Are We Kidding Ourselves?
I have been privileged to have met many thought-provoking people while jaunting around the globe sharing “The Latent Cause Experience.” One of these people is Scott Renton, a Canadian who currently works for Ledcor Contractors in Fort McKay, Alberta. During one of our several discussions during the class, I suggested that he put his thoughts in writing. He sent me the following article.
After you read this, please share your thoughts right here on the blog by writing a sentence or two
1) summarizing what you think Scott is saying, and then
2) stating whether or not you agree with him.
Here's Scott's article. Thanks Scott!
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Growth. Human nature seems to thrive off of it. As long as we have existed we have been growing, developing, and expanding. Has there ever been a time where humanity has stayed still?
As humans, growth is what builds us to be the individuals that we ultimately become as adults. But it can be difficult to measure. In simplistic terms, it could be defined by results: how big, how strong, and how much. But what is often overlooked is the process in which results are achieved. After all, who really cares why something costs less?
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What matters is the savings.
With this pressure on us, how can we measure our growth as individuals? If we are only measured by worth that can be seen and compared, then we think this is all that matters. There is precious little room left for pondering ourselves -- who we are and why we are the way we are. We need to keep up, and “who cares how we do it so long as we can show results?” To slow down and invest in developing our thoughts, our feelings, and our social maturity takes time that we are taught to think we don’t have. After all,
What matters is ‘the savings.'
Examples of this can be found everywhere. Advertisements tell us that we are falling behind simply if our computer or television is out of date. Our neighbors and peers affirm this for us when celebrating our financial and material successes.
But has a person ever been praised for turning down a promotion because they felt they weren’t ready? If we couple this with the assumption that if we get promoted at work or elevate our social status in life it demonstrates a complete readiness for the new role, then what do we create? It could be easily argued that we create an immense pressure on ourselves to prove how far we have come and how much we have grown so that we can hold it up for the world to see far in advance of us getting there maturely as an individual.
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In other words, to admit that we are smaller, slower, less intelligent than the world that we have built for ourselves is terrifying, and the world is still growing. The more we are pressured to ‘keep up’, the stronger the urge will be to project an air of confidence in lieu of stopping and asking the right questions when we don’t understand.
Who among us is willing to stop, when we could be left behind as a result?
Who among us is willing to admit that we don’t understand, when we have projected for years that we had everything ‘under control?’ Another way of asking this, is:
Who among us is willing to trade who we appear to be for who we really are, when the cost could jeopardize our position in life?
In summary, it seems that we are creating an imbalance between our projected self and our own personal identities. We are willing to trade life experience for material profit, because so long as we believe that the only way to demonstrate our growth is by what we can hold up in front of us, our projected self will always be more important.
Scott Renton
