ARCHIVE – Page 6 – Promise Tewogbola

Three Big Ideas: On Inversion, Overconfidence, and Observing Patterns

Big Idea #1 From Me

Carl Jacobi was a 19th-century German mathematician that made a lot of profound contributions to the field of differential equations.

One thing that made this possible was Jacobi’s problem-solving approach.

He believed that when you invert already known facts in a particular discipline, you can reveal additional knowledge that was hitherto unknown.

That’s why, as a professor, Jacobi always encouraged the graduate students under him to always invert the known confines of the field and examine what they found there.

When this method is applied to everyday living, you’re equipped with an unrivaled clarity of thought.

For instance, instead of asking yourself, What do I need to do to make money?, you can ask, What do I need to do to lose money? Chances are doing this will open your eyes to areas of your life where you’re not being a good steward of money.

Instead of asking, What do I need to do to stay productive?, ask, What do I need to do to waste my day? Again, this exercise will help you identify the simple tweaks you can make to your day to boost your productivity.

Many times, humans are unidirectional in their thinking.

We like to think in a particular way because contrarian thinking takes effort.

As a result, we imagine that the elusive secret to success can be attained only by accumulating more knowledge and wealth.

Through inversion, you’d realize that most times, less is more.

Big Idea #2 From research

In a journal article titled, Overconfidence in Case-Study Judgements, Stuart Oskamp asked a group of doctors and students to provide correct answers to a series of questions about a real person nicknamed ‘Joseph Kidd’.

The information about Joseph Kidd was presented in 4 stages, with questions asked after each stage. In addition to providing correct answers, participants were also required to answer how confident they were about their answers.

Stage 1 contained brief demographic information about Kidd like age, gender and so on.

Stage 2 had information about Kidd’s childhood.

Stage 3 contained information about Kidd’s education.

Stage 4 had information on other activities that Kidd was involved in till he clocked 29 years.

In all, the participants were asked 25 questions about Kidd.

On average, no one (even the doctors) got up to 30% of the questions right.

Yet, in spite of the poor accuracy of their answers, the more information a participant had about Joseph Kidd, the more confident they were in their answers. And there was no difference between the doctors and the students!

My key takeaway is something I’ve nearly flogged to death.

More information doesn’t necessarily translate into better decision-making.

That’s why I’ve stressed countless times that you don’t need to know everything. You only need a revealed knowledge of what works and the wisdom to work it out.

Big Idea #3 From the Bible

1 Chronicles 28:12a, 19 says: “And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit…All this, said David, the LORD made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern”

One thing I established in my book “Mastering the Art of Observation” is the fact that the unseen realm is the causal realm.

The blueprint for life in the physical realm is found in the unseen.

Even Genesis 1:1 attests to that.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The action word “created” is in the past tense form, implying that everything was already finished in the beginning.

When you have an understanding of this, like David, you can simply align with patterns in the unseen realm and crystallize their physical analogs in the seen realm – irrespective of the uncertainties in the world system.

If there’s any prayer you should heartily pray this season, it’s this:

Father, open the eyes of my understanding to see the patterns for my life, destiny, and situation.

May the Lord give you understanding in these things.

Three Big Ideas: On Keystone Predators, the Lindy Effect, and, Intelligence Officers

Big Idea #1 from me

In 1995, the administration of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA released grey wolves into the park.

In less than 6 years after the introduction of the wolves, regions of the park that had been barren was now crowded with trees.

Even more remarkable, due to the presence of trees, there was less soil erosion and new pools began to form in the park, where there had been none before.

All because of the addition of wolves into the park!

Ecologists call this type of animals keystone predators.

In the absence of wolves, the balance in the ecosystem was distorted.

Because grazing animals were left unchecked by their predators, the grey wolf, their population in the park exploded.

In no time, unhindered overgrazing left vast portions of the land barren.

In a similar example, there’s evidence that thousands of years ago, North Africa and the Middle East used to be lush with green vegetation – yes, even the Sahara and Arabian deserts!

But, do you know what else was present at the time?

