008 | The Safety & Security Trap
Hello everyone!
Minute of Transparency: “For such a time as this…”
"For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14 (NKJV)
Today’s Topic: "The Safety & Security Trap” - possibly one of the most pervasive issues we deal with today.
Safety & Security Defined
The Many Faces of Safety & Security
Smoke & Mirrors
Transcending Safety & Security
// 1. SAFETY & SECURITY DEFINED
First using Dictionary.com:
Safety: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/safety?s=t
The state of being safe; freedom from the occurrence or risk of injury, danger, or loss
The quality of averting or not causing injury, danger, or loss
The action of keeping safe
Security: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/security?s=t
Freedom from danger, risk, etc.; safety
Freedom from care, anxiety, or doubt; well-founded confidence
Freedom from financial cares or from want
Precautions taken to guard against crime, attack, sabotage, espionage, etc.
To further understand these words, we can look to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
So looking at the concept of Safety & Security:
They fall into the set of “Basic Needs” at the bottom
The only needs more important, are the “physiological"
The suggestion is that these needs at the bottom MUST be fulfilled before we can move up the pyramid and engage in the higher level needs like the “psychological” and “self-fulfillment” needs
Transcend Human suggests that in our culture we aren’t simply checking this off one time and moving on. Instead, many of us have taken Safety & Security to a whole new level - making it an ongoing battle that requires time, energy and a lot of money in order to achieved it.
So why do we fall into the Safety & Security Trap?
To control an unstable environment
To decrease anxiety, worry and fear
To avoid discomfort on any level
And in so doing, experiencing an increased level of happiness - right?
// 2. THE MANY FACES OF SAFETY & SECURITY
Transcend Human sees two versions of Safety & Security: :
Maslow’s Level: Basic, legit safety needs and behaviors
Cultural Level: More complex, psychological and potentially frivolous needs and behaviors
So let’s start with Maslow’s Level: I would really refer to these as legit, basic safety things that most people do to protect themselves:
Wearing seatbelts
Not walking down dark alleys alone late at night
Not building a house in a flood plane
Car maintenance on a regular basis to ensure the engine doesn’t blow up at an inopportune time
Having insurance on vehicles and homes
In my world, these are the type of things most people do to ensure a certain level of safety and security
But let’s talk about the Cultural Level:
These live on a wide spectrum from legitimate to irrational
There is no way to cover all of them and there is no defined line between what is legitimate and what is slightly irrational
So let’s just start walking through some examples:
Choosing to live in gated community to keep your home from getting broken into
Focusing on money and the accumulation of wealth to ensure you’ll never be homeless or in need
Buy a more expensive car with higher “safety ratings” to ensure you won’t be injured badly in an accident
Parking expensive cars away from everyone else so they won’t get scratched or dinged
Living the “survival of the fittest” lifestyle to ensure you get promoted over someone else in your department
Exercising obsessively to ensure you will age less quickly, and not experience health problems
Eating healthy to keep disease away and ensure you stay looking young
Using numerous skin care products to make sure your skin doesn’t age faster than normal
Plastic surgery to stop the aging process and ensure you remain marketable
Not allowing your kids to start driving at age 16 because it seems dangerous
Helicopter parenting to ensure children never experience failure or hardship
Not sharing with others because that means you are giving your things away - things you might need someday
Not asking for or allowing people to help you because they may do it wrong
Ensuring your kids go to the best university so they will be successful
More recently: Hoarding toilet paper, hand sanitizer and canned goods to be safe during the Coronavirus...
I know - hard to hear right? But only because we all gravitate toward this behavior!
// 3. SMOKE & MIRRORS
So is Transcend Human saying that all of these cultural level items are bad?
Absolutely not! In fact, I believe it is in our DNA to protect ourselves, those we love and even complete strangers when we see them being taken advantage of.
But let’s be clear. There is a HUGE difference between:
Protecting your child from an attacker with a weapon and protecting your child from getting a “D" on a homework assignment by doing the assignment for them
Wearing a seatbelt and not letting your child drive until they’re 21 to keep them safe
Locking your doors at night and living in a gated community with an expensive home security system
We have to start seeing through the smoke and mirrors that this world uses to keep us from the truth.
