Written by: Eric Deeter, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
You may have heard it said that, “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king?”
The idea is that those who have unique skills and abilities will rise to the top as leaders and influencers in the world. In other words:
If you can see what others cannot see, you will be hailed and welcomed as the leader.
The problem with this belief is that it’s not true. This common saying is one of those trite expressions that sound like deep wisdom. And, as such, we tend to accept it without question. It sounds obvious. Of course, the one-eyed man would be king!
But think about the way our world works. In the land of the blind, they will have adapted, created systems and routines, to live life as they know it. Every culture does this. From people-groups to families to corporations. Their “normal” may not be perfect, but it works for them. “This is the way we’ve always done it,” is their mindset. They see no reason to change.
The one-eyed man will not be welcomed as kind when he comes into such a culture. He will be considered a Heretic. You won’t be hailed as a Visionary when you see what others can’t see. The culture or the Crowd isn’t willing to consider anything new. New ideas and perspectives are a threat to the Crowd. And you are a Heretic if you persist in talking about what you can see!
I want to inspire you to be a Heretic. The Crowd doesn’t know it yet, but they need you to be a Heretic.
You see, without a Heretic, the Crowd will rarely change. The Crowd clutches what they know as “Truth” with an iron grip. They will defend their “Truth” to the death. Historically, this meant that anyone who threatened their “Truth” was the Heretic who had to die. You won’t likely face death today when you are a Heretic. However, you will have to deal with the slings and arrows the Crowd has available. Any contradictions of or questions about their “Truth” will be ignored, suppressed, and censored. These actions will be justified for “or “keeping the peace.”
The Crowd values comfort and complacency. They trust “experts.” They look at the boundaries of thought and behavior as safeguards vital to the common good. Ancient cities had walls around them. Ancient maps represented the need to stay inside the boundaries with the note Here Be Dragons! at the edges of the known world. Today the walls and boundaries are psychological, but they have the same purpose: to protect and preserve the traditions and customs of the Crowd.
The Heretic looks at the “Truth” and points out the contradictions. And the rationalizations and censorship he gets from the Crowd make him question the “Truth” even more. The Heretic questions the opinions of the “experts.” Typically they are the ones rationalizing and suppressing any threat to the “Truth.” And the Heretic sees boundaries to thoughts and behavior as a threat to freedom. Because the Heretic values freedom over comfort and complacency.
The Heretic is a threat to the Crowd and their rulers.
The Heretic must be willing to stand outside the Crowd and persist in his beliefs. The Heretic cannot “unsee” what he’s seen, no matter how hard the Crowd pressures him to recant. The astronomer, Galileo, was heard to say under his breath, “And yet it does move,” when forced to recant his claim that the earth moves around the sun. In his day, Heretics were killed when they questioned the “Truth” of the Crowd.
There comes a time when the Heretic has to break free. For most of us, our Crowd is made up of the people we interact with most often. Family and friends know who we are and what to expect of us. As long as we stay in our lane, life is predictable and everyone is mostly satisfied with the status quo. This is not to say that everything in life is perfect. But if chaos is “normal,'' it should be the chaos that everyone is expecting. We don’t want to deal with anything we’re not used to.
You become a Heretic when you decide to cross the line of thinking and behavior your Crowd holds dear. You will face resistance. Like crabs in a bucket, the Crowd will try to pull you back to their “Truth.” They will tell you it’s for your own good. But the truth is that you threaten their security. When people believe the sun moves around the earth because God set it up that way, then they can’t let anything interfere with their belief. They don’t want to face those questions, so they pressure you to say where you are.
Breaking through these barriers and resistance takes courage and persistence. It’s usually a gradual process. You see the world differently. You have questions, and the easy answers have the substance of cotton candy. And the more you see, the more your questions chafe on your soul. You realize you don’t want to live the rest of your life with this inner conflict, and you take a stand to be different, to be the Heretic.
Here are some guidelines I developed for my own journey of breaking away from the Crowd to become a Heretic. They may help guide you on your way.
First, set your anchor point.
Just because you see cracks in the “Truth” the Crowd cherishes doesn’t mean that the whole bundle is false. It could be that the Crowd’s interpretation of the “Truth” is incomplete. I didn’t become an Atheist because I had questions about my religious beliefs. I set an anchor of truth that I believed. This anchor gave me the security to question the rest of my beliefs.
Your anchor point will give you the strength to handle the resistance of your Crowd (family and friends). They won’t understand your curiosity or your need to question the “Truth,” but your anchor point will give you a reference so that you’re in charge of your direction. You won’t be reacting against or rejecting thoughts and ideas for no other reason than they are the opposite of what the Crowd believes.
Second, let yourself be curious.
Tony Robbins said, “The quality of your life will be a direct reflection of the quality of the questions you ask.” If you want a better life, ask better questions. Ask questions about your questions. And ask more questions about those questions. What you’ve always known to be “True” may not be as true as you think. Ask questions that challenge conventional wisdom. You may find that you were mistaken about many things you thought you knew.
Beware of easy answers. Question these easy answers relentlessly. Easy answers are often a smokescreen, hiding the cracks in the “Truth” the Crowd holds dear.
Third, free your mind.
This line from the movie, The Matrix, is appropriate. You have to let go of fear, doubt, and disbelief. The reason to become a Heretic is so that you can become the best version of yourself. The limiting beliefs you grew up with lock you into mental ruts that keep you stuck. What you believe is possible will determine your success or failure. The Crowd has always and will always try to tell you who you are. As a Heretic, you free your mind from the need to follow the voices in the crowd. Your questions from Step Two will guide you to know what voices you should listen to.
You don’t have to be a famous Heretic and spark a movement to shake up society or bring some brand new idea to the world. But if you want to discover the freedom of living to be your best self, become a Heretic. Set your anchor. Become curious and ask questions. Free your mind. You will see what others can’t. You may not be king, but you will be free. You will be free to be more than anyone, including yourself, could ever imagine.
Eric Deeter, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Eric Deeter is an entrepreneur, published author, certified life coach, podcaster, and barefoot/minimalist ultramarathon runner. He says that the mindset for life transformation and the mindset for ultramarathon running is the same. A goal that seems impossible at first becomes a reasonable challenge to work towards. He helps his clients discover and go after their EPIC THING: that big dream or goal they have put away in the back corner of their minds.
