We had a nice post on The Book Bytes Project the other day – “we are the rider and the elephant.” It’s a great reminder that we are all inherently schizophrenic. We all have two beings who make up our minds and every decision we take precedes a heated debate between the rider and the elephant (a brilliant metaphor for the pre-frontal cortex and the amygdala by Psychologist Jonathan Haidt).
The elephant is emotional, rash, fearful, and action oriented. The rider is logical, correct, weak, and thought oriented. The best decisions made are thought through by the rider and executed by the elephant. But, the catch is that the elephant is not easy to control and, given it’s size, is more than capable of either executing in a hurry or not doing anything at all.
The elephant and the rider are the biggest reasons as to why we are guilty of inconsistency. We can easily find ourselves saying something logical and correct (the rider) and find ourselves doing the exact opposite (the elephant). And the only way forward is to love them both and to learn to learn how to work with both.
Here’s a simple example – I’ve made two early morning rules to ward my elephant off – I am not allowed to make a decision on whether or not to exercise when my alarm rings and I am not allowed to check email first thing in the morning.
The exercise decision is for a simple reason – if the powerful elephant is allowed to make up his mind first thing in the morning, I have no chance. I need to brush my teeth, wake up, summon my willpower, and then go for it.
The email decision is because the elephant begins thinking about action the moment it reads an unexpected email. This results in one of two unwelcome consequences – I either type out a response that I regret or I spend 20 minutes thinking about what needs to be done only to realize the problem wasn’t complicated; I was just drowsy and not thinking straight.
There are multiple little rules to train my elephant. He’s not the bad guy, of course. He’s just part of me. And, boy, do I need some training.. :-)
A Learning a Day 