Lions! A keystone predator that brought balance into that ecosystem

The extinction of lions in that region correlated with dramatic climatic changes that led to the hot, arid Arabia and North Africa we know today.

My point?

You are a creative partner with God in the institution of order in the midst of chaos.

You were placed on earth for a reason and when you don’t play your role, you cause an imbalance in the ‘ecosystem’.

There are destinies attached to you.

There are other people’s stories that will not happen until you step up and fill your gap.

You are the answer to somebody’s prayer.

Awake from your slumber. Put on your strength. Put on your beautiful garments.

Arise and shine!

Big Idea #2 from Research

In a paper titled, “Implications of the Copernican principle for our future prospects“, astrophysicist J. Richard Gott III describes how in 1969, he visited the Stonehenge (which was estimated to be over 3000 years old) and the Berlin Wall (8 years at the time).

Gott then wondered which of the two structures will outlast the other.

As you probably know, the Berlin Wall was destroyed in 1991, while Stonehenge continues to exist to this day.

Gott then mathematically proposed an argument that the longer a thing exists, the more likely it will continue to exist.

This has been popularly called the Lindy Effect.

My takeaway is simple: More often than not, older is better.

Books that were written hundreds of years ago but are still in print today contain more wisdom and practical knowledge than books written in the past 10 – 20 years. And because of their current longevity, these classics will also continue to remain relevant for the next 1000 years.

The same pattern repeats itself in medicine.

Herbs were used by our forefathers to cure ailments and they still remain relevant today. On the other hand, numerous ‘modern’ drugs have been replaced. For instance, as a young child, I remember using chloroquine pills to treat malaria. Artemisinin and other drugs have long since taken the place of chloroquine as the go-to cure for malaria.

This point is instructive: While everybody is shouting about futurism and cutting edge technology, you will be better served to at least keep one hand on systems and structures that the Lindy Effect has vetted.

Big Idea #3 from the Bible

Proverbs 2:6 says, “For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.”

Many people mistakenly interpret knowledge as information.

As a result, they strive to consume as much information as they can. Usually, this leads to information constipation, where the individual is whipped into a state of action paralysis.

One of the Hebrew words translated “knowledge” is “madda”, which literally means “intelligence”.

Staff members of the CIA and FBI are usually called intelligence officers.

This isn’t because they are encyclopedias of knowledge, but rather because they have a specific, privileged awareness of the variables of a specific situation.

In the same vein, the men of Issachar were called men of understanding because they had privileged, revealed knowledge of what Israel had to do per season.

Understand this: Life is complicated as it is. There’s information everywhere – plenty of noise, little signal.

You really don’t need to know everything there is to know!

You only need to have the revealed knowledge of what works and the wisdom to work it out.

May the Lord give you Understanding in these things.

Developing an Understanding of the Times: The Curious Case of General Sani Abacha

Disclaimer: I’m not advocating for coups, dictatorships, or human rights violations. Ensure you adequately understand the example before drawing your conclusions.

In 2019, I took an online course where the instructor made an interesting argument.

He said when you really detest someone, that person usually has some other traits that would bring you phenomenal success if you applied them to your life.

In recent Nigerian history, there’s no one that has gotten as much hate as General Sani Abacha, the military head of state who ruled Nigeria with an iron fist from 1993 – 1998.

I’m old enough to remember the celebrations of the masses when news of Abacha’s death filtered out to the street in 1998.

Over two decades later, Abacha’s name continues to stink to high heavens, even as the millions of dollars he embezzled from the country’s coffers continue to be restored.

Yet, for all his failings as a leader, Abacha understood something that so many people fail to grasp at an elementary level.

He had an understanding of the times

Between 1960 and 1993, there were 9 coups in Nigeria, with 6 resulting in the toppling of the incumbent government.

Out of the 6 successful coups, Abacha was involved in the planning and execution of 5 of them.

In fact, it can be said that the only coups that failed were the ones Abacha didn’t help plan.

Was this a consequence of Abacha’s wisdom as a master strategist?

