Being Reasonable

Martin Luther called reason "the Devil's harlot." Have you ever noticed how reasonable you are - and how many aspects of your life still don't work all that well? Perhaps the more reasonable you become, the more your life is thrown in disarray. This is the kind of thing that happens when your dreams and your actual life situation are not in harmony. You may have to rise to the occasion by throwing reason out the window and becoming more unreasonable.

Society and educational institutions teach us that being reasonable will bring us happiness and success. Granted, being reasonable has its place. The problem, however, is being too reasonable can hinder our creativity and wellbeing. When we are considering something new and different, we don't have to wait very long before someone tells us that we are being unreasonable. Yet being reasonable wins us the booby prize of life.

Allow me to give one example of the many times that I have benefited from being unreasonable. While working on my Master's in European Law, I decided to approach a professor who had given me a much lower grade than I thought I deserved on a midterm paper. What made my going to see the professor unreasonable was that four of my fellow students had already gone to see him about their low marks. The professor became very defensive and refused to give any of them a higher grade.

Reason told me not to waste my time going to see the professor, but my inner, creative voice told me that I still might be able to pull off getting a higher mark. Because I wasn't trained and certified in advanced clinical hypnosis, I had to find some creative way to convince this professor to give me a higher mark. In the end, I took a different approach to the problem than the other students used.

The first thing I did was not make the professor "wrong" by telling him that he graded my paper unfairly. Even though I have a big ego, I made myself wrong instead - desperate times called for desperate measures! I told the professor, "I messed up my last midterm paper which means I won't get a good final mark in this course. This could cost me an assistantship worth 3,000. Euros" Then to totally give my problem away to the professor, and at the same time put him in control, I asked, "What would you do if you were in my shoes?"

Much to my surprise - at least to my reasonable mind – my unreasonableness paid off. The professor thought for a moment or two and replied, "I will tell you what. If you make a good mark on your final exam, I will increase your overall mark in the course by one complete grade. Just write a little reminder on your exam that we had this conversation."

As it turned out my final grade in the course ended up much better than I had expected - I got the highest mark possible - and I easily ended up with the 3,000 Euros teaching assistantship. No doubt the other four MEL students who tried to get higher marks never gave much consideration to being unreasonable - indeed, most MEL programs teach students to be extremely reasonable.

Unfortunately, our tendency to be too reasonable leads us to ignore our hunches, inner voices, dreams, and premonitions. We must follow our instincts - instead of reason - if we want to excel in this world. "I believe in instinct, not in reason,' A. C. Benson quipped.”When reason is right, nine times out of ten it is impotent, and when it prevails, nine times out of ten it is wrong."

To add to your aliveness and enjoyment of life, try being a little less reasonable. You don't always need a good reason for everything you do. Telephone someone truly successful to see if he or she will talk to you. Try responding to your inner voice even if it leads you in directions you have never traveled. There will be times when your intellect says no, but your inner voice says yes. Then go with your instinct; it usually knows best.

Being unreasonable is something that you can do on a daily basis. When you encounter either your own voice of judgment, or someone else's, strike a blow against the prevailing reason. You will find life is different. It becomes much more interesting and rewarding because you are living it to the fullest in unreasonable ways.