Beware The Bedazzled Chainsaw

Level 4: Serious Player

Your job today is to cut down a tree.

You need to cut down this tree quickly, and efficiently, for there are a LOT more trees to cut down. And the more trees you cut down, the more efficiently you cut them down, the more you will make and the better off you will be.

You go out to the forest.

And you've been handed a chainsaw.

It's a VERY nice chainsaw.

You examine the chainsaw. While it looks pristine, it also feels like it's just going to work in your hands. You can tell, looking at it, that this chainsaw is going to cut through that tree like butter.

You’ve seen this chainsaw cut down a lot of other trees in other people’s hands.

You’re ready to do it for yourself.

You can see all the other trees around you as well.

You count them.

1, 2, 12, 30 ... you imagine there are probably hundreds.

Just waiting.

Waiting for you to rip that chainsaw alive and slice through them all like butter.

You're practically salivating when you get started.

BZZZZTTTTT

CRACK BOOMMMMMM

One tree down.

It went like nothing. This is really working. Your chainsaw is amazing. You're gonna win everything.

You cut another.

And another.

And another.

Left and right the entire forest is falling before your eyes.

"HEY!!!!"

The shout cuts through the buzzing, and you realize you've been hearing it for awhile.

You shut off the chainsaw,

It's quiet now as you turn around, except for the stomping of feet and huffing and puffing.

"HEY!!!!!!"

The man running up to you shouts.

You put down the chainsaw, and he stops before you catching his breath.

"WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?????"

He finally shouts at you.

"Uh ... cutting down trees, what does it look like?"

He looks dumbfounded. "This is MY forest, what in the world are you thinking???"

You look around.

You realize, you don't know this place.

This isn't the forest you're supposed to be cutting down.

What happened?

Learning and The Guru Problem

Here's the dynamic I believe sets us up for exploitation and failure.

We WANT something.

We want a sexier body, we want more money, we want more freedom, we want more happiness. We want to be able to lift more weight, to make more sales with paid advertising, to get clients with less stress and headache.

At some point, we realize we need to learn something new to get that something.

Most commonly, we find someone who looks like they know what we want to know and is offering to teach us what we want to know.

Our modern age of connectedness and information makes this very easy.

You'd think with all the information available to us, all the ways we are connected, it would be easier to find someone who truthfully can help you. But along with our ability to find things, has also grown our ability to present ourselves as experts.

The tools available make it very easy to look like you know more than someone else.

And we're highly susceptible to believe that someone who knows more than us, is smarter than us, and more capable than us, and therefore someone we should learn from.

Even someone who simply convincingly demonstrates that they have accomplished what we wish to accomplish will get our attention and our belief.

And why not.

They've done the thing we want to do better, easier, and faster than anyone else.

All we have to do to be like them, is do what they tell us. Take their chainsaw. Cut down their trees.

Only, most of the time, they aren't teaching us what we think they are teaching us.

The "I did this you can too" Problem

Here's a barebones framework of how the exploitation happens.

"I've gotten this outcome you desire."

"Here's how I got the outcome you desire."

"I can teach you how to do the same thing, to get the outcome you desire."

The thing about this is, often times there's no malice behind this. In the situations where the teacher has positive intent, I've seen two common dynamics.

Randomness

They don't realize that the reason the thing worked for them came down to uncontrollable factors. Often it's luck.

Usually it's not straight luck. It's a combination of their unique position, resources, time, and randomness which happened to create a uniquely effective outcome.

But the key is,

It's an outcome that is not reliably repeatable with anyone else. This is one of the reasons gurus who sell courses end up with only 1-2% of people being successful with them. It's not that the course is bad, or the information is bad (though it might be), but in this dynamic it can easily come down to the factor of luck.

If luck is what made the initial outcome possible, then you're only going to have a very tiny percentage of people repeat the same result.

Difficulty in Transferring Understanding

There are people out there who have been successful with a skill, and who understand the fundamentals of what make that skill possible.