No. I believe it had more to do with his intuitive understanding of the times.

The Bible says, “The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of the light”

Possessing an understanding of the times is a key distinction between the wise and the fools. Unfortunately, a lot of good people have good intentions but lack this intuitive understanding that Abacha possessed.

So, how can you develop an intuitive understanding of the times?

Apart from your personal walk with God, which I believe is the most important criterion for developing an understanding of the times, here are 3 points from Abacha’s career that you can apply to your life for positive outcomes.

1. Learn to keep your emotions in check

Right now, there’s a lot of hype fueled by the current COVID-19 pandemic.

On one hand, you have the news media throwing out the daily number of deaths from Coronavirus.

On the other hand, you have experts and life coaches motivating you to take advantage of the global lockdown to learn new skills.

The problem with the two scenarios is that they force you to take reactive actions in fear.

Because of your constant consumption of the news, you are forced to live in a realm where fear and anxiety becomes your daily reality.

Because of the constant noise from the self-proclaimed gurus and life coaches, you find yourself reacting in “sheep mentality”, learning for its sake, when you could really benefit from keeping your eyes and ears open to the times.

In an interview, Ibrahim Babangida, former Nigerian military president was asked whether he could have predicted that Abacha would have ever become military head of state.

After dribbling around the question in his usual “Maradona” manner, Babangida admitted that he didn’t see it coming.

Why?

In all the times they had been together, the only side of Abacha that Babangida saw was the loyal soldier.

Abacha mastered his emotions.

He never, at any point, allowed his emotions to betray his ultimate ambitions or the slightest indication of interest in the country’s highest office.

You can never go wrong when you make equanimity your friend.

2. Be patient

In a world of fast cars, fast food and fast internet, everyone seems to forget the power of patience.

When you are patient, life-changing opportunities will eventually come your way.

When you’re patient, your faculties of perception are sharpened and you are more likely to position yourself to be a beneficiary of the times.

That’s why there’s a lot of wisdom in the Preacher’s words when he said, “The race is not to the swift…nor the battle to the strong…nor favor to the man of skill; but time and chance happen to them all”

Buka Suka Dimka and Sani Abacha were both conspirators in the July 1966 coup.

Both men were ambitious and thirsty for power.

Yet, it was Abacha who was seated in Aso Rock by 1996.

At that point, Dimka had been dead for 20 years after he had hastily hashed out a coup that ultimately proved abortive.

Abacha’s patience allowed him to read the times clearly. And as a result, chance seemed to partner with him at every decisive stage of his career.

3. Know when to be decisive

Some people appear to be models of patience, but deep down within their hearts, they are afraid of taking action.

After a season of waiting, there’s always a window of opportunity that time and chance will bring your way.

When such an opportunity arises, you need to be decisive.

After Babangida annulled the June 12, 1993 elections in Nigeria and installed a clueless interim government, I can imagine Abacha rubbing his hands in glee, hardly believing his luck.

It was like everything in his life had been leading up to that point.

Because of his understanding of the times, Abacha staged a bloodless coup that saw him installed as the Nigerian military head of state for the next 5 years.

Now, imagine if Abacha had chosen to be more patient.

That window of opportunity would have been closed and Nigeria may have been in a much better place today.

Stories like this will continue to play out in history, especially when evil men possess an intuitive understanding of the times.

May the Lord give you Understanding in these things.

Three Big Ideas: On Kingdom Economics, Risk Assessment, and, Being Interpreters

Big Idea #1 From me

If you’ve noticed, I’ve not written anything explicitly about the COVID-19 pandemic.

This doesn’t mean I’m trivializing the whole situation.

As a man of science, I’ve been taking necessary precautions to reduce the probability of being infected.

But as a man of science with a Christian worldview, here’s my two cents about the currently unfolding events:

1. God is a good God and He always has an agenda.

This means two things: (a) God did not cause the Coronavirus to happen. He’s not using the virus to punish the sins of humanity. Coronavirus is happening because we live in a fallen world. It’s the same thing that plays out when droughts, famine, fires, etc. happen. (b) Coronavirus did not catch God unawares. It’s not like God was planning something and then the virus came from nowhere to ruin his plans. No, God always has His Ultimate agenda and His agenda will always come to fruition.

