Greek mythology paints the picture of one man’s granted wish gone ugly.
King Midas showed hospitality to the Greek god, Dionysus. Dionysus is pleased and offers him a reward. You know the story: Midas, in his ignorance, asks that everything he touches be turned to gold.
My first thought, “What an idiot.” My second thought, “Makes so much sense.” Most of what we ask for, in hindsight, is not particularly good for us. But it takes a bit for us to figure it out.
At first, Midas is pleased.
“What a genius,” people say about him.
But then disaster strikes, for he cannot eat.
And he cannot drink.
How can you eat gold? The story collapses on itself when he, unknowingly, turns his own daughter into gold just from touching her. The crowds that thought, “what a genius” suddenly are asking “how could anyone be that stupid?”
And it can all change in a moment.
A warning: beware what you ask for. A cautionary tale: not everything we want is great for us to have.
The idea here is simple: count the true cost of possession & progress; never trade what is priceless for what is temporary. The real problem for King Midas is he did not pay for what he took.
High performing, driven people understand this. They are not looking for handouts or freebies but they’ll take every ounce of luck they can find. This balance is driven by neurobiology and self-worth. No self-respecting person wants to cheat — they want to win on the merits of their ability to function well.
‘The sense in which rewarding things must be difficult is not that they must be painful. They must be difficult in the sense that not just anyone could do them. The fewer other people there are who could do a particular task, the more rewarding it will be for you to do it. And the most rewarding activity is one which only you could do.’ — Ryan Bush
This checks out. “Flow Theory” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi suggests people are happiest when engaged in challenging activities that slightly outmatch their skill level. In Japan, there’s an idea called ‘ikigai,’ which emphasizes the importance of finding one’s unique purpose (something only they can do).
You should spend some time before we wrap up 2024 and cross the line into 2025 asking yourself this question: am I doing something that I am uniquely capable of doing? The closer your real life matches your designed life, the happier you will be.
In a YouTube video that releases in a few weeks, I taught about shame being (among other things) the differential between your “values” and your “activities.” One of my unique capabilities is breaking down core concepts that bring spiritual health & physical progress. The heavens direct the earth; which means that if you learn the advancement of the mind – but do not learn how to build requisite stability in the spirit – you are going to be targeted.
Figuring this out takes real work.
You have to work at it. Like riding a bike, you will fall off and have to get back on the bike again. Sometimes I sit in my office and start to think, but am immediately derailed by the random ups and downs of whatever’s going on.
This morning, while writing this, it happened.
It happens every time I sit down to do something important. We have a challenge coming up for our consulting clients, I need to prepare for that. We have an event in New York City next week that I need to look at. A promotion is being put together for submission for the end of the week, it will need my eyes on it.
There’s this. There’s that. There’s everything else.
And as soon as I finished writing the first sentence of this article, my daughter (5 years old) burst into the office to show me a picture she drew.
In these moments, we have the power to choose.
I chose to put the computer down for a minute and admire her drawing. I made a note in my journal to circle back to the event details for next week before end of day. Then I picked my work back up and started writing.
Distractions are not an excuse for us to cheat our way to the top — we must climb our way there the scenic route. But the scenic route brings the most satisfaction, IF (and only if) you are doing it the way you enjoy doing it.
Then there’s the fatigue that comes from exerting effort before seeing the reward. That is always part of the price to pay.
I’m currently going through Eric Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer, a 600 page biography about the theologian who stood against the Nazi’s third Reich in Germany. It is excellent.
Reading is a transportation device, and with it you can hop through realms; portals to history open up to you. It reminded me that no matter how difficult life can feel at times, it’s never really that difficult. There is always opportunity. There is always a reason to push forward.
And even the most obscure among us will one day surprise us.
“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin.” Zechariah 4:10