I have recently read a good chunk of the book The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement by Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell. Of many messages I came across in it, one underlying theme was that narcissism is not beneficial for the people around the narcissist. The narcissist uses people around them for energy, or as fuel, and so the others are left dried out when the narcissist is done with them. There was more to it, but this is a concept worth discussing.
photo credit: James Jordan
Great ideas alter the power balance in relationships. That’s why great ideas are initially resisted.
This was on one of the comics shown in Hugh MacLeod’s book Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity, which is also shown on his site Gapingvoid. Do you have a great idea you are trying to implement? Do you see something that you think others might not see? When you go to implement an idea, those close to you may provide resistance because the implementation would change how they relate to you. No one usually wants the person who they see as their supporting unit to then become a leader of their own.
This is a guest-written article by Farnoosh from Prolific Living.
A Personal Story – And The Question
The other day I finally gathered enough courage to do it. I sent an email to my college boyfriend of over a decade ago, and promptly asked for my copy of The Fountainhead back. He borrowed my copy never to return it. The copy of a book I had read in high school in the span of 2 weeks, a book that left me with an indelible impression, the book I had underlined, written in, and slept with and lost much sleep over. I wanted it back. And only that copy would do.
If there is a person you know who cares for you, and they are putting in effort to make you a better person, you don’t want to take them for granted. It’s not good to do. This message is about folks outside of your family. You can build up a sense in your mind that you are worth so much that the individual and their caring is not a big deal to you, or that you are entitled to their concern, but this is not true in either sense. In that case, you are taking them for granted.