2. God’s agenda and systems for executing His plans are robust.

This also means two things: (a) In times of certainty, there are absolutely zero downsides to being sensitive to His agenda, and, (b) In times of uncertainty (like this season), aligning with God’s system is the surest foundation upon which you can build your life. That’s the way the economics of God’s Kingdom works, as opposed to the world system which crashes as the slightest hint of unpredictability.

Big Idea #2 From Research

In the journal paper titled, “Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Communication”, Paul Slovic and his colleagues asked some mental health experts to determine whether it was safe to discharge a psychiatric patient, Mr. Jones, who had a history of violence.

The mental health experts were divided into two groups.

To experts in group 1, they were told that people similar to Mr. Jones had a 10% chance of being violent again after being discharged.

On the other hand, those in group 2 were told that out of every 100 patients similar to Mr. Jones, 10 were likely to be violent after being discharged.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

At the end of the experiment, experts who received information in the form of numbers (Group 2) were two times more likely than experts who received the same information in the form of percentages (Group 1) to deny the discharge.

Simply put, because of the way the information was presented to them, experts in Group 2 were twice as likely as experts in Group 1 to see Mr. Jones as a threat to society.

My key takeaway is that the motives of the information-bearer largely determines the manner in which information will be presented to you.

There’s an indication that if people want to play up the significance of a particular statistic, they are more likely to present it to you as raw numbers.

For instance, telling people “1 out of 1000 people who eat XYZ will get cancer” tends to be taken more seriously than saying “0.1% of people who eat XYZ will get cancer”.

Be wise in your information consumption during this period.

Big Idea #3 From the Bible

2 Chronicles 26:5 says, “And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper”

The distinguishing factor in Zechariah’s life was his understanding in the visions of God.

This doesn’t merely mean that Zechariah could see visions and dream up dreams.

It’s deeper than that.

It means Zechariah was in tune with God’s agenda per time and was able to interpret this agenda to king Uzziah, who is turn took appropriate actions and ended up prosperous.

In times of uncertainty, the world is always searching for interpreters who can make sense of the times and seasons.

Understand: Trends will pass, fads will wither, but those who can interpret God’s agenda will remain irreplaceable.

May the LORD give you understanding in these things

The Law of Exuberance: Abundant Potential is Always Bubbling Within You!

The first of the 7 indisputable laws of Potential Crystallization is what I call the Law of Exuberance.

The Law of Exuberance states, ‘There is an abundance of lively potentials and possibilities bubbling within and around you.’

In the world of computer programming, the concept of open-source software intrigues me every time.

Here’s how it works:

From time to time, brilliant programmers spend countless hours perfecting a software that is designed to solve a problem.

According to the laws of demand and supply, money flows wherever solutions to problems are. Therefore, it follows logic that whenever there’s a software that can solve a specific problem, the creators should charge people money for the benefit of using the said software to solve their problems. And that is what normally plays out in the normal marketplace.

But it’s at this juncture that the concept of open-source software makes an unexpected detour.

Rather than ask the users to pay money as the software is utilized, these programmers do the exact opposite – they share the program’s source code, blueprints, and documentation freely with anybody that is interested in it. That’s tantamount to spending years of research creating a drug that can cure cancer, only to show everybody how to create it themselves in 10 minutes!

Indeed, this kind of unhindered giving is only possible with a perfect understanding of the Law of Exuberance.

When the creators of these open-source software develop them, their dominant paradigm is not the fear that someone will steal their idea and profit from it.

Rather, on the contrary, their dominant paradigm is two-fold: First, they know that that there is an abundance of good ideas bubbling within and around them, from which they can always go back to draw from; secondly, they know that their software is not in the most perfect form yet, and that it takes input from others to bring the program to its full capabilities.

