Shankar Vedantam

One day, Gary came to you with a problem.

Tell me what he told you.

So his problem was, he said, I have a job that I like.

I'm doing what I want to do, but I have this pesky little thing, which is my body is not allowing me to do what I want to do.

And I want you to get my body out of the way so I can go back to doing what I want to do.

I'm wondering how you responded to this request of his to help him understand what his body was trying to tell him, the message it was trying to give him.

Hmm.

I'm wondering whether Gary was getting feedback from other people that was trying to answer the question that he wanted answered, even if it wasn't the right question.

It must have placed you in a very difficult situation, Dave, because a friend is coming to you with this very serious problem.

You feel like your friend is not looking at reality for what it is.

Other friends are basically encouraging Gary in his delusion.

What did you do?

It must have been very difficult for you to say what you said to him, Dave, but also very difficult for him to listen to it.

This is not the kind of thing that a friend is supposed to tell you.

I'm wondering how Gary took your advice and what he did with it.

When we come back, why the most important thing might not be figuring out where you want to go, but accepting where it is you are.

You're listening to Hidden Brain.

I'm Shankar Vedantam.

This is Hidden Brain.

I'm Shankar Vedantam.