The Power of Symbols
The following chapter is from Limit Breaker: 101 Short Stories, Essays, and Insights to Improve Communication Skills
There is an iconic image of Michael Jordan winning his first ever championship.
Before I bring it up, you may know what I am talking about.
It’s the picture of him holding a trophy closely & crying.
It became an iconic photo for multiple 3 peats to come.
But if you are highly logical and objective, you may view the picture from a different lens.
He is technically holding a material.
The trophy is golden, curved with a ball, and a hoop.
But it’s still a material.
Why is it making him cry?
It’s because of the symbol.
The mind loves symbols.
Our entire world is based off symbols.
Picture shaking hands with someone.
Why do you do that?
That doesn’t logically make sense.
Doesn’t matter.
It’s a symbol for building rapport.
‘Why are symbols needed?’
Symbols are needed for mental models.
Mental models allow the brain to think less so it can allocate brain power for other activities.
‘Can you give me an example of another symbol?’
Sure. Your name.
Your name is a just a bunch of letters stringed together.
Imagine your life without a name.
People would need to wave their hands trying to get your attention. They would probably only contact you if the message was VERY important. This would cause you to lose out on a TON of social connections.
It was Dale Carnegie who stated in ‘How to Win Friends &Influence People’ that a person’s name is the sweetest sound in their world.
So yes, a string of letters is pretty damn important.
- The mind loves these constructs.
- The mind loves these mental models to make sense of the world.
During my engineering career, a lot of my classmates and coworkers were atheists.
I don’t have anything against atheists, but I was curious about their mental position.
Some of them were very well thought out.
Others just blurted out, ‘because I can’t see a God!’
Either way, their minds ruled out the existence of an intelligent creator.
However, what their mind didn’t rule out was the role of symbols in culture and to their personal lives.
The symbols could have been:
- Their engineering degree.
- Their name.
- A creative act.
Whatever the case was, most of them had SOME thing of value for their symbol.
‘What if I don’t have a symbol?’
Then symbols will be assigned for you.
That’s where the mainstream media often gets slick. They are highly intelligent with psychology. They understand that the human mind is naturally scattered & needs some sort of bullseye.
So, they will take up the role as the broadcasters of information.
A supreme authority in your world.
If it’s not the mainstream media, then it may be actors or actresses in Hollywood. I know certain parts of the world where they view their entertainment stars as deity’s. Maybe even a sports figure.
Just know this…
The mind is looking for something.
Some form of north star.
Without it, its scatters away looking for answers.
When you feel like you have the right answer, you’ll know.
It’s something that is hard to logically explain.
If you were to ask Michael Jordan why he was crying holding a material object, he wouldn’t be able to logically explain it.
But remember…
Emotional intelligence isn’t something that you logic yourself into. That leaves you with more questions than answers.
Emotional intelligence comes down to the experience . The only person that can experience your emotions is you.
Respect other people’s symbols. It shapes a large part of their perception. Even if you don’t agree with it, all good. They are the ones experiencing the feelings, not you.
Fall back on this one.
- Do you find symbols to be important or a waste of time?
- Do you have any symbols that you hold dearly to your heart?
- How do the symbols in your life influence your behavior?
These are the bigger questions which surprisingly make you wake up from a blind world.
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