I regularly tell people being a millionaire is pretty easy, it really is. However it takes regular committed work, and you have to conquer human nature. This is why most people don’t do it.
What is human nature?
Well human nature is the main thing that stops all of us from achieving higher success. Many people will not be able to achieve success if they do not conquer the natural human characteristic that stands in the way.
The points I listed below are what I learned first hand and witnessed time and time again. Not just in my culture and in my society, but every where I went in the world. I’ve also learned elements of this again and again by listening to famous success and motivational experts such as Tony Robbins, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Brian Tracy, and more.
Characteristics of Human Nature:
We always want the most for the least. We are greedy.
- If given a choice between more or less, we almost always choose more. We strive to maximize whenever possible.
- If 2 pieces of fruit are the same price but one is bigger, which one do you buy?
- We are naturally greedy.
- We continuously want more and more out of everything. We rarely get contented.
We always strive to improve our condition. We are lazy and ambitious.
- Human nature always seeks faster and easier ways to get what it wants.
- We are structured mentally in such a way that we cannot consciously choose a more difficult way to accomplish something if we have an easier way.
- We may not always succeed but every action we take is an attempt to be better.
- Even suicide, or starving ourselves on a crazy diet is an attempt to make our situation better.
We are centered on ourselves. We are selfish.
- Each person thinks, feels and acts for themselves.
- Everything we do, even charitable acts of kindness we do it for ourselves. We give the beggar money if it feels right even though it may actually encourage them to continue begging rather than get out of their situation.
- Selfishness is essential for survival.
We act on incomplete information. We are ignorant.
- No matter how much we learn, we can never learn everything about something. Therefore we must act with some degree of ignorance.
- Often we act with very little information. Sometimes we act like we are blind. Sometimes we know a lot. However we can never know everything so we must be ignorant.
We all have an Ego. We consider ourselves to be superior to others when it comes to the measure of intelligence. We are vain.
- The moment we are born, our ego starts to develop. By the time we are teenagers our ego has taken strong hold.
- Studies show that something like 90% of people believe they have higher than normal intelligence.
- Meditation strives to achieve many things. One of which is to calm or silence the ego. Ego can be an obstacle and it can also be a driver.
These are the basic features of Human Nature. Like Mother Nature it exist for good reason and has its purpose. Perhaps we cannot change, perhaps we can. Regardless, it is something we can prepare for. It is something we can handle once we are more aware of it.
Increasing our awareness is the first step to understand ourselves.