Myth #3: Elevation
All three myths affect our relationship to reality. Each creates a reality distortion field that warps our perceptions. Influence distorts reality like a drug. Calculation persuades us that we can control reality. The third myth promises to insulate us from reality. I refer to it as elevation.
Elevation operates in two phases. First it increases your dissatisfaction with your current station in life. No matter how good life is, no matter how much you have to be grateful for, elevation draws your attention to your deficits. Now that it has you focussed on your dissatisfaction, the myth of elevation presents a bespoke solution along with a guarantee that will satisfy assuage your dissatisfaction. Elevation wants you to believe that possessing more power, fostering the right perceptions, or acquiring certain possessions will render you less vulnerable to life’s eventualities.
You know elevation’s voice because it begins with “If only…”:
“If only you had more money…”
“If only you had a better house…”
“If only you had a better job…”
“If only you were more attractive…”
“If only you were more like that person…”
Like the other two myths, elevation contains a kernel of truth. A healthy sense of elevation challenges you to test the edges of your comfort zone. Maybe you know you need to improve your diet, increase your income, or take some risks that might improve your station in life. Elevation creates a healthy agitation encourages you to move in a better direction. Elevation mutates into a myth when it promises to insulate you from painful realities.
A friend invited me to attend a Formula 1 race with a group of CEOs from a variety of companies. As we entered our VIP tent that sat adjacent to the finish line, one of the executives in the group introduced our group to the staff as, “A group of powerful executives.” My friend and l exchanged a look a look of bewilderment.
The executive wanted everyone to know that he and his buddies were not like everyone else, especially the wait staff. Throughout the afternoon I noticed this executive and a few of his friends studying people in the other VIP tents as if to measure their respective elevation. Elevation had them in its grip.
You may hear that story and write the executive off as a blowhard and a buffoon. I don’t blame you. I’m inclined to write him off as well. But if I’m honest I have to confess that I’ve heard myself say similar things. The fact that I don’t announce these thoughts like he did only proves that I have a more highly tuned filter. When I’m swept away by the myth of elevation, I want exactly what that executive wanted when he made his cringeworthy proclamation—for people to see me as elevated, set apart, and better than them.
Do you know anyone that appears deaf to elevation’s seductive voice? I do. I don’t have to be around them very long before I pick up on their contentedness. The Greeks referred to this virtue as hesuchia, pronounced hay-soo-khee’-ah, which means "quiet, stillness". It’s an inner tranquillity that results from a person that’s content with their station in life, as opposed to scraping and striving for more. It doesn’t mean that such a person doesn’t hear elevation’s seductive voice. They may. They’ve just developed the ability to block it out.
How about you? Look for examples this week when you find yourself craving more power, wanting to shape how others perceive you, or acquiring more possessions. That’s elevation at work. Remember that you only hear its voice because you’ve entered the marketplace of myths. It’s time to leave.
There’s no need to get down on yourself. Just note that it happens and when it happens. The best antidote to elevation is to draw your attention away from what you lack to what you possess. Elevation hates that.
Now we’re ready to look at the One Truth that enable us to defy the 6 Gravitational Laws and dispel the 3 Myths. Embrace this truth and your life will never be the same. But first a warning: you may not like the answer.
