In all this in writing, blogging, and speaking that I do, I often find myself pondering how I can be more effective in making changes that I think ought be made. My musical training of long ago taught me to always look for the fundamental, as that is where the power is.
One big fundamental I’ve discovered is that we are drowning in mythologies. Many people are held back, not by lack of talent or opportunity, but by belief in mythologies that make them hesitate. Like Dorothy’s belief in the Wizard of Oz, the real issue is the vast quantity of incorrect information that is accepted as truth.
The most obvious one for me is all the mythology about conductors. When I was a youngster, not knowing any better, I fell into these very appealing power fantasies just like everybody else. Through luck and/or fate, I stumbled into an environment where I got to see the real story. It was a bit of a shock. So whenever I hear of someone talking about “leading their company like a maestro of an orchestra,” I always cringe. Do they mean the common romantic myth of a “maestro,” or how it’s actually done? Sadly, it’s almost always the former.
More recently, there’s all the mythology I had to overcome about writing and publishing books. The reality of the business is very different from the commonly accepted fantasy. I can never explain the publishing business without first undoing the mythological beliefs that people have about it.
Having sharpened my eye on these two mythologies, I’ve become terribly sensitive to their presence in other areas, for example, how the average television commercial twists the truth.
In writing my latest book, “Getting in Touch with Your Inner Rich Kid,” I had to look at the many common mythologies of how money supposedly works. When I sat myself down and thought them through, the discoveries were astonishing. Again, there was a two-step process, of “unlearning what I had learned” and starting over doing it right. And a certain amount of annoyance at how much counter-productive stuff I had taken as truth long ago.
I suppose people have to do what they have to do to market their services, but the trouble is, as more and more mythology becomes accepted as truth and fact, there is less and less room for actual truth and fact. Once that stuff gets in there, no one gets to start at zero any more. One is handicapped by incorrect information, and that incorrect information (which may now be a very fond belief) has to be “undone” before the actual information can enter the mind. Discovering that your fond mythologies are not true can be a very humbling and disturbing experience. Some people can never bear to give them up, which means they can never move towards success in reality. The belief in mythology prevents many people from achieving any sense of real fulfillment in life, in my humble opinion.
I see many people talking about the arts and about leadership, and I have to say, in my opinion, most of the time they are promulgating the popular fantasy. It’s not that they’re lying . . . they really believe what they’re saying. And I sometimes wonder if I should just get on the bandwagon. But there’s just no way I can do that.
“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” I like to try and make people free of the limiting forces of belief in mythology. It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it.
© Justin Locke
