Meet the Hyper-Rational Saboteur
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Brothers - do you have great advice, but people just won’t listen? Are you gifted with a rational, problem-solving brain? Well, be careful. Human beings are not rational - they are messy and emotional. Beware your hyper-rational saboteur. A hyper-rational saboteur tells us the lie that it can make the best decisions, and that all decisions are best made by using the rational mind. Unfortunately, it often fails to deliver. Or, it delivers in the short term, but problems abound in the long term. Why?
If you can consider all of the qualities that make one a good leader, spouse, teammate, or parent, rationality may be one of them, but the real “stuff” is emotional - loyalty, inspiration, passion, trust, etc..
The biggest risk of the hyper-rational is that it can destroy relationships by treating people like robots: If there is a problem, let me grab the wrench and fix it, it says. But people aren’t machines.
Someone with a hyper-rational saboteur suffers from being perceived as arrogant or unfeeling, and instead of fixing a problem may destroy a relationship. The truth, however, is that the person with the hyper-rational saboteur may actually feel quite deeply, which is why they try to step in and solve the problem in the first place. The recipient of the rational advice or solution, though, is not open to it because their feelings haven’t been acknowledged. They don’t feel seen or heard. This is the paradox of the hyper-rational - I feel for you and I want to help. Why do you think me arrogant? Why won’t you listen? Well, it is because they don’t feel connected to you. You’ve likely neglected the sage power of empathy.
A rational mind is a tremendous asset - a very useful thing. Those with hyper-rational saboteurs have a gift, but the saboteur provides short-term relief, and long-term problems. The rational mind is like a wrench, it fixes stuff. But when a song is needed, a wrench needs to be replaced with a musical instrument (like, for example, empathy). The sage-rational (or, jedi-rational) differs from the hyper-rational because it sees the human condition and applies its rationality when called for, from the sage mind. It doesn’t try to pound a song out of a wrench.
How many of us brothers slip out of our Jedi-rationality and end up in hyper-rationality? My guess is many. It’s very masculine stuff. Which relationships of ours might have been adversely impacted by our hyper-rationals? A spouse or former spouse? A teenager? A coworker? An employee?
Brothers: If you want to learn which of your saboteurs are most active in you, take the Positive Intelligence saboteur assessment here: https://www.positiveintelligence.com/assessments/
Feel free to reach out to me with any questions: andrew@manifestara.com
For those who want to minimize the impact of their saboteurs in their lives, and activate their Sage brain more frequently to become more productive, effective, creative, and focused, we (all Sig-Ep brothers from Geneseo) have an opportunity to take the Positive Intelligence two-month mental fitness training at a $700 discount. All of the material will come directly from Positive Intelligence. I will merely be facilitating the weekly community Zoom meetings. Details here: https://manifestara.com/sig-ep-geneseo-pq-program. The registration deadline is coming up (June 26). Program begins July 6th. Hope you’ll join us. Also, please forward this to any brothers.
Andrew Della Rocca