This will not be earth-shattering or groundbreaking. This will not be mind-altering. This will not cause you to change your life in the Thanos-like snap of a finger.

And that is okay…it has to be okay.

Master the art of telling people what they already know, but are afraid to act on.

Though it may cause you to think. To contemplate. It may cause you to question yourself, your actions, and your path forward. The question is almost as important as the answer. It seems that people have mastered the art of telling people what they already know, so…here I am.

Do it out of fear. Fear that you’ll fail. Fear that you’ll never be as good as the person you thought you’d be. Do it because you think they think that you can’t. Do it because you may never get the chance to. Do it because you’re in an uncomfortable situation at work. Do it because you’re tired of the mundane.

Idea. Question. Answer. Action.

Reading back the above proclamations, I can’t help but to think of marketing schemes that make people feel superhuman – No Fear – Just Do It. At what point does the idea become more important than the action? At what point do we realize fear might just be the driving factor behind human, or even emotional, evolution.

As I’m exploring the book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson, I’ve come to contemplate the cognitive dissonance created by books like this or The Secret by Shonda Byrne.  While Shonda focused the Law of Attraction, Mark decided to dig into the Law of Reversed Effort or The Backwards Law or The art of giving no f*cks (only funny because it’s referenced in the book several times). This law states that the harder we try, the less we shall succeed. Let us unpack this. Often discussed by the likes of Aldous Huxley and Alan Watts, this phenomenon occurs when will, conscious will, is applied to achieve a goal or results. The thought is, the more we apply this conscious thought in order to gain an increase in results, we run into diminished returns for our effort. Maximum effort doesn’t always equate maximum results. This law says that it actually achieves the opposite.

Aldous Huxley once said, “The harder we try with the conscious will to do something, the less we shall succeed. Proficiency and the results of proficiency come only to those who have learned the paradoxical art of doing and not doing, or combining relaxation with activity, of letting go as a person in order that the immanent and transcendent unknown quantity may take hold. We cannot make ourselves understand; the most we can do is to foster a state of mind, in which understanding may come to us.”

While Alan Watts said, “Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone”. 

Brain wrapped around that? Okay, good. Mark actively takes this law, as aloof of a prophecy as it is, and presents it to the world as if it is

The 5 values Mark encourages you to have:

• Choosing to be responsible for whatever happens in your life, even if it’s not your fault (you can choose how you respond to things.)
• You are always wrong, and growth comes from being a little less wrong each day.
• Embrace failure because success is based on how many times you’ve failed at something. You only learn when you fail.
• Say NO; commit to something (an activity, person, place etc.). To truly appreciate something, you must commit yourself to it.
• Remind yourself that death is imminent and you must work towards something bigger than yourself — your legacy, your imprint on this world.

People need to hear this. And he is here to remind you of that. Maybe there is something to these self-help books after all.

Seth Godin dares to ask the question of if we have to have hubris to dream and thus change the status quo. Quite possibly, as we often hear of true success and change coming after rock bottom moments or life’s push to not know how strong we are until there’s no other choice.

I ask, if we must have hubris, then how can we utilize free will to ‘survive and thrive’, as some corny people (you can include me there) put it. We know the story of Icarus and Daedalus. We know the part about ambition, fear, and flying too high – wings melt – Icarus drowns, etc. However, what they often forget to illustrate and focus on is the part where Icarus is warned that if he flies too low the water and mist will weigh him down and he’ll drown anyhow. In today’s world…the work environment, in the lemur-like world of social media (off cliff, rinse-repeat), in life – Are we seduced into thinking that we should fit in more? Does social media make this worse? How can we step off the treadmill, or the hamster wheel? Better yet, how can we break the treadmill, or the hamster wheel? Do we need to hit the bottom before we decide to smash it to pieces?

So, I say all of this to ask of you. What is triggered, in your life, by fear? Fear of death. Fear of failure. Fear of success. Fear of winning. Fear of being better. Fear of not being good enough. Do nature’s laws of Fight or flight apply here? We would do well to remember that the reverse law shows itself here as well – “The harder we make it go away, the more powerful it comes back.”

Whatever you decide to do. Do it with fear.

Daymyen Tyler Layne

Sometime in 2018. 4th Quarter.