Why You Must Be Unreasonable
You succeed when you are unreasonable about succeeding. You neither give nor accept excuses. You insist on becoming a success, no matter what it takes.
L. Ron Hubbard defines reasonableness as “faulty explanations.” When you agree with faulty explanations, you are being “reasonable” instead of being successful.
Examples of faulty explanations:
“I can’t repair your furnace today as it might rain.” The truth is, the repairman wants to go to drink beer with his friends.
“None of the staff will work past 5:00.” The truth is, the manager does not want to work past 5:00.
“I can’t pay you as I promised as my wife is sick.” The truth is, he needs the money for a new boat.
Why Agree?
If you agree with faulty explanations, you agree to fail. Excuses, justifications and reasonableness all produce nothing.
Yet disagreeing with failure, with problems and with excuses, helps you succeed.
“If you can’t fix the furnace today because of the rain, I’ll find someone who repairs furnaces, despite the rain.”
“I believe lots of people will work past 5:00. You are the manager and need to handle the schedules. Do you need me to show you how to do it?”
“Well, I’m sorry about your wife, but don’t see how that’s related. You agreed to pay me today, so please pay me right now, as you promised.”
When you disagree with faulty explanations, the sun shines, rainbows appear and everything improves.
Statistical Justifications
The most important thing to be unreasonable about is productivity. When your statistics in life (how much you earn or produce) are going down, you fail if you make up excuses. You cannot accept faulty explanations for weak performance.
“Never JUSTIFY why a graph continues to be down and never be reasonable about it. A down graph is simply a down graph and somebody is goofing.” — L. Ron Hubbard
Justifications for failures are everywhere:
“Reading skills are getting worse in the United States because of YouTube.”
“I had to close the business because of the stock market.”
“No one buys cars from Pete because he’s too old.”
If you are reasonable and accept these excuses, you cannot solve the problems.
However, when you disagree with explanations and find the truth, the solutions become obvious.
Examples:
“YouTube has nothing to do with reading skills. Most kids never learn to use a dictionary. How can they understand what they read if they do not understand the words?”
“Your business didn’t fail because of the stock market. It failed because you didn’t know what you were doing. Did you advertise? Did you deliver what you promised? Did you add new products or services that people wanted to buy?”
“People buy cars from salesmen older than Pete every day. Was Pete working every day? What are his weekly stats? What does Pete have to say?”
Be Unreasonable with Yourself
Not only must you be unreasonable with others, you must be unreasonable with yourself. For example you think, “I’m tired because I work so hard.”
You then say to yourself, “Too bad! I need to disagree with this silly explanation. I’ve worked harder than this and felt great! I’m tired because I’m working hard on the wrong things. I’m going to WAKE UP, stop wasting time and make this day a productive day!”
More examples:
“I just don’t know how to do it.” “I will stay up late every night and I will learn how to do it.”
“No one is successful in my area.” “I’ll be the first to succeed in my area, no matter what it takes!”
“I would get the job done today, but I promised myself I could watch the football game.” “To heck with the game! I’m getting the job done, even if I have to work until midnight.”
The barriers to your success are excuses, faulty explanations and justifications. As soon as you decide to get unreasonable with these barriers, you find the solutions you need to become successful.
Exercises
In the examples below, decide which are reasonable explanations and which are the truthful statements.
“I have no money because (I spend more than I earn) (of the cost of gas).”
“I can’t lose weight because (I’m too busy) (I’m lazy and addicted to chocolate donuts).”
“I’m single and lonely because (I don’t get out and meet people) (no one likes me).”
“I can’t find a good assistant because (I’m too busy) (I’m not taking the time to find one).”
“I let people boss me around because (I’m kind and caring) (I don’t stand up to them).”
Recommendations
1. Write down a failure you have had in your life.
2. Write down all the excuses and faulty explanations you have invented or accepted for this failure.
3. Disagree with all of them. Decide to be unreasonable with them.
4. Accept full responsibility for the failure and find what you did or did not do that caused it.
5. Turn each failure into successes.
If you continue to be unreasonable with excuses, justifications and faulty explanations, you will make it go right and succeed!
Learn more about statistics and graphs.