WAKE UP AMERICA! - CHAPTER FIVE

HOW TO OVERCOME YOUR WIMP

We humans are free and powerful by nature. Practically all "unfreedom" and powerlessness we suffer from, we have learned. Some of us may find the idea of being naturally free and powerful, frightening. There may be an overpowering psychological "wimp" in our mind that blinds us to our freedom and power. If so, the next step is to overcome that wimp.

Deep within the psyche of practically every human there resides a pernicious wimp. Your wimp is like gravity. It is invisible. It is powerful. It pervades your life. It pulls you down. It affects your every thought, your every action... It usurps your power.

The wimp within you makes it possible for people to manipulate you. The reason politicians, lawyers, bureaucrats, and IRS agents get away so easily with their unconstitutional activities is that practically all their victims are afflicted with virulent wimps that inhabit the core of their psyches. In general it is easy to dupe wimps and separate them from their consciousness and their money.

Once you begin to understand your own personal wimp and recognize when it exerts its influence over you, you can begin to overcome it. You do it little by little. An understanding of the evolution of human consciousness will help you identify the nature of your personal wimp. Consider the bicameral model of the mind below.

According to Dr. Julian Jaynes (The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind), up to about 3,000 years ago humans were not conscious as we know consciousness today. Their minds worked like this: Situations triggered mental voices and/or visions that were automatically generated in the right brain, from where they were communicated via the anterior commissure to the left brain, where the visions were "seen" and the voices "heard." The mental voices and visions "told" people what to do. Today, some people still manifest this form of mentation - sometimes called schizophrenia. I call this stage in the evolution of consciousness, bicameral stage one - the pre-conscious human. In this stage obedience is paramount. (Remember Chapter Four?)

Many people are aware of an automatic, apparently uncontrollable "stream of thoughts" going on in their heads. Sometimes a situation will trigger an automatic thought like "she doesn't love me," followed by automatic feelings and emotions - apparently not under control. When I watch and listen to a TV talk show like "Good Morning America" or "Morton Downey, Jr.," it seems to me that most of the participants, including the host and the specially invited speakers, merely regurgitate their automatic thoughts - their emphasis being on trying to prove self "right" and others "wrong." I call this bicameral stage two - the proto-conscious human. In this stage being "right" is paramount.

A rapidly growing number of people have started questioning and critically examining concepts, beliefs, and behaviors, held sacred by their elders and most of their contemporaries. These people want to produce better results in their lives: their health, their relationships, their careers. In any area where they think their results are below expectations they seek to improve their knowledge, their skills, their competence. They also realize that some of their difficulties stem from destructive thoughts and behavior patterns acquired or developed during childhood. Their emphasis is on producing results. I call this the conscious stage.

Many humans are in transition from bicameral stage 2 to the conscious stage. Some are still in transition from bicameral stage 1 to bicameral stage 2. Some show signs of all three stages.

Where does your wimp fit into all this? If you believe in total obedience to something outside yourself (an external "authority"), your wimp may have total control over your life. If you're a bicameral stage two proto-conscious human, your wimp will probably make you a true believer, a somewhat helpless apathetic, or a compulsive rebel. These three types compare to three of the life-orientations identified by Dr. Eric Byrne in Transactional Analysis: "I'm not OK - you're OK" (true believer); "I'm not OK - you're not OK" (helpless apathetic); and "I'm OK - you're not OK" (compulsive rebel). As you evolve into the conscious stage you move towards "I'm OK - you're OK."

The way you recognize your wimp is to identify any area of your life where the results you produce don't meet your expectations. If you are inclined to lose your cool in certain situations, or in the presence of certain kinds of people, you have another pointer to your wimp. If you consistently blame things or people outside yourself for your lack of success or your lot in life, you have another indication that your wimp is at work. If you're involved in any activity where it is claimed that "X is the only truth, philosophy, politics, etc.," your wimp is of the true believer kind. Similarly, your wimp may be the helpless apathetic or compulsive rebel type. If there are things you want to do but somehow you don't think you can do them, or you just never get around to doing them, that is another pointer to your wimp. If you're stuck in some destructive habit - you want to drop it but don't seem able to - that is your wimp at work. If you often get victimized - for example, provoke violence or coercion against yourself - that is a definite wimp pointer.

If you believe you can't escape the clutches of the IRS, then your wimp has got you - there are probably at least ten million people in the USA who are largely free from the IRS and the government. You can join them whenever you want to.

The steps for overcoming your wimp:

1. Recognize that there is a wimp within you.
2. Identify the areas in your life where the wimp seems to get the upper hand - areas where your results are below expectation.
3. Ask, "What knowledge, skills, or methods (competence) do I need to improve in that area?"
4. Replace the incompetence with competence. For many this is a life-long process. We simply stick to it year after year.
5. Read and apply Mind Traps: Change Your Mind Change Your Life by Tom Rusk. Rusk identifies self-doubt as the root of all evil:
   "The effects of self-doubt go far deeper than an inability to accept one's talents and attributes. Self-doubt is a mental abscess which can penetrate to the very essence of your being. Like a slow-growing but highly adaptable fungus, self-doubt is a creeping rot which eats away at your sense of worth. It can be so insidious you may be unaware of its damaging effect on your life. And self-doubt is extremely durable; it is resistant to all but the most sophisticated and determined efforts at eradicating it.

   Introduced by painful experiences in childhood, self-doubt weaves itself into the fabric of your identity. There, disguised as the truth, utilizing the self-defeating attitudes (Mind Traps) it generates, self-doubt asserts its poisonous influence over every aspect of life, from work to relationships. Self-doubts and Mind Traps are hardy enough to withstand overwhelming conflicting evidence. They are even resistant to good common sense - no matter how much some people may love and respect you, you may still doubt yourself. And you may find yourself sabotaging your own welfare."

6. Read and apply Learned Optimism by Martin E.P. Seligman (Chapter One). The wimp is a pessimist. Optimism is a methodology or technology that can be learned. Doing so will eventually defeat the wimp.
7. Consider again the central theme of this book:
   "To feel that we are worthwhile individuals, to know that we exist, we have to express our power - feel that we are in control. This imperative to express our power and experience control is central to human behavior. Every human does something to express his or her power in the world. This power can be expressed creatively or destructively.

   Humans first attempt to express their power creatively. If such attempts fail repeatedly, they experience themselves as powerless. They may feel helpless and hopeless, and become depressed. What they experience is that they cannot make a positive difference in their own lives or in the world. A cognitive breakdown occurs between their actions and the results they produce. Mentally and intellectually they cease to understand the connections between their behavior and the consequences of their behavior. Then they express their power destructively.

   This phenomenon is at the root of practically all individual and societal problems.

   Understanding this phenomenon and its implications leads to the solution of practically all individual and societal problems."

Your wimp can be described as that part of you that expresses power destructively - those parts of your personality where the cognitive connections between actions and consequences have broken down.

An important distinction here: We think, we "emote," and we act. Of the three the easiest to change - in some cases - is action.

The wimp is afraid. It is a coward. Unfounded fear is a breakdown of the cognitive connection between action and consequence. We fear taking a certain action because we have a weird idea (cognitive connection) of what the consequences might be. The ultimate way to beat the wimp is to do the things we are most afraid of - those things where the fear is unfounded - like public speaking, door-to-door selling, asking a stranger for directions, etc.

Observe the consequences of these actions and formulate new cognitive connections. Discover your freedom and power.