This has been coming up for me over the past few weeks and I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.
It was coming up through my business, my mentor was telling me to stop reacting on the spot. In my home life, I was rapidly burning out of steam trying to get through an endless administration to do list finished. Being online, responding to every single What’s App message and email as it came in. I was making payments as soon as a bill came in.
After reading a chapter in Robert Greene’s ‘The Laws of Human Nature’, I figured something out.
In the book, Green says that as humans, we sway towards the ‘reactive’ mode. We tend to live in the moment – the animal part of our nature.
The latest news report scrolling on TV screen at the airport, the next email notification or the conversation you had with another mum in the school playground. Maybe even a health result.
What’s more, we are SURROUNDED by others and an ENTIRE industry set up to profit from your continuous reaction – think social media scrolling or advertisements - with the prospect of easy gains and instant gratification.
We respond first and foremost to what we see and hear in the moment.
For me this often make me overreact to whatever is coming into my present senses – becoming over exhilarated or panicky, as events turn one direction or the other.
But as humans, our reality encompasses the past – every event is connected to something that happened before in an endless chain. Any present problem has deep roots in the past. And it also encompasses the future. Whatever we do has consequences that stretch far into the years to come.
When we limit our thinking to what our sense provide (to what is immediate) we descend to pure animal.
Our reasoning is neutralized.
We are no longer aware of how things come about.
We react to what is given in the moment, based on just a small piece of the puzzle.
The antidote?
To train ourselves to:
1. Detach from the immediate rush of events and;
2. Elevate our perspective by stepping back and looking at the wider context.
3. Widen your relationship with time as much as possible, and slow it down. An expanded relationship to time will have a definite effect on you making your calmer, more realistic and more in tune with things that matter.
4. Enjoy the present and passing pleasures. But derive even more pleasure from reaching your long term goals and overcoming adversity.
With an elevated perspective, you will have the patience and clarity to reach almost any objective.
[Often this can mean delaying or waiting to see how things are evolving].
Such sanity and balance do not come naturally.
They are powers we acquire through great effort, and they represent the height of human wisdom.
History is scattered with such individuals who used longer term perspectives to inspire and to guide: -
- Socrates of ancient Greece, who taught us how to be less foolish and more consequential in our thinking;
- Joseph in the Old Testament who could see into the hearts of men and foresee the future;
- Zhuge Liang of ancient China, who could predict every movement of the enemy;
- Abraham Lincoln, renowned for the success of long term strategizing;
- Charles Darwin, who patiently exposed the effects of deep time on the evolution of all living things;
- Warren Buffet, the most successful investor in history, whose power is based on his farsighted perspective.
It will make you a superior strategist in life, able to resist people’s inevitable overreactions to what is happening in the present and to see further into the future, a potential power that we humans have only begun to tap into.
How do I find these moments?
Through walking out in nature or being surrounded by other people who are reaching for long-term perspectives too (like on a mastermind or in a group situation). Being around others that are reaching for that wisdom, inspires and calms you to do the same.
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