Human Beings are Weak!

by Kevin L. Michel

Are you frail, are you weak, are you error prone? When people mess up they claim their humanity as the cause, “for I am only human.” Such a mischaracterization this is. Human beings are frail, yet do we not build armored bodies and use them to venture around at great speeds? Human beings are weak, but do we not build cranes, trains, and tractors that move the heaviest of loads? Human beings make errors, yet are we not capable of learning from them and correcting them through the restructuring of our complex neural network? It seems the matter of our frailty, weakness, and proclivity to error is a matter of definition. Where do we end, and where do our tools begin? We create the tools, we harness their power, and we become thusly powerful. We learn from our errors, learn from our mistakes, and when operating in true human fashion, we become better and wiser because of those mistakes.

It is time for a redefinition. It is time for you to redefine what it means to be human, and in so doing for you to come face to face with the tremendous power that you as the individual, possesses.

It is time to proclaim that, "To be human, is to be powerful!"

Personally, you have to consider difficult conditions and be willing to expose yourself to the most challenging conditions. That is how you shall grow, that is how you shall become more capable than you are today.

When astronauts spend time on the International Space Station in the low gravity of space, the capabilities of their muscles, bones, and tendons are gradually reduced. They experience reductions in physical strength through atrophy of those components, and this occurs even with rigorous daily exercise requirements. On their return to Earth, they stumble around, just managing to walk, and spend several months bringing their body back to the level of fitness that existed prior to their space faring. This is analogous to what happens when you allow yourself to exist in an environment that does not challenge you intellectually / psychologically / ethically.

This is what happens when you spend time with people who are weak, or people who are strong but believe that you are weak. I personally do not like it when people ask me "Are you OK?" Sure it is nice of them to ask, but I always wonder who the hell they think I am? I am a beast, I am a machine, I am not as weak as you are, I am human, and that means that I am powerful. And they are also powerful - so let us all stop being so weak together. People who are strong challenge you, and those are the ones who want to have a conversation about how you can be better next time, and about how you can improve things next time around, and about how you can win, and win as a team.

People who are strong are happy to make mistakes so long as learning occurs in the process. That is the goal of your days, to be open to challenges, and to possibly fail, but to definitely learn. Your goal is to find and create the environments that shall challenge you, like the gravity of the earth pulling you to its core, you must be constantly engaged and tested, that is the path to strength, and that is what it must mean to be human.

Kevin L. Michel is a Performance Psychology Consultant based in New York, with an MSc. in General Psychology. He is author of the books "Moving Through Parallel Worlds To Achieve Your Dreams" and "The Greatest Player."