Truth bomb: Safety & Security on Earth is an illusion:
So why do we fall into the trap? Well, we talked about it a few minutes ago. Our incessant drive toward safety and security is really based on our need for the following:
To be in control in an unstable environment
To decrease anxiety, worry and fear
To avoid discomfort on any level
And finally, if we can achieve this, we MUST experience an increased level of happiness - right?
But it isn’t real. Safety & Security is an illusion. And subconsciously we know it is true because of situations like these:
People who exercise and eat right still get cancer
People living in gated communities still experience crime, and houses get broken into
Random crimes like workplace and school shootings happen without warning and cannot be planned for
Terrorist attacks are never telegraphed. 9/11 wasn’t something we thought could even happen
Natural disasters happen everywhere on the globe. And they don’t care who is in their way, how much money the person has, how much money they spent on their home to make it safe. They are going to do what they came to do
One natural disaster that is particularly efficient at this is the earthquake. Unlike hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes, tsunamis and fires - you can’t really see them coming or predict their arrival. No amount of preparation, or money spent to make your home safe will keep an earthquake from destroying things in its path
And finally, this month we got to experience a global illustration on a massive scale: The Coronavirus Pandemic:
A virus like this is no respecter of persons
It doesn’t have boundaries or borders
It goes wherever it wants to go - to every corner of the Earth
It impacts the rich and the poor alike
I can invade a homeless community, and it can impact Hollywood A-listers
There is no better illustration of the fact that Safety & Security is an illusion
// 4. TRANSCENDING SAFETY & SECURITY
So what then you ask?
Simply put:
Don’t be an idiot: There are some fundamental things we as humans should do to be safe:
Wear your seatbelt! Sure, it might wrinkle that power suit - but get over it...
Don’t walk down dark alleys at night by yourself
Don’t go skydiving without a parachute...
Have home, car and health insurance! It’s just dumb not to. Without it, you’re gambling that nothing bad can happen to you
etc.
Then, be realistic with everything else: Use your common sense and be self aware about areas where you’re just grasping at straws
Understand that you aren’t going to control everything in your life
Understand that bad things happen to safe people - but choose not to live in fear or worry constantly that bad things will happen
Understand that comfort is nice, but discomfort is inevitable - and know that you can and will make it through the discomfort
And finally, understand that happiness is not the ultimate goal. We will experience happiness from time to time, but joy and contentment are much more important...
Landing the plane:
You’ll notice throughout this episode I stayed away from injecting anything spiritual into the conversation.
But I can’t sign off today without telling you there is a MASSIVE spiritual element to this entire thing:
First, the reason we’re even having this conversation about Safety & Security is because bad things happen in the world we live in
Think of it this way: If we were living in a utopian society where nothing bad ever happened - would we even be having this conversation?
But Earth is a fallen planet. What was once a utopia, came crashing down when we chose against Our Creator, and decided to test out what Satan was offering
And so began the battle between God and Satan for the allegiance of every person past, present and future
The sin virus (as I like to refer to it) that entered the world when we chose to try Satan’s plan, brought with it a host of problems (we’ll dive deeper into this list in a future episode…)
But the important thing to understand is that the sin virus brought the problems we face today: Hatred, anger, war, natural disasters, global warming, pandemics, etc.
So all of the bad things we experience are spiritual in nature - part of the spiritual battle going on behind the scenes
This week I encourage you to ask yourself the following questions:
How important is Safety & Security to you right now?
Are you doing irrational things in an attempt to control, decrease fear/anxiety, increase comfort and improve your chances for happiness?
What are your thoughts/beliefs about The Controversy? About the Sin Virus?
Is it hard for you to believe that God and Satan are fighting over you? Over your family?
And finally, do you realize that you have the freedom of choice in the Controversy? That you get to choose which side you want to be on?
Both sides are offering benefit packages
You just need to weigh your options and make the choice
If you’d like more information about how to make that choice:
Contact us at: info@transcendhuman.com
We’ll send you a free digital resource that can help you in this process
Next time we’ll look at the strategies successful businesses employ and see how similar they are to the things we can do as individuals to mature, and be successful.
Thank you so much for joining us today! Until then - keep Transcending Human!