The immediate goal of these folks is not to make as much money as possible, but rather, to play their role as solution providers!

Perhaps, it is no wonder that these open-source programmers either go on to establish great IT companies, or more likely, get snapped up by multi-million-dollar companies who provide the money, the platform and the resources to keep on producing programs and software that attempt to solve even more ambitious problems.

The truth is that the vast majority of us were raised with a scarcity mentality.

We were taught that there is never going to be enough resources for everybody.

We were taught that there was only one way to win – finding a way to ensure that every other person lost.

We were taught to act as animals in the jungle – totally lacking in understanding and reacting solely on impulse.

We forget Proverbs 11:24 which says, ‘There is one who scatters yet increases more; And there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty’

The more you give, the more likely you are to receive.

The less you flow into others, the more likely you are to stink with stagnation!

Unfortunately, living from a paradigm of scarcity is like having logs of wood in place of eyes. You will be rendered totally oblivious to the abundance that is already around and within you.

If you want to crystallize your potentials without any tears, your default belief system must be one of abundance.

Your outlook towards life must be abundance.

You need to deliberately acknowledge abundance in everything you do.

You need to deliberately acknowledge abundance in everything you say.

You need to deliberately acknowledge abundance in your thoughts and reasonings.

This is not a call to trick yourself into living a lie.

On the contrary, this is a call to acknowledge the real objective truth – that there is an abundance of potentials and possibilities around you!

Three Big Ideas: On Behavior Repertoires, Hedonic Consequences, and Revisiting History

Big Idea #1 From Me

At any given moment in time, there’s a range of behaviors you can perform.

I call this your behavioral repertoire.

Here’s an example that will help you visualize what I mean:

As you are seated/lying down in your bedroom, reading these words, you can decide to stand up and touch the wall closest to you. The probability of this happening is high, right?

Do you also know that you are capable of touching the ceiling with your feet?

But the probability of that behavior happening is very low. As a result, that behavior is collapsed within your repertoire. That’s why you probably can’t recall a time when you placed your feet on the ceiling in your room, even though it is something that is possible.

Now, let’s assume someone brings a double-bunk bed to your room and asked you to sleep on the top bunk. What would happen to the probability of you putting your feet on the ceiling (if you choose to)?

It will increase dramatically!

In life, some behaviors in your repertoire will bring you closer to your destiny, while others will collapse opportunities, thus taking you away from the destination God had prepared for you from the foundations of the world.

And still, some behaviors in your repertoire will never be expressed unless there are enabling factors in your immediate environment.

Here’s the wisdom in the paradigm:

Amplify those behaviors that will bring you closer to the fulfillment of your potential.
Extinguish those that will take you away from destiny.
Stay sensitive to discern whether a change is necessary in your environment for the right behaviors to be expressed.

Big Idea #2 From Research

In a study titled “Hedonic Consequences of Social Comparison: A Contrast of Happy and Unhappy Individuals”, researchers Sonja Lyubomirsky and Lee Ross asked people to teach children simple maths.

The people were divided into 2 groups.

For some, after they had taught the children, they were told ‘good job’. For others, in addition to being told they had done a good job, they were also told that other participants had done a better job.

After receiving feedback, the two groups of participants were asked to rate how happy they felt about their job performance.

Unsurprisingly, those who received the extra information in the form of comparison to an alternative group were less happy than those who were just told they did a good job.

My key takeaway is this: Don’t build your happiness on things that change. If you’re hell-bent on comparing yourself with others, you’d find that there’s always going to be someone wealthier, prettier, or more knowledgeable. If you must compare, compare yourself with where you’re coming from and where you’re headed to. Remind yourself: The story isn’t over yet!

Big Idea #3 From the Bible

Ecclesiastes 1:9, 11 says, “The thing that had been is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there’s no new thing under the sun…There’s no remembrance of the former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that come after”

Every question you’d ever ask on this side of eternity has been answered in some shape or form by people in the past.

This reminds me of a quote by German poet, Friedrich von Schlegel, who said, ‘The historian is a prophet in reverse’

By being a student of history, you can identify patterns in the past that will position you for opportunities in the present and future, when they arise.