They teach on those fundamentals in a way that anyone who applies them can indeed get the same outcome.

There are two problems or perhaps difficulties with this dynamic.

One is that it's very hard to teach effectively and build curriculum which communicate well and efficiently the understanding necessary for anyone with the right disposition to take the information and successfully apply it.

and Two,

It requires the person taking the information to apply it.

In the case where the information/course/guru/teacher is giving excellent information and guidance, but the person taking that in is not applying it, not much can be done.

It comes down to YOU.

And your forest.

Because even if the information can be applied to each persons unique situation ... HOW that information is applied is different.

And it depends on you.

(You can replace guru/course/teacher with university up there, if you wish, it's all the same, just different structures of information and learning)

The malice you can't see

Of course, sometimes there is malice. Sometimes there are Charlatans out there who know they are exploiting people's desire and interest for change. Who know that the forest and the trees and the chainsaw are all not right for you.

The problem is you can't tell.

You can't tell if it's malice exploiting you for their benefit.

You can't tell if it's ignorance presenting an opportunity that only a random few will benefit from.

But

If you apply the process of learning for yourself well,

You CAN tell if it's right for you.

Learning comes from within, not without

There's a reason our process for learning looks like this:

1. Consume

2. Reflect

3. Engage

4. Reflect

5. Repeat

At every step of the way, our uniqueness, our interest, our ideas, our experiences, our disposition, our understanding, deeply impacts what we get out of the process.

The Charlatan says "this is the forest you need to be in," and "this is the tool you must use to cut down the trees," without knowing who the hell you even are.

Without knowing, or caring, what forest is yours, or how best you chop down trees.

They are focused on cutting down trees as quickly and efficiently as possible, and they know humans are highly susceptible to that perspective.

We want the shiniest tool.

We really want the Bedazzled Chainsaw because we think that's what we're missing in order to cut down trees faster and more efficiently.

And they really want you to focus on that chainsaw more than anything else.

But it doesn't matter how quickly you cut down the trees if they are the wrong damn trees.

Better off being in your own forest, with the correct trees, and your bare hands.

That's the process of learning.

It's being in your OWN forest,

With your trees,

And your own damn bare hands trying to figure it all out.

The Mirror

Remember that we are all mirrors, but that it takes you knowing yourself, what you want, and being present in order to look at someone else and see which part is mirror and which part is window.

When you know yourself, you'll be able to see others for who they truly are, and what they truly present.

We've written about The Mirror before:

Mirror, Mirror, on The … Person?

On the subject of Bedazzled Chainsaws, it's all the more relevant.

When we are not able to know ourselves, or see ourselves, or see the mirror, when we look at someone else (a Charlatan), who promises the outcome we desire, the life we desire, the image of ourselves we desire ...

The most likely outcome is that we end up trying to be someone we are not.

We go into someone else's forest, with someone else's trees, blinded by the fancy tool in our hands and our inability to know that we are not in the right place.

We mimic them. We pick up their fancy chainsaw and we think “I’m doing it!”

But it’s not you.

It’s them.

The only way through this, is through yourself.

You MUST apply to reality.

You have to Engage the Field with the present mind to understand that what you are getting from that process is unique to who you are and what you want in life.

Engage The Field

You have to put in the effort to chip away all that you are not in order to discover your true self who is already there.

We talk about stepping into The Arena not because you're going to do battle with someone else or a beast.

The Arena is YOU.

It's you you must battle with.

The Arena

We didn't make The Arena to tell you what you should do.

We made The Arena so that you could have a space to go through the process of Engaging the Field, to chip away all that you are not, to discover what is truly right for you and the things you desire to have and be in life.

Stepping Into The Arena [Invite]

To have that in a space where you are supported and guided through the process of learning from within.

You won't be handed a chainsaw.

You won't be pointed to a forest.

But if you come to The Arena and say, hey I thought this chainsaw would help, I cut down a tree, and this happened - we can help you make sense of that, for yourself.

When you’re ready to step into The Arena, join the waitlist here.