Be careful! when it's easy

This is an anecdote that I read while reading The 48 Laws of Power. It comes from the Essays in Idleness, Kenko, Japan, 14th Century.

A man who was famous as a tree climber was guiding someone in climbing a tall tree. He ordered the man to cut the top branches, and, during this time, when the man seemed to be in great danger, the expert said nothing. Only when the man was coming down and had reached the height of the eaves did the expert call out, "Be careful! Watch your step coming down!" I asked him, "Why did you say that? At that height he could jump the rest of the way if he chose." "That's the point," said the expert. "As long as the man was up at a dizzy height and the branches were threatening to break, he himself was so afraid I said nothing. Mistakes are always made when people get to the easy places."

God Bless!

Limitless

A few months ago, I went to watch the movie Limitless, which was about a man (Eddie Mora) who was introduced to a pill that allowed him to utilize 100% of his brain vs. the normal 20%. This pill gave Eddie extraordinary access into his own brain where he was able to enhance his ability to focus, retain and analyze information unfathomably, recall years of information that was all but forgotten, read rapidly, and pretty much do everything that the brain is ever capable of doing. This was an extraordinary movie in the sense that (outside of the suspense and action) it presented a picture of the unlimited abilities that the brain has and even more importantly of the unlimited doors that can be opened if we were to utilize more of it. Though presumably, there are no pills that allow us such access to our brains, there are products that claim, if not anything else, to enhance focus and the likes.

However, in today's society one of the main reasons many people are not able to effectively utilize more of their brains to broader capabilities is that we do not effectively exercise our brains to do so. There is not enough brain exercise going on that allows the brain to get stronger in a sense. Like a muscle, the brain needs to go through rigorous training such as constructive reading, problem solving, and engaging in thought provoking activities. Instead we fill ourselves with the gluttony of television, gossip, and other sorts of rogue entertainment. We become more concerned with entertaining our brains than "intertraining" it. I personally believe that many people fear what their brains are capable of; in essence, they fear success. Throughout history, many great people were outcasted because of the limitless abilities that their minds possessed, and moreso their willingness to bring forth such abilities.

Nowadays we speak of innovation, and if we allow ourselves to tap into once uncharted territories in our brains, we can begin to remove boundaries. We are always told that the "sky is the limit" but our brains are capable of the limitless. I challenge each person to challenge themselves a little each day with an exercise for the brain, and lets see how far our brain will take us.

God Bless