Being A Reasonable Creature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJhJew5p9g8

If we were to be completely objective I think we could identify the majority of actions that are only to our own detriment. Procrastination on an important project, mindless web surfing, taking drugs, etc. When we’re able to remove ourselves from the situation and gain perspective we’re thinking with our objective self.

Unfortunately we don’t always think with our objective selves. Sometimes we get caught in the moment. We act on impulses rather than logic. Instead of seeing things as they are we see things as would be most convenient for us.

People often harp on the benefits of intelligence, but what they don’t realize is being intelligent also has a downside. If you’re of average intelligence you probably know when you’re screwing up. When you’re a genius you’re able to make all kinds of clever rationalizations for what you’re doing.

Earlier today I was beginning to rationalize reasons to indulge in a self-sabotaging habit. If you removed me from the situation and asked me to be completely objective I’d have told you that Cameron was about to indulge in self-sabotage. In the moment, however, I’d crafted a cunning argument justifying what I was about to do.

I was about to go off the rails when I remembered something I heard earlier today.

I was listening to his autobiography this morning and Benjamin Franklin had said,

“So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.”

Damn. I thought his statement was powerful the first time I heard it, but when it resonated in my head the second time I realized the true magnitude of it.

People are incredibly prone to rationalizing the behaviors most convenient for them regardless of how those behaviors will contribute to or inhibit their success. Being a logically driven person I found this idea shocking, but it led to an even more shocking conclusion.

Sometimes when you’re pursuing a goal being unreasonable is the only reasonable thing to do.

Meditate on that.

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