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“Comparison: The Access to Complacency”
The legendary empowerment
guru, Fred Rogers, taught that
everyone is special, everyone is
unique and there is no one just
like you. After decades of this
brainwashing, everyone can be
placed in their own category,
unable to be better or worse than
anyone else.
The inability to be compared
creates a sense of personal free-
dom to be yourself, without fear
of being revealed as inadequate
or second-best. You can never
truly be worse than someone
who is not in the same category
as you. People have been creat-
ing their own categories for the
past several years in order to be
the undisputed best at what they
do. In this installment of Creating
the Clouds, we will work to break
down those barriers that prevent
you from being compared, and
discover the amazing access to
complacency and lack of motiva-
tion this can create.
When you can place yourself
in the same category as others,
you will always be able to find
someone who is better than you,
stronger than you, faster than
you, and more attractive than
you. You can always find some-
one who has been there first,
done it better, and been more
successful. This leads to a sense
of despair and a lack of motiva-
tion - because you know that you
won’t ever be the best at any-
thing. What was once a constant
search to out-perform the next
best you realize now is a mission
destined to end in failure. Your
relationships will crumble under
the weight of jealousy and fear
of being discovered for the loser
you really are. Your projects will
be abandoned before they have
begun. You will have become
an endarkened being as a result
of the clouds you’ve created for
yourself.
If you are not inspired by the
hope of becoming an endark-
ened human being, you may still
be on a course of self-improve-
ment and personal empower-
10
CREATING
THE CLOUDS
By Randyl Longmire
ment. If you are someone who
has a “Hang In There” poster
or the poem “Footprints in the
Sand” on your wall, this column
is certainly not for you, and your
attention would be much better
directed toward listening to a
book-on-tape by Tony Robbins
or Dr. Phil immediately.
Hopefully by now, as a result of
the daily self-deprecation training
you received in Part I, you know
that you are not good enough
and not smart enough to accom-
plish your dreams and someone
else will always be better than
you regardless. With practice
and discipline, you can learn
to generate complacency and
lack of motivation whenever you
get excited about a new idea,
goal, or dream. Simply discover
your category. Find a place to
fit in. Then make sure you have
others in your category that are
more successful, powerful, and
effective at whatever it is you are
doing.
As I have previously stated,
I am constantly applying these
disempowering concepts of
demotivation and complacency
to my own life. When it comes
to writing Creating the Clouds,
I take no reprieve. Well - I take
plenty of breaks from writing, but
I take very little
reprieve from disempowering
myself along the way.
When it seemed I had invented
a new category of philosophy
with this self-empoorment idea,
I immediately sought out people
I could compare myself with.
Some call it “Market Research.”
I call it “Looking for ways to
prove I’m not good enough
to succeed.” I needed to be
categorized with others who had
already been there, done that,
and were more successful than I,
or I would find myself back in the
realm of the unique, empowered,
and successful - a place I had
already been for far too long as a
result of the self-help movement
of the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s.
One author I found who had
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already beat me to the self-hurt
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regressed to selling eye drops
(no doubt a result of his decline
into gateway drug use).
Whenever I have the cour-
age to categorize myself, I can
always find someone to whom
I feel belittled in comparison.
Whether you are in love, have
your dream job, or an amazing
relationship with your parents,
the tools I’ve provided will hope-
fully work to disempower you
and create access to upset in
any area of your life. I encour-
age you to seek out those areas
where you can be compared with
others, and discover the compla-
cency and that demotivation you,
too, can create for yourself.
Until next time, keep looking
up...to watch the clouds form.
*Unfortunately, it appears as
though Ben Stein was only joking
with his books. They were pub-
lished by an exclusive self-help
publishing company, so he was
JUNG
apparently expressing self-help
techniques under the guise of
disempowerment. A clever trick,
MC
but self-help nonetheless.
Randyl Longmire is not a doctor.
He is not a therapist. He has
won no awards, and he has no
standing in the academic world.
He is generally unqualified for
most professions, pursuits, hob-
bies, and athletic activities.
The Word and its editorial staff
are not responsible for any loss
of life, self-esteem, or livelihood
as a result of Mr. Longmire’s
teachings, and we feel they are
in poor taste.
the word