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“Those with the confidence to
endure, acknowledge mistakes
and setbacks, recognize
weakness, atone for sins, and
control their worst impulses
”will ultimately flourish.
acknowledge mistakes and setbacks, recognize weakness, atone for
sins, and control their worst impulses will ultimately flourish.
More important than IQ, argues this author, are emotional
intelligence, street smarts, or whatever the current buzzword is for
the ability to read a landscape, understand the motivations of others, the typical hiring policies of many corporations which focus
or figure out the underlying reasoning for the behavior of folks we
deal with in our everyday lives.
The unconscious realm of emotions, intuitions, biases, longings,
genetic predispositions, character traits, and social norms is where
character and personality are formed. These underlying qualities in
all humans determine emotional intelligence and how we react to
our environment. To a great extent, our life success depends on this
unconscious realm.
The Social Animal explores this below-the-surface layer of our
minds and behaviors. A whole host of researchers—including
neuroscientists, economists, anthropologists, psychologists,
sociologists, and geneticists—have concluded that various areas
of our brains which were previously thought to be vestigial or not
directly related to our behavior actually are activated and engaged
even when we are seemingly at rest.
“The unconscious parts of the mind are most of the mind—
where most of the decisions and many of the most impressive acts
of thinking take place. These submerged processes are the seedbeds
of accomplishment,” according to Brooks.
In another erudite book on the subject titled Strangers to
Ourselves, Timothy Wilson writes the human mind can take in 11
million pieces of information at any given time. At the most we are
only aware of 40 of these. These submerged mental processes, those
below our conscious or organized thinking, shape our judgements,
form our character, and provide us with the ability to thrive in our
complex environment.
The subconscious or unconscious mind is highly emotional and
provides us with those “gut” feelings, passions, and hungers for
the invisible bonds among people. The conscious mind highlights
the power of the intellect for cognitive thinking and outward
appearances, whereas the unconscious mind focuses on harmony
and connection, and is immersed in the surrounding environment.
Life in Naples | January 2016
When we scan a beautiful open
landscape, we experience an inner
feeling of comfort. The opposite feeling
of danger, when we face a deep dark
forest, stems from millenniums of
experience built into our subconscious.
The almost innate aversion to spiders
and snakes, which in many ways can be
protective, is also mostly unlearned.
The idea of a “spiritual GPS
system” is our subconscious locating
our position and helping map our
course. Unfortunately we generally
don’t optimize this mapping as we are so attuned to being
rational and trying to metric everything. For example, consider
on objective competencies. Once these measures are at an
acceptable level, personality becomes much more important for
a good fit and subsequent success. Personalities are much more
difficult to measure or quantitate but so important in creating
high functioning teams. The aggregation of personalities creates
the culture of an organization. And as has been stated by many
business gurus, “culture trumps strategy all the time.”
Character is to a great extent also controlled by the subconscious.
How we react to various situations is probably best explained by
processes which are inculcated into our brains even before we are
born. Yes, these subconscious processes can be modified by either
training or by conscientious education and purposeful behavior.
However in the long run, the energy needed to constantly try to
modify ingrained behavior is monumental. Most folks will not
have the energy, knowledge, or ability to change an underlying
subconscious motivation.
Human nature is so complex and so hard to change. Most likely
the subconscious is the controlling agent. Until and unless we
recognize the subconscious as having such a pivotal role in behavior,
we will have continuing frustration with change management.
Consider how much legislation and how many edicts, top-
down commands, and all sorts of other warnings have at best only
temporary success. Unless new habits are formed by changing
behavior at a subconscious level, a person’s basic subconscious will
control all activities and unknowingly torpedo any efforts to change.
Fortunately, when we look deeper into the subconscious—
be it our own minds or those around us—we are better able to
understand, explain, change, and move towards successful behavior.
When employed for the good of any organization, the
understanding of our own and other’s emotions will assist in the
development of a better environment.
Too often we can be too rational and ignore the controlling and
very deep colors of the subconscious.
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