“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” — Elie Wiesel Nobel Peace Prize laureate
“…to remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all.”
Obviously Elie Wiesel and I think alike, so I don’t remain silent and indifferent, I shout to whoever is willing to listen.
Now, with that said, let me get to the topic I indicate in the title…
I know a guy who has developed getting off the hook to an art form.
Given that I have been practicing finding the funny in everything (it’s fun, you should do it!) I laugh when I think of him, while I also cringe.
As I have shared before, the fastest way to raise your vibration, all the way to heaven, is to practice public authenticity.
Authenticity, just like transformation, just like integrity, is a momentary state, a glimpse, now it’s there… now it isn’t.
So what is authenticity? It is not what we use it for in mass-language of the media… authenticity is the moment when a person confronts themselves, and what they see there is inauthenticity. Ugly. Unattractive.
But, for reasons I don’t know, we, human beings are fundamentally inauthentic, probably because we live among other human beings that can judge us the way we judge them.
So, let me re-iterate: you can’t be authentic, you can only be authentic about your own lack of authenticity. 1
When you see the ugly, and you tell the truth about it, you give up your right to be that way. Tough, but you do.
When you see the ugly, and you say it in front of others, they get to see their own ugliness, and then you cause a transformation, in the moment, that will keep YOU straight.
Now, can you tell the truth about something ugly and with your tone of voice, with your mannerisms, make it fully, wholly, disgustingly inauthentic? Yeah, you bet.
What happens when you do that? Everyone around you will start to joke about, complain about their own hidden ugly, and everyone gets out without a transformation, without changing anything.
This is what this guy I know practices. He practices lowering the vibration of the planet by every word he says, including his own.
‘I am so lazy…’ ‘I never keep my word’ ‘I promise but don’t deliver’ ‘My place is a mess’ ‘My business is a failure because I don’t do what I need to do’ delivered in a jesting tone of voice is called ‘Public Inauthenticity’ and it’s the opposite of what I recommend.
When you come to a coaching call with me, and you talk about your misery in an indifferent, by the way, jesting way, I know that you are a lost cause, until you share your pain with me on the call.
Until you share the pain, until you consider what you do and your results unbearable, unconfrontable, intolerable, you won’t do anything about it.
Saying that to yourself hasn’t made a difference, has it? But saying it on the calls, authentically, will suddenly start to make you do something different.
Of course the other extreme, whining, crying, pretending to feel bad, is as inauthentic as the jesting.
We have examples for both extremes… you won’t be the first.
You may think something is unbearable, but if you are into doing anything, I know it isn’t unbearable, it is quite tolerable… like the indifference in Elie Wiesel’s quote.
Your job is to stop living in the middle of the road, and get happy or get miserable, really miserable, publicly authentic… so you finally can get off the middle of the road.
