There are people who are completely confident that they understand
how to do something if they have a single movie of having done it.
I know one man who flew a plane once, so he was completely sure
that he could fly any plane, anywhere, anytime, in any weather,
while standing up in a hammock!
He came to a five-day seminar of mine, learned
one pattern and left at noon the first day, totally
confident that he knew all of NLP.
How's that for getting stuck?
Getting stuck in a particular way of understanding the world—
whatever it is—is the cause of three major human diseases
that I'd like to do something about.
The first one is seriousness as in "dead serious."
If you decide that you want to do something,
fine, but getting serious about it will only blind
you and get in your way.
Being right, or certain, is the second disease.
Certainty is where people stop thinking and
stop noticing. Any time you feel absolutely certain
of something, that's a sure sign that you have
missed something.
It's sometimes convenient to deliberately ignore
something for a while, but if you're absolutely certain,
you'll probably miss it forever.
It's easy for certainty to sneak up on you.
Even people who are uncertain are usually certain
about that, too.
Either they're sure they're sure, or they're sure they're unsure.
Rarely do you find someone who is uncertain about his doubt
or uncertain about his certainty. You can create that experience,
but you don't usually encounter it.
You can ask someone,
"Are you sure enough to be unsure?"
That's a stupid question, but he won't be
sure anymore after you ask it.
The third disease is importance,
and self-importance is the worst of all.
As soon as one thing is "important," then other
things aren't. Importance is a great way to justify
being mean and destructive, or doing anything else
that's unpleasant enough to need justification.
These three diseases are the way most people get stuck.
You may decide something is important,
but you can't get really serious about it until
you're certain that it's important.
At that point you stop thinking altogether.
The Ayatollah Khomeni is an excellent example—
but you can find lots of other examples closer to home.
Source: Park Skinny Chahee.
Confused?
You should be.
But i'm not sure...
how to do something if they have a single movie of having done it.
I know one man who flew a plane once, so he was completely sure
that he could fly any plane, anywhere, anytime, in any weather,
while standing up in a hammock!
He came to a five-day seminar of mine, learned
one pattern and left at noon the first day, totally
confident that he knew all of NLP.
How's that for getting stuck?
Getting stuck in a particular way of understanding the world—
whatever it is—is the cause of three major human diseases
that I'd like to do something about.
The first one is seriousness as in "dead serious."
If you decide that you want to do something,
fine, but getting serious about it will only blind
you and get in your way.
Being right, or certain, is the second disease.
Certainty is where people stop thinking and
stop noticing. Any time you feel absolutely certain
of something, that's a sure sign that you have
missed something.
It's sometimes convenient to deliberately ignore
something for a while, but if you're absolutely certain,
you'll probably miss it forever.
It's easy for certainty to sneak up on you.
Even people who are uncertain are usually certain
about that, too.
Either they're sure they're sure, or they're sure they're unsure.
Rarely do you find someone who is uncertain about his doubt
or uncertain about his certainty. You can create that experience,
but you don't usually encounter it.
You can ask someone,
"Are you sure enough to be unsure?"
That's a stupid question, but he won't be
sure anymore after you ask it.
The third disease is importance,
and self-importance is the worst of all.
As soon as one thing is "important," then other
things aren't. Importance is a great way to justify
being mean and destructive, or doing anything else
that's unpleasant enough to need justification.
These three diseases are the way most people get stuck.
You may decide something is important,
but you can't get really serious about it until
you're certain that it's important.
At that point you stop thinking altogether.
The Ayatollah Khomeni is an excellent example—
but you can find lots of other examples closer to home.
Source: Park Skinny Chahee.
Confused?
You should be.
But i'm not sure...