More on the Soldier

I explained in an earlier post about the two parts of our brain: the daemon and the resistance. Here's a bit more on the resistance, cause I feel that it's vital to pursuing ideas and putting plans into action.

First, I had a run-in with the soldier this week. A big one. So big that he almost beat me in an intense face-off.

Last week at this time, myself and two of my buds began planning an open forum event to educate attendees on the stances of the four remaining Republican presidential candidates. It really was a big project for us three to take on, and we didn't realize that until we were half-way through the preparation. We had slide-shows to make, candidates to read up on, representatives to call, people to contact, buildings to rent, and nerves to calm. On Monday, at ten o'clock, I called it off in my brain, and began making preparations to close it up. After all, we only had fifteen people coming, according to the RSVP list (Don't ask me what RSVP stands for).

By eleven, I had got a hold of my buddies. One said yes, let's call it off. The other one said no. We conquered the soldier and continued with the event. By one that afternoon, two representatives agreed to come and talk about Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. That eased the burden. After that, everything else fell into place. With the help of several other friends, we pulled it off with a record attendance of forty five (ish).

I was reminded again of what the soldier is here for: to protect. Mainly from embarrassment, shame, and low self-esteem. It turns out, the soldier has no perception of reality, and distorts every point to the extreme. Had we canceled the event, the genius part of the brain would still be screaming: "You could've done that, made a huge difference, and swung the election!" The soldier would be congratulating me on saving face.

The genius is the one that needs to be let out more often. He makes things happen. The soldier should be on guard duty.