what organization, could ever tolerate that?