The Story of Smart and Stupid
While I believe most of you must have found the title stupid as very stupid, I hope a few of you might find both the title as well as the content interesting.
About a million years ago, when there we no devices, no tall buildings, no mode of transport, no clothes, and not even enough food, lived two friends, Smart and Stupid. It was the time when animals ruled the world and not humans. Well, I know humans are social animals, but I am talking about the ferocious animals who can kill the sumo wrestler within minutes. Coming back to Smart and Stupid, they were not just friends, but they were neighbors as well. They would do pretty much everything together, including sleeping (Hehehehehehheheh). Their routine included hunting, gathering wood, cooking, and, most importantly, escaping predators. One drowsy afternoon, after walking for about 25km, Smart and Stupid decided to sit under a vast tree and relax for a while. It was cool under the enormous banyan tree, and it felt very refreshing to both Smart and Stupid until they heard a sound from the bushes.
Oh my God, there’s a tiger, screamed Smart and immediately climbed up the tree. (Remember, monkeys are our ancestors?)
Stupid looked at him with a grin and said, it’s air or maybe a rabbit, you idiot. Come down.
Smart disagreed and hung on the tree for more than an hour, worrying about the tiger while stupid enjoyed a power nap in the cool breeze.
When Smart came down, obviously only after he could no more hear the sound and took a sigh of relief, he woke up stupid and said, you were right, maybe it was a deer, and you can assume Stupid’s expression and reaction.
A few days later, on their way to hunting, intelligent and stupid heard noises again.
Smart immediately started jumping, it’s a predator, he’s going to kill me, and he climbed up the tree again while stupid kept screaming, come down, we have to go hunting for a long time, but intelligent as usual, did not obey. After some time, when the bushes stopped moving, smart was convinced that there was no carnivorous animal, and he got down of the enormous mango tree.
Thank God, I am saved; said Smart, to which stupid replied, when will I be saved from you in a very low volume, and they started moving forward to hunt. Every time this happened, smart would react in the same way, frequently occurring.
One fine morning, when smart was worrying from the top of the tree and stupid was pacifying him from the ground, a huge ferocious leopard jumped out of the bushes and within a few seconds caught hold of stupid. (Poor stupid, he didn’t get a chance to escape).
Stupid was killed, Smart survived.
That day smart experienced both happiness and grief for apparent reasons.
Now you know why you are being negative for a significant portion of your life. Relax, it’s all of us, not just you. Beware, I am in no way trying to convey that it is okay to have such an attitude, but I am letting you know that most of us sail in the same boat. But why is it so?
Nature’s prime objective is to keep us alive. When Smart was killed, nature concluded that being positive can cost you your life but being negative (worried, stressful, fearful) will only cost anxiety, health issues, and maybe a few mental issues. Still, the critical point is you are not going to die. When compared, everything is cheaper than life. So here we are, always problematic, scared, unhappy, and so on.
Remember, we constantly evolve through natural selection, which is harmful.
Now that we understand why we are the way we are, it will be straightforward to change ourselves.
Acknowledge the fact that we had predators; now we don’t. Then we had to run for our lives; now we don’t.
Time has changed, situations have changed, and lifestyle has changed. What has not changed is the programming of our brain.
Can it change? Yes.
Will it change by itself? No. You have to intentionally put in the effort to reprogram yourself from worry to relaxation, from stress to destress, from negativity to positivity.
Is it hard? No, but it demands consistency. If I can, certainly you can.
Make sure you reprogram yourself to more happiness, more success, better relationships, and everything the way you like.
I hope this gives you some clarification about human behavior.
Happy Reading!
Story Credit — YSR (NLP coach, Entrepreneur, and most importantly, my teacher.)
