© Elliot Essman 2005. All rights reserved.

These pages contain the complete text of Human Action, public speaking trainer Elliot Essman's philosophy of human achievement.

Elliot Essman Public Speaking Training
Human Action Table of Contents
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A common stasis-based goal is one that states “I want to stop working in x number of years and then retire and do nothing in some beautiful place.” The idea is that you will sacrifice and work hard for those x number of years and then be rewarded. But ease and comfort at some future point is not a very good motivator over the long run. Bad motivation leads to bad energy and bad decision-making. This is not a motivating goal because it is not a creative one. It does not dig in and activate the Kinetic Human Core. And while your plans might present a perfectly logical reason why the hard work should be done now for a reward later on, the heart rejects these plans as not up to its creative standards. It reminds you that you are human, you can produce more than this lame excuse for a goal, and you must do more. The heart tells you that you need fulfilling work every day of your life. It is not motivated by the notion of an escape from work itself. Without the Kinetic Human Core in gear, your vehicle will not move.

Another stasis-based goal is the status-based goal. You get an image of yourself as achieving a certain status in life, owning certain possessions, wearing certain clothes, driving a certain make of car, or even having the “last laugh” at people who never thought you'd achieve. Yes, these possessions and states are desirable, perhaps even seductive, but are they really a basis for a human life's work? No. And, ironically, when you activate non-material motivations like achievement itself, adding to human civilization, creating jobs, serving your community, you probably do more to ensure you'll be able to buy those material things than all the day-dreaming you could possible do.

Here's yet another stasis trap based on limited thinking. “If I can just make enough money selling insurance, then I will be able to leave that and bake bread as I always wanted to do.” Talk about boxes and limitations. This kind of logic is based on assumption after assumption. You assume the only way you can make money is by selling insurance, just because that's what you're doing now. You assume you'll never make money baking bread. You assume everybody makes a compromise similar to your own. The remote prospect of doing work you love cannot motivate you to excel at work you hate. If you do happen to make a lot of money at it, you will grind your individuality into the ground in the process.

These assumptions are your comfort zones. It feels odd to leave these zones, but once you do, you'll never understand how you ever inhabited them. For every example of a person who stays in a profession he or she despises because of narrow stasis-based goals, you can find an example of a person who makes the jump into something more fulfilling.

Remember the problem Abraham Lincoln had in the previous chapter when his political career fizzled. His goals then had been status-based. Though they carried him through fifteen years of steady political work, they just weren't passionate enough to give him the wherewithal to get through the tough years of political disgrace. Later, his sense of justice and his belief in American values ignited a desire so strong he could then stop at nothing.

Many motivational writers and speakers talk about “burning desire.” Perhaps reading and hearing about this over and over again has disturbed you from time to time. “How do I get burning desire,” you might have asked. “Isn't this something you either start with or you don't?”

The answer to this is that you and every human already has burning desire. Michelangelo is supposed to have said that the sculpture already existed in the raw block of marble in his studio. All he was doing was chipping off the stone around it. The burning desire in us is Michelangelo's stone, obscured by strong habits of stasis and comfort. It can be hidden by our limiting stasis-based fears. It can be held back by early family programming, or even by notions from television programming. Bet on it—it's there. Start chipping away at the excess stone that conceals it.

How do you let the Trans-Biological Imperative out? Follow what Michelangelo did. Chip away at the stone that surrounds your heart. Check your premises and your goals, and make sure they are truly honest. Try to learn about and recognize habits and automatic thinking in yourself and others. And read the rest of this book for further techniques on how to open up your mind and let your Kinetic Human Core reign free.

Exercise: Making Your Masterpiece

In this exercise you will physically “sculpt” yourself. You don't have to have artistic talent to go through this exercise. Get some clay or stone and a few tools from an art supply store, or perhaps a children's sculpting kit. You want to start from the perspective of having a big formless lump of some kind of material. Let the lump stare back at you for some time (weeks or months) as you visualize your own individuality and kinetic greatness inside, waiting just to be let out. A crude human figure will do if you're not an artist, or perhaps even an abstract shape. When the right time comes, or perhaps a little at a time day after day, chip or carve away at the raw material until you reveal yourself in all your glory.