The impetus that makes you fly is our great human possession everybody has it

The impetus that makes you fly is our great human possession everybody has it, it is the feeling of being a linked with the roots of power but one soon becomes afraid of this feeling that is why most people shed their wings and prefer to walk and obey the law the 20th-century psychologist Abraham Maslow was convinced that within us all exists an impulse to achieve greatness and an urge to move toward what he called our highest possibilities few among us. however, achieve anything of great worthwhile there are various reasons for this one of them according to Maslow is simply that we fear our greatness more than we desire it we are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in the most perfect moments we enjoy and even thrill to the godlike possibilities we see in ourselves and yet we simultaneously shiver with weakness and fear before these very same possibilities Maslow called this fear of greatness the Jona complex about the biblical character Jonah who attempted to flee from the fate bestowed on him.

Colin Wilson one of the most prolific authors of the 20th century suggested that an insignificance neurosis permeates modern society acting as an additional barrier to the cultivation of one's greatness Wilson observed that much of,twentieth-century thought was dominated by what he called the unheroic hypothesis which he defined as the sense of defeat or disaster or futility that's to underlie so much modern writing in answering the age-old question is a man more akin to a god or a worm. He thought the modern age instilled in the individual a belief that we are much closer to the worm thus helping explain the average individual's tendency to accept a life a far below their potential Abraham Maslow a friend of Colin Wilson's came to very similar conclusions Maslow made a habit of asking his students who among them would write a great novel or become a great leader or composer and discovered that generally everybody starts giggling blushing and squirming until I asked if not you then who else which of course is the truth if you deliberately plan to be less than you are capable of being then I warn you that you'll be deeply unhappy for the rest of your life you will be evading your capacities your possibilities.

Maslow thought the anxiety displayed by his students was the result of an inability to fathom the godlike possibilities within for too long without succumbing to the fear that such arrogance could lead to unhealthy delusions of grandeur as a result of this fear people tend to the opposite extreme and view themselves as more analogous to a worm incapable of achieving anything of significance Maslow, however, believed that both extremes seeing oneself as a God or a worm were equally detrimental he, therefore, advised we find the golden mean or middle way to overcome our fear of greatness we must learn to move boldly towards our goals while simultaneously maintaining humility in the awareness that we are all after all human all too human or as Maslow explained for some people this evasion of one's growth setting low levels of aspiration. The fears of doing what one is capable of doing voluntary self crippling are in fact defenses against grandiosity arrogance sinful pride hubris some people cannot manage that graceful integration between the humility and the pride which is necessary for creative work to invent or create you must have the arrogance of creativeness which like so many investigators have noticed but of course, if you have only the arrogance without the humility then you are delusional you must be aware not only of the godlike possibilities within but also of the existential human limitations if you can be amused by the worm trying to be God then, in fact, you may be able to go on trying and being arrogant without fearing delusions of grandeur this is a good technique you.