« Wearing Rose Colored Glasses | Main | 7 Key Trends in Rewards & Recognition »

04/24/2012

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Good article Jim. Indeed, helping someone uncover their potential is very rewarding.

Jim,

You raise a fascinating point in your opening sentence.

I too have never met anyone who succeeded solely through belief; but I have met many many people who believe that they are the exception, that if they just believe hard enough, they WILL succeed.

Let's leave aside the Hollywood stars who gush at the awards ceremony, "Never give up on your dreams, you can make it too!" Perhaps they just neglected to add the part about hard work.

There are plenty of people who believe that THEY are the EXCEPTION, that if they just ENVISION good stuff, it will happen. These people spend zillions on The Secret. They believe they can will parking places to materialize for them JUST BY BELIEVING. They think if the envision success hard enough, it will come to them. They think if they focus their attention hard enough, they'll win the lottery--worse, if they didn't win the lottery, they are willing to chalk it up to their failure to believe hard enough.

I suspect you know a few of these people too, Jim. The Peter Pan magic belief has made huge inroads in the self-help industry, churning out tons of books, tapes, affirmations, infomercials and quasi-churches.

Beyond the obvious truth that your attitude affects how others react to you, it amounts to a simple belief in magic.

I realize this is not the core part of your excellent blogpost, which is more about helping others see their own strengths. That's great advice. But I think this tangential issue is also a biggie. If you're stuck on believing that your problem is belief, you've got a reality adjustment problem.

Thanks, Jacque; it's nice having an intrinsic incentive with our work.

Charles: Actually, you HAVE identified my main core point that stimulated the article. I intended it as a wake-up call, to "get real." Maybe it will inspire a few folks to become active and take control of their lives rather than remain optimistically but passively hopeful of outside intervention. There was a depreciating phrase ("deus ex machina") used to describe a play so poorly written that it required a god descending from heaven (lowered in a basket from above stage) in the final scene to reconcile the story's loose ends. It's no way to end a drama nor the right way to live a life.

The comments to this entry are closed.