Don't Burn Your Hands!

The following quotation appears at the very beginning of The Catalyst of Confidence, just prior to the Table of Contents:

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is

probably why so few people engage in it.”

-Henry Ford

One would not be wrong to assume—especially considering it is seen before anything else—that this quote carries some special meaning within the overall context of the book. Indeed, it does. For if The Catalyst of Confidence is a book is about anything, it is a book about thinking. But what exactly does it mean to think? After all, the term “thinking” is thrown around colloquially as though anyone and everyone engages in such activity. Yet Henry Ford himself, the great automotive visionary and industrialist, proposes that not only is thinking the hardest work there is, but also that so few people engage in it? It seems to be true that on a certain level—everyone thinks. And on yet another, demonstrably deeper and more analytic level, few people think. Though it may surprise some, it is this second, deeper and more analytic level of thinking with which The Catalyst of Confidence is concerned.

Thinking at this level is concerned with causal relationships. That is, examining the relationship between cause and effect—between action and result. If you place your hand on the heated coil of a stove, you're going to be burned. The act of “placing one's hand” on the stove would be considered the “cause” or “action” while the condition of “being burned” would be considered the “effect” or “result.” This is, of course, a rather simplistic example, but it serves the purpose of illustrating this concept quite nicely. Everything we do (action) produces a given effect or result. Some effects/results are good and desirable, and therefore we would do well to seek out the cause/action that produced them. Some effects/results are bad and painful, but we would do especially well, if we took the time to seek out the specific cause/action which produced such undesirable circumstances.

If you find yourself in any undesirable circumstance, particularly inner or personal circumstances, reflect on the cause/action which produced such circumstances. If you don't know the cause/action which produced it, concentrate on finding it, and eventually you'll figure it out. However, we must remember that it isn't enough to simply examine the relationship between a given cause/action and effect/result if we ultimately fail to correct it. In other words, in order to change the effect/result, we need to change the cause/action. Surely, no one wants to spend their life burning their hands?

We've barely scratched the surface—more to come!