There IS such a thing as “too much of a good thing.”

Need power?  More money?  More love?  Then obviously MORE power-money-love is good, right?  Not necessarily. Our subconscious decisions often act like built-in brakes to our needs, desires, and ambition.

But why and how?

Let’s say you have your own small business and want to make more money.  You figure adding a new product line would be perfect . . . and a noble ambition give the state of our economy.  But for some reason, in spite of warnings from experts in your field, you focus on marketing a product you like but which is untested and lacks demand.

So despite hard work, long hours, and tens of thousands of dollars invested your product fails.  You lay off workers, scale back operations, and again focus on the product that first made you successful in order to pay off the backlog of debts.  Had you listened to the new product experts you might have avoided this, but you stubbornly refused to test before taking the plunge.

This is an obvious case of self-sabotage. But is it all bad?  Let’s see . . .

Take the example of wind power. Let’s say you build a wind generator on your land in Denmark to harness the powerful winds blowing off the North Sea every day.  So you build this huge contraption, but forget to add a tested wind brake to your structure.   This is a video of what actually happened:

Without a working wind brake, the whole structure collapses.  However, “logic and common sense” initially tells you that more power is needed, and that a brake will only make the propellers turn slower, generate less power, and create more inefficiency – like driving a car down the freeway with one foot on the accelerator and the other on the brake.

And most people – consciously at any rate – don’t want this.  Most of us like our speed, power, and the “freedom” we feel when restrictions are absent.

But the wind brake is essential to a large wind turbine.  You see, all a wind brake is the mechanism that adds drag to, or even stops, an out-of-control spinning wind generator.  Engineers and designers realized it is better to suffer some inefficiency than have the whole thing fall apart.  Once seen in this light, it makes sense.

Like that, we have a built-in subconsious “wind brake” that keeps us moving more slowly and heavier through life.

Next: The Inner Logic of Self-Sabotage. . .