BEWARE: Manifest Destiny of the Mind

This is a cautionary tale about viewing the world through your lenses alone.

It’s sad but true that age, experience, success and failure have a way of curbing our creative enthusiasm and coloring how we view everything around us.

I call this effect the Manifest Destiny of the Mind.

Back in the 19th century, the term Manifest Destiny, was used to describe the belief that Americans were fated to conquer, control and re-shape North America and its indigenous people to a new and better way of life. Of course, this jingoistic notion has proven to be far from true, as we speed further into the 21st century.

Manifest Destiny of the Mind occurs when a person, through age and experience, attempts to project their way of thinking upon another. This may be done with the best intentions, but often smothers the spirit, vision and motivation of the person they are trying to help. Creatively, this effect becomes more dangerous when one artist is trying to help another along the path to commercial success.

It happened to me recently, when I was mentoring a young musician. He was very talented and showed a lot of promise. What he lacked was the drive, determination and grit I thought he would need to make it in the cut-throat music industry.

I couldn’t understand why this young artist wouldn’t listen to me, when the pathway seemed so clear. Then, my wise, college-aged son asked me this, “Dad, why do assume that he wants to be commercially successful?”

That’s when the light bulb went on.

I had been driving at commercial success for my creative work for so many years, I naturally assumed that was everyone’s motivation.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

As my son explained, “Some people just enjoy making music, or writing or painting. They’re not really looking to make a living at it. They’d be just as happy playing a few gigs around town, doing a poetry reading once in a while or having one of their paintings put up in a local shop. That doesn’t make them less of an artist, it’s just their motivations are different.”

Oh, the wisdom of youth…

Who was I to project my vision of success on someone else, even if my intentions were good?

I had to remind myself that success, fulfillment and a sense of well-being take on many different forms for many different people. This brought an old folk tale back to memory, the one about the Sleeping Fisherman:

A businessman was standing at the pier of a small coastal village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. As the fisherman slept on his boat, the tourist noticed several large yellowfin tuna. The businessman complimented the fisherman on the quality of his catch.

“How long it took you to catch them?” The businessman asked.

“Only a little while.” The fisherman replied.

“Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?” The man then asked.

“I have enough to support my family’s immediate needs.” The fisherman said.

“But,” The businessman then asked, “What do you do with the rest of your time?”

The fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a nap, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my wife and friends. I have a full and busy life, sir.”

The businessman scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds you buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats.”

“Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own can factory. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to larger cities, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The fisherman asked, “But sir, how long will all this take?”

To which the man replied, “15–20 years.”

“But what then, sir?”

The businessman laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO (Initial Public Offering) and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”

“Millions? Then what?”

The businessman said slowly, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a nap, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your wife and friends!”

The fisherman thought for a minute, smiled and replied, “Well, isn’t that what I’m doing now…?”

The moral of this story speaks not only to enjoying the simple things in life, but serves as a warning against shading the rest of the world with our own less-than-rosy tint.

For the only destiny that is truly manifest is the one that we control –OUR OWN.