2,400 years ago, Aristotle gave the world three laws, without which no math, physics, or computer code would have been possible. They’re known as the Laws of Identity.
Today we’ll focus only on the first and most important of the three laws, and if you fully grasp it and integrate it into your process of thinking, there’s nothing in this world that can stop you from getting wildly successful.
The law of identity states that
“Each thing is identical with itself.”
Or A is A.
For example, an apple is always an apple; it cannot be a mango. It’s a fact that it’s an apple. It will be an apple in space, in water, or in any country in the world.
Imagine you’re holding a pen. You raise your hand and then drop the pen. What’s going to happen? The pen will fall down. Why? The answer is simple: gravity.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re in America, the UK, Australia, Canada, India, or the North Pole; when you drop the pen, it always falls down. It’s a fact. You can rationally understand it. Your judgement is based on reason. There are no contradictions in your mind that the pen could behave in any other way.
What the law of identity teaches us is that reality is absolute. Your mind, imagination, and emotions may add a hundred meanings to the things around us, but a tree is a tree, a book is a book, and an apple is an apple. Your mind may make up stories and see them in a different way. But that doesn’t change the absolute nature of reality.
To be successful in any field, we need the right code to understand reality. A code is non-contradictory thinking. What I mean by non-contradictory is that our thinking should flow logically. There shouldn’t be anything in your thinking that cannot be explained or has an unknowable characteristic.
I used to believe that crystals had different energies. I even used to wear one in a ring. It was my personal belief that it protected me from negative energies. But if I show that crystal to a person who knows nothing about its powers, he will see it as a beautiful, shiny stone and nothing else. Its power is not a fact. It cannot be proven on the basis of rational thinking. I don’t wear it anymore, and it has made absolutely no difference in my life.
In philosophy, it is known as a logical fallacy, defined as a pattern of reasoning rendered invalid by a flaw in its logical structure. When there is no underlying logic behind our understanding of a certain thing, it distorts our process of thinking. Like a bug in computer code.
When we reject reason as our standard of judgement, we start relying on our feelings. And when we use our feelings as tools of cognition (understanding reality), we create nothing but chaos in our lives.
Success happens when we start perceiving reality the way it is. When A is always A. When we follow a logical structure of cause and effect.
For example, imagine two people preparing to get a job. Let’s call them Jack and Tim.
Jack goes to an astrologer, who gives him a crystal, asks him to keep it in his pocket during the interview, and promises that it will get him the job. Jack goes to a pub to celebrate. Gets drunk, goes back home, and sleeps.
Tim, on the other hand, makes a list of all the possible questions he could be asked in the interview and prepares well-researched answers.
Who do you think will get the job?
I’m not disagreeing that there is no chance Jack may get the job, but it’s highly unlikely.
Any structure of belief that is not rooted in reality will fail. Just like a computer programme will not run if there is an error in its code. The code of reality is cause and effect.
When we experience a miracle, coincidence, or some extraordinary instance that cannot be explained rationally, it’s just that the underlying chain of cause and effect is very long and complex and may have started years ago (like evolution). If you’re willing to invest your time in studying it, it will reveal itself. And above all, it will make sense.
What we call intuition is nothing but a process of reason at 50x speed. It’s like passing a highway billboard at high speed. You know it was a red car ad on the billboard, but you cannot tell which one.
90% of our life problems stem from an irrational way of decoding reality. When we don’t see A as A, and try to superimpose our beliefs to change A into B or C. Like an artist imagining people will one day discover his paintings without making any attempt at putting his work out there. It’s impossible.
Only when you plough (cause) the fields do you get the crops (effect).
Only when you exercise (cause) do you lose weight (effect).
Only when you write every day (cause) do you grow your audience on X (effect).
Only when you spend less than you earn (cause) do you grow your savings (effect).
Only when you’ve practiced all the chess moves (cause) do you become a grandmaster (effect).
I don’t know about other galaxies or planets, but on Earth, this is how things work. I wish we had some miraculous way to get successful and reach our goals, but we don’t. Perhaps in the future, we will. But trust me, it would have a totally rational explanation behind it.
When you were a child, you were naturally rational. We’re born tabula rasa (with a clean slate). If you were asked to walk into a dark room, you’d do it without thinking. But when the idea of ghosts was put into your head, you wouldn’t dare.
When you were a child, you knew you had to work and learn all the topics well if you wanted to get straight A’s. You intuitively knew that reality works on cause and effect. But then someone told you there was an easier way: wear a crystal, and you’d attract everything you desire. Love, health, and wealth. And your mind got disconnected from reality and started decoding it in the wrong way.
The self-limiting beliefs we learn in our childhood (especially before the age of 7 when the subconscious is still developing) become the reason for our inability to understand reality and deal with it intelligently. This is what lies at the core of my book, Born to Stand Out. It makes you aware of all these subconscious patterns and shows you how to reverse them so you can act intelligently in the world.
While choosing a goal, a rational person is guided by his thinking (process of reason) and not by his feelings or desires. If you don’t take action and believe that you can just attract success into your life, it’s contradictory to the law of cause and effect. And a contradiction cannot be achieved in reality.
A rational person never holds a desire or pursues a goal that cannot be directly or indirectly (with a coach, mentor, or guide) achieved by his own effort.
If you cannot understand it with logic and reason, stay away from it.
Remember: A is A.
Stay blessed,
Master