"That Awful Disease" (Self-Assessment, part 2)

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Here's one of the greatest magic tricks I've ever witnessed-.



Recently at the Oscars, Actor Matthew McConaughey presented the award for film editing, reminding us (in so many words) that movies are an illusion. We like to be fooled, to be entertained. Appropriately, The Academy thanked the people who go to to movies, keeping them in the business of making illusions. Why? Because we'll believe anything, as long as it makes us feel good.

Do you trust your eyes? We over-trust our eyes, which is why the illusion works. The simplest distraction, the smallest deception occurs and we go spiraling off on a tangent.

Do you trust your feelings? Are they accurate?

About mid-afternoon many folks start get grouchy. But why? Mars, Incorporated has figured it out. Folks aren't grouchy. They are "hangry" and Mars has connected the Snickers candy bar with that feeling to sell their product. Some folks just need a snack and they profit by connecting a message to a feeling that may actually be in accurate. The same is true when it comes to eating in general--we may not actually be hungry but thirsty and our bodies are willing to wring out every drop of water from wherever it will find it. There's a reason why food and drink is always served at meetings where decisions are made.

Can we trust our feelings? Perhaps no more than we trust our eyes. Our emotions may be in overload but are they right? Our perception may say one thing, but what does reality say? I learn this lesson every time I go to the gym--when I start my training I say, "I got this" until I reach the "what have I done to myself" stage because I thought one thing but the workout says another.

"Heraclitus called self-deception an awful disease and eyesight a lying sense." (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philsophers)

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)

Rather than tossing our hands up in despair over our condition, we need to train to be discerning of ourselves, learn to personally assess ourselves. Slow down and not rush to conclusions. 

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