This principle applies to both your personal history and historical events in general.

History is valuable when it compounds. However, if your memory of it decays over time, it will be useless to you.

Unless you take deliberate effort to harness the power of revisiting history, you will always be caught up in the present moment without an understanding of your roles in it.

There’s a reason the men of Issachar (1 Chron 12:32) were called men of understanding…

May the Lord give you understanding in these things.

Three Big Ideas: On MLK, the Chinese Language, and Digging for Gold

Big Idea #1 From Me

One price of success is the higher scrutiny you will be subject to.

Perhaps the reason you’re still at your current level is because of the private battles you’ve not won yet.

Perhaps God is protecting you and you’re experiencing a dimension of grace to change your ways before it’s too late.

Everyone knows the role that Martin Luther King Jr (MLK) played in the civil rights movement.

Naturally, because of his prominent role in the struggle against inequality, MLK was subject to greater scrutiny by the powers that be.

What they found wasn’t pretty.

Behind the cool, calm and charismatic Reverend that gave the “I have a dream” speech, the FBI found a man who drank, smoked, spoke vulgar and had multiple sexual partners.

While some of the FBI findings were released sometime in 2019, this image of MLK had been painted by his associates in books they wrote as far back as the 1980s.

If you look through the annals of history, you’d find it littered with the blood and bones of great men who may have gotten public victories but were limited by their private battles.

I’m reminded of the story of the two wolves:

‘A fight is going on inside every person. It’s a terrible fight between two wolves. One is evil and the other is good. The wolf that will win is the one that is fed”

This story is instructive.

Take care of your private battles. Do everything in your power to avoid joining the list of casualties on the road to destiny.

Big Idea #2 From Research

In his journal paper titled, “The Effect of Language on Economic Behavior: Evidence from Savings Rate, Health Behavior and Retirement Savings“, researcher Keith Chen showed that people who spoke languages which made no separation between the present and the future were more likely to make good decisions in the present that led to better future outcomes.

Consider two languages: English and Chinese.

Suppose you want to tell someone that you’re going to save money when you get paid your salary at the end of the month.

If you’re speaking English, you’d say:

“I WILL save money at the end of the month”

As you can see, there’s a separation between the present and the action you want to take in the future.

On the other hand, in Chinese, that separation doesn’t exist. A Chinese speaker wanting to express the same idea will say something which when translated to English will mean,

“I save money at the end of the month”

By running analysis with tons of data from different countries, the study demonstrated that people from cultures where the language did not separate the present from the future were more likely to save more, retire with wealth, smoke less and maintain a healthy weight. This seems to support the hypothesis that the way ‘future time’ is talked about influences the way ‘future time’ is thought about. If your language prevents you from seeing your future as disconnected from your present, you are less likely to take your actions in the present with levity.

My key takeaway from the study is that your words have an impact on your thoughts which will, in turn, influence your actions. To change your life, start with the manner you speak.

Big Idea #3 From the Bible

Proverbs 21:5 says, “The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness, but everyone that is hasty only to want”

The word translated “diligent” implies the continual act of mining for gold or digging a trench.

No one digs for gold by striking the topsoil once with a shovel before giving up.

Yet, when we think, we don’t hold our thoughts and spiritual impressions long enough for them to take root.

The Bible promises that if you’re diligent with the thoughts that God impresses upon your heart in the same manner a man mining for gold continues to digs, you will lead a fulfilling life.

Perhaps the reason you’re facing chaos in your life is because you’re too hasty in thought – refusing to consider a thought long enough before jumping into your next bout of busyness and distraction.

May the Lord grant you understanding in these things.

The Kanisza Triangle: Why There’s Much Food in the Tillage of the Poor

Look at the featured image above.

What do you see?

If you’re like most people, you’d see two triangles planted on top of three circles.

And like most people, you’d be wrong.

As it turns out, there are no circles or triangles in the shape above.

What is perceived as circles are actually three black shapes oriented at different angles.

