A Power Think Paradigm
The Dangerous Dance of Duplicity and Personal Integrity
REAL POWER: Real power comes from carefully guarded thoughts guided by our hearts. "Thoughts are things," James Allen said in his ground-breaking book written in 1902. That truth learned in 1972, my 19th year, has had profound impact on me and directly influences choices in personal behavior and what my life is all about, since then until this day.
Thought is power, for good or bad. "He thinks in secret and it comes to pass. Environment is but his looking glass," the English philosopher stated. His multi-million copy bestselling book, AS A MAN THINKETH, still sells world-wide to this day. See, the truth about character and conduct is a stubborn thing; it clings to us as an outward garment woven from the inside out. Hard to run from that...
Good seeds yield good fruit. It's that simple. The code of the fruit is in the seed. The code of character is in the thought, persisted in over time. Why people seek some different outcome from the mental seeds sown and then cultivated over time is a matter of "duplicity." Duplicitous behavior is the killer of every good desire, hope, and aspiration.
PURPOSE and MEANING: Real personal power comes from developing real personal purpose or meaning in life. With that "meaning" we become known through the development of "character." Integrity and living congruent with personal values and society standards offers not only the development of character strengths, but delivers the precious gift of personal trust from others to us. "It is better to be trusted than to be loved," I heard a speaker say when I was young. I never forgot that axiom and it has proven invaluable to me in growing the opportunities that have come my way into a meaningful and lasting lifetime of benefit.
Everyone wants to “matter”and “mean” something to others. The danger lies not in wanting to “matter” but in what we might delude ourselves into believing really “matters.” Sometimes we want two opposing things of value. One has higher meaning than the other and, in what I will refer to for this blog which deals with personal integrity, I call this "wanting to matter" in such a way as to "short cut" integrity, “The Dangerous Dance of Duplicity.”
As I write this a scandal brews with a NY politician who's personal dark side of life collided with a public duty and trust. He wanted it all. He danced to a tune of personal wants in places the public would never be allowed to follow him to, only to find the civic dance floor empty when he was found out to be duplicitous by an eager media and press.
Personal integrity is the glue which bonds us in trusting ways to others. Without it the fabric of society is one strand weaker. Collectively, the loss of integrity impacts us all through the success of our economy, business, and indeed is the cause of every ill or crime known to man. "Be true to thyself" the Shakespearean line goes, "and as night follows day, thou canst be false to no man."
Duplicity means wanting two things out of harmony with each other. It means "dual" in one sense, just as it means "duel" -- where we literally fight with our better half -- in another sense. The dance of duplicity begins with seductive music which sings of “things” of an outward nature. "I can have this in exchange for that." Perhaps cheating on a test in school begins the character weakening dance. And when a few successes at it are presumed, "My cheating won't hurt anyone," reinforces the duplicitous belief. After all "I am a good guy. Moral, and wouldn't hurt anyone," we might add to the disarming voice of conscious which is ever becoming more faint.
"I can make up for it later," becomes the lie we believe out of convenience. For with the crumbling walls of character we sooner or later become exposed for who we really are. When "things" become “symbols” of who we are, "why" we matter, and "what" we want others to see in us, we are tip-toeing onto the dance floor where duality becomes a "break dance." It begins to occur to us that we cannot do two different dance steps at once. What we are inside becomes clear for everyone to see, through our ever growing number of "mis-steps." After all, the drunkard knows it is hard to be sober. The thief believes it is hard to be honest. And the liar knows that the web must continue to build or he will be ultimately "found out."
We only delude ourselves, weaken the relationships of trust that we might otherwise enjoy. We impact our society, and there is a real cost to that. Selective honesty disables trust as fast as complete dishonesty does. Studies are done annually on employee theft, padding government contracts...these seem so innocent to the protagonist at the time. Collectively we are talking of billions of dollars in lost productivity, stolen goods, and out-right theft.
Trust? Ask the Governor who retires in disgrace today. Ask the thousands of former millionaires now in State or Federal prisons. They sure looked good for awhile. They mattered and meant something to others. Now they are a number awaiting parole.
"He who dies with the most toys wins," the humorist and bumper sticker creator of the 1980's said. A dual reality is implied here, whether the bumper sticker was found on a Mercedes-Benz or a Ford Pinto. In living, and seeking the best of life and things, the external circumstance may be most important...of course until one dies, which will happen to everyone. Then what will be is a memory in the minds of others, and a legacy both real and eternal.
Why we want to be honest, should never be subordinated or compromised to “what to be honest” about. So much more could be said about the dangerous dance of duplicity - being "two people" at once, but I will save some interesting side-notes and facts for another blog. Back to "meaning" and "what matters" most:
Duplicity is cerebral. It is heartless. It is rationalization at its best. The human "brain is for getting and the heart is for giving." This line comes from my less read novel of 2005, THE GOOD HEART (to be released in paperback Fall 2008.) Our brains constantly want more stuff. Our hearts constantly give life and love. Together they can offer "two" seats of power and wisdom for the price of one, and integrity need not be compromised. The heart and head really can act as a combined force if we "power think." That is allow the heart to dictate wisdom -- guard our actions -- over rationalization which so easily creates a partnership in our ever addictive information striving brain; partnerships with greed, lust, avarice, lies... These need not be. The heart can guide us if we will stop, slow down, listen.
The heart dances to a rhythm which is elegant, steady, reliable. It nourishes with life-sustaining blood, every cell of the body and brain. It is eager to matter and "mean" something but is quieter than the noisy brain. It requires careful listening to insure we tune in to its softer voice. It is intelligent and intuitive. It also seems to be filled with ancient wisdom. Wisdom, as we all know, is the non-tangible essence of truths which seem to give us a sound moral compass, and a sure map to destinations of good for all; not just self. The heart seems to place things of intrinsic moral value ahead of the more expensive material stuff of life.
In life, as in Power Thinking, it really is a matter of the heart being right, and the brain doing its job within the bounds of personal integrity. What I hope is an entertaining look at personal growth and inner integrity, is my latest inspirational novel, AS a MAN THINKETH...In His Heart.
We really must decide what we want. Duplicity is a sure-fire formula for failure in personal relationships and in society at large. With the heart in the lead and brain collaborating at its best, the dance of real personal power, like a good waltz, replaces the weaker dance of duplicity. In the end we really are what our heart thinks about.
More about the novel and these musings can be found at: http://www.powerthink.com/.
--James Michael Pratt
