Conversations For Transformation:
Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
Conversations For Transformation
Essays By Laurence Platt
Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
And More
Don't Try So Hard!
Muir Beach, California, USA
May 16, 2010
This essay,
Don't Try So Hard!,
is the companion piece to
Don't Do That!.
One of our most enduring and identifiable characteristics of being
human is our striving to be more than we are and to be better at what
we do.
Be careful. I'm not saying that's great about us, and
neither am I saying that's not great about us. I'm not
saying you're a better person if you strive to be more
than you are and to be better at what you do, and neither am I saying
you're not a better person if you don't
strive to be more than you are and to be better at what you do. You may
be, and you may not be.
No, for the purposes of this conversation, I'm suggesting
striving to be more than we are and to be better at what we do is one
of the most enduring and identifiable characteristics of being human
because we do it automatically. It may look like we
strive to be more than we are and to be better at what we do as a
choice. But I'm suggesting we do it automatically ie it comes
with the machinery of being human. And furthermore, if we
can't be more than we are and / or be better at what we do, then we
aspire to do it different.
Bear in mind, being more and doing it better and different may produce
bad results and / or it may produce good
results. But neither am I speaking about the results of
being more and doing it better and different. Here I'm focusing only on
the possibility that we be more and do it better and different
because it's what our human machinery does automatically.
Even though that may be an unorthordoxpoint of view,
why not be more? Why not do it better? What's
wrong with doing it different? Nothing. Really.
Nothing's wrong
with any of that. Nothing at all. You could even argue the whole point
of being alive is to be more and to do things better and different.
Now, is it true? Is it really the case? How
about this as another way of looking at it; not a better
way - just another way:
Could it be our instatiable appetite for being more and doing it better
and different is really a front ie a cover up for our
aversion to getting it the way it is? Could it be that
being more and doing it better and different is simply the societally
sanctioned way to distract ourselves from letting in ie
from opening to the experience of
who we really are?
"OK" you may say, "what about being more and doing it better and
different like aspiring to sustainably and permanently feed the hungry
or to sustainably and permanently house the homeless - things wanted
and needed which haven't really been fully accomplished before?". One
answer might be "There's
nothing wrong
with either of those; there's
nothing wrong
with any of that.".
But again, that's not what this is about. What I'm alluding to here is
much more intimate, much more immediate than all that.
What I'm addressing here is simply our own
resistance,
if you will, to being with our own experience of
who we really are.
If you can't be with your own experience of who you really are, then
all Life ie anything you do becomes just
another way to avoid experiencing
who you really are.
It's pernicious.
And where it gets really involved and entangled is when our insatiable
desire to be more and to do it better and different collides with the
quest, if you will, to findwho we really are.
When these two dynamics come into play, aren't we then just trying
more and trying better and different to find
who we really areto avoid experiencing
who we really are?