What is seen as the dark triangle is simply a series of Vs arranged in different ways.

And of course, there is no white triangle at all. You totally made that up on your own!

So, what does this teach us?

People find it easy to remain blind to the obvious.

People looking at the Kanisza Triangle easily see the white triangle that is not even in the picture, yet they miss the Vs that are staring at them.

In the same vein, people look at their environments and only see chaos.

They look at their circumstances and conclude that there’s nothing good that can come out of it.

Yet, right there in the midst of the chaos are opportunities begging to be crystallized.

Little wonder Proverbs 13:23 says, “Much food is in the tillage of the poor…”

The mind hates gaps and when faced with them, will subconsciously create fillers

In the image above, the triangles and circles you saw were not there.

They were creations of your imagination.

In the same way, people have a tendency to make up assumptions about how the world works.

To counter this, you must be humble enough to acknowledge that there will be times when you are working with faulty or incomplete assumptions.

In instances like this, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for wisdom.

James 1:7 says, ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.’

Conclusion

Order is the inherent nature of the world God created, and there are still obscured patterns waiting to be uncovered.

Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.”

To see these things, however, you must take a step away from crowd-think and hone your skills of perception.

Helplessness is Learned: When You Feel Your Life Spinning Out of Control

In the 1960s, Richard Solomon and his team of researchers conducted a simple experiment.

They got some dogs, restrained them, and, gave them about 64 electric shocks.

The following day, the dogs were placed in a special box with two compartments separated by a short barrier.

The idea was that if the floor of one compartment was electrified, the dog could hop over the barrier and escape into the other side.

However, that wasn’t what happened in Solomon’s experiment.

When the dogs were placed in the special box and the current turned on, they didn’t move an inch.

The dogs were in discomfort, yet, they didn’t do the one thing that could relieve their pain – Jump to the other side!!!

As it turned out, the experience of being restrained and shocked 64 times in one day taught the dogs one thing: No matter what you do, you can’t escape the pain

This phenomenon is called Learned Helplessness

Unfortunately, as a human, you do the same thing.

Unlike computers and phones that are constantly updating to access better functionalities, humans love to build their lives on faulty and incomplete mental models established on incorrect and untested assumptions.

As a result, when you’re pushed to the wall, you are ill-equipped to view the situation from another angle where the solution is more obvious.

In this state, you forget that you are never really helpless or powerless.

You ignore the fact that God deliberately designed you to be a partner with Him in the continually unfolding story of creation.

You forget that God made you to institute order on chaos.

There’s good news, though.

You’re not a dog.

You can make a decision to seize your power back and step into the original way God designed you to function.

I share 3 useful ideas:

1. Elevate Your Perception

The beauty of a painting is not appreciated when you’re kissing it, with your eyes a few millimeters away from the picture.

To enjoy the painting, you need to step back away from it.

In the same way, you fail to see the masterpiece that God is making with your life because you’re too wrapped up in the minutiae of everyday living.

If you simply take a step back, it’s easier to find perspective and find what God is doing in you and through your circumstances.

Learned helplessness melts in the heat of perspective.

2. Your situation is not an isolated one

When going through trying times, humans forget that they are not the only ones who have experienced such circumstances.

No matter how rough the situation it is you’re going through is, there are people who have gone through worse and came through on the other side.

It’s easier to snap out of learned helplessness when you realize that: (a) your situation could have been much worse, and (b) other people in similar or worse circumstances pulled through.

3. There’s always a way of escape

Gavin de Becker once said, “When you worry, ask yourself, what am I choosing not to see right now?”

Learned helplessness is built on a foundation of faulty mental models that are in turn established upon incorrect assumptions of reality.

Once you understand this, you’d realize that you have no problem but a perception problem.

The fact that you’re faced with a situation means you have what it takes to get out of it.

Open your eyes and heart and stay sensitive, you’d realize that the answer is closer than you think.

The Reason You’re Not Getting Anything Out of Books

There’s always an element of difficulty that accompanies the pursuit of mastery.

