© 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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• The key difference between the animal in us and the human.

• Why we leave comfort and take risks.

• How we create walls and limitations in our own lives.

• How we can begin to break through the barriers that hold us back.

• Why we need reasons in order to act, and where to look for them.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know/What I was walling in or walling out. (Robert Frost, 1914)

Let's make this scene more complicated. When you look out the windows form this idyllic hotel, all you see is a cold, barren landscape, stretching to every horizon. Who would ever want to leave such ease and luxury, when the alternative is so bleak? But, oh we forgot to tell you, you cannot leave (not that you would ever want to). You may certainly look out the windows, but the building has no doors.

Well, you think, “I might as well enjoy all this luxury, comfort and ease, if I cannot leave.” But who are you kidding? You know you're smart enough to find a way to get out. “Yes, but, why would I want to leave?” Knock it off—you'll be out there in the forest, out there in the cold and wind, knee deep in mud, desperate and determined to regain your freedom, within a month, a week—perhaps within a single day.

Somewhere inside you, maybe right in the forefront of your mind, you are not content with where you are. You want to reach a point of attainment, success, achievement, triumph. The English language is rich in synonyms, but it doesn't matter what you call it; you want it. You want what is beyond the wall. Humans, like you, build exquisite walls, but, ultimately, they don't like them very much.

Exercise: Who Exactly Are You?

In this preliminary exercise, you will tell yourself who you are, based on the ways of thinking expressed above. Answer each of these questions in a carefully-drafted sentence or two. Edit and re-write your answers to make them fit in with your idea of yourself and your strivings and goals in life.

• Where did you come from? How did you get to this particular point in your life?

• What have you done right so far in your life? Wrong?

• What do you regret in your life as you've lived it so far?

• What will you regret not doing if you don't get a chance to do it in the future?

• How would you assess your general level of motivation in life? Have there been instances in the past where you accomplished great things primarily because you wanted them badly enough? Have there been other instances where you failed largely because of lack of burning desire?

• In your life, what causes you the greatest level of discontent?

• What do you think is the area of your life you can best fine-tune at this particular time? After that, what comes next?