People who go on hiking or mountain climbing could use vehicles and helicopters to get to their destinations. But, in addition to the feeling of accomplishment that comes from completing the climb or hike, there is also something about the journey that changes those who embark on it.

The same can be said about a good book. When you pick up a book, you should experience a “stretching of the limits of your mind to new dimensions.” This stretching should be uncomfortable, as old patterns of thought are uprooted and newer ones installed.

Most people walk through life with unchallenged and untested assumptions about how the world works. A good book should give you the opportunity to test those assumptions. Whether those assumptions are right, wrong, or incomplete, a good book will cause tension which will give you the chance to examine the foundations upon which your life’s philosophy rests.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case today with the kinds of books in circulation. Nowadays, we have a glut of information and a poverty of attention. As a result, there are few books in pop culture that are capable of doing any stretching to your mind. Rather, what you’ll see is the same crap recycled over and over again.

That’s why I’d say about 80% of the material in the self-help space is filled with simple, post-modern, watered-down, feel-good, motivational fluff camouflaged as books; each riding on the latest fad while claiming to be the best thing since sliced bread. And the more of these books you read, the more likely you are to suffer mental decadence, as well as action paralysis – a situation of inaction induced by the frequently conflicting ideas that self-help books offer. This is WHY you’re not getting anything out of popular books !!!

To start getting the best out of books, I recommend replacing self-help books with any from these three categories:

Biographies

There’s really nothing new under the sun.

Every challenge you will ever face has been faced in some shape or form by someone in the past.

When you read a biography that is presented in a balanced manner, you are free to objectively consider the events in the individual’s life without anybody force-feeding you with their opinions. As you are thinking about this person’s life, you are also indirectly examining how you would think if you’re in situations similar to the ones you’re reading about.

In addition to reading about the characters in the Bible, I like researching the stories of interesting people scattered throughout history. I’ve used the stories of people like Hakeem Olajuwon, Barack Obama, Dmitri Mendeleev, Harry Truman among many others to expound upon ideas in my posts.

Historical books

It’s often said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again with the expectation of a different result.

People who ignore history do so to their detriment.

When you read the story of the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War, it’s hard to understand how the same events could still pan out years later in the Iraq War.

Many unnecessary pains that we face in contemporary times could be avoided if politicians and policymakers paid a little more attention to history.

As of this time, in addition to the Bible, my favorite source of history books include anything written by Robert Greene and Ryan Holiday. I enjoy listening to Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast – Revisionist History.

Recently, I’ve also been trying to read more about the history of the Yoruba people. In what I’ve read so far, I’ve been amazed by the level of societal organization and technological development that my people had as early as the 1400s. I highly recommend you not just reading contemporary global or foreign history, but more about your culture and people.

Books from other fields

If you want to genuinely change your life, you cannot afford to be confined to the self-help space.

Understand this: The idea that will change your life is common knowledge in another field

From reading books on Quantum physics, I came across ideas that ended up inspiring my book Mastering the Art of Observation

Ideas from chemistry inspired this quote which I used in my post, ‘Wisdom Shouts in the Streets: “Everything resorts to chaos, order is enforced by power”

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was fully formed after he read books from Geology and Economics.

Read books from biology, economics, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, chemistry, physics… And even maths!

They will enrich your mind with metaphors that will expand your mind to see the world in ways you never thought possible.

Even more, you don’t need to buy textbooks stuffed with formulas and all that jazz.

Nowadays, there are tons of books that will give you the gist of big ideas from other fields without boring you with mathematical proofs and other unnecessary details. Examples of good ones I’ve read in recent times include The Ghost Map (public health), The Fabric of the Cosmos (physics), The Impossible Will Take a Little While (sociology/political science).

Conclusion

The bulk of self-help books in print today will spoon-feed you with low-level information, thus depriving you of the experience of having your mind stretched.

The way a chick helped to hatch is condemned to life-long weakness, your choice to be spoon-fed mediocrity is severely limiting you.

By changing the kinds of books you read, you can start getting more out of every reading session