“To cast in it with Hyde was to die a thousand interests and aspirations.”
~ Robert Louis Stevenson
In ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson, the virtuous but bored Dr. Jekyll decides to indulge his dark side by developing a strange (and, one imagines green and frothy, although the book chooses to omit this important detail) chemical concoction that allows him to transform, at will, into the hideous and evil Mr. Hyde. As the story progresses, Hyde starts running around at night and getting up to all sorts of unsavory antics. His character progressively consumes that of Jekyll, eventually becoming his dominant self. Without spoiling the ending…it doesn’t go well for poor old Jekyll.
Whether we choose to admit it, there’s a bit of Hyde in all of us. Here at GC3, we’d like to assume that, for the majority of our readers, your Hyde persona doesn’t go around murdering people in the dead of night. That doesn’t mean it’s harmless, however. Hyde, also referred to as your Saboteur or Gremlin, is typically the voice inside your head that passes judgment on everything you, and/or those around you, do. It’s the worst version of you, and while it’s always there in the background, it can step forward from the shadows when it feels threatened, which can happen when you’re stepping out from the shadows yourself – out of your comfort zone and into the spotlight, either real or imagined.
It’s easy to indulge your Hyde – to let that harsh voice of judgment and self-doubt become your voice of reason. After all, it’s often disguised as an attempt to keep you safe, or to stop you “making a fool of yourself.” But if you do that, it will eventually consume you, just as it did Dr. Jekyll. So instead, when you hear that voice, appreciate it for the perspective it offers, and then politely ignore it. It thrives on attention, so don’t give it any. Just acknowledge the fact that you must be doing something interesting if it’s showing up, and choose to do it anyway.
The moral of this story is to avoid drinking frothy green chemical concoctions. Oh, and to indulge the very best version of yourself, of course. Because that’s the one the world needs to step out from the shadows and shine.
This week’s inquiry…
How is indulging your own 'Hyde persona' limiting your potential?
Dive Deeper…
Shirzad knows all about the different disguises your Hyde persona might wear. In this personal and enlightening TEDx talk he reveals the ways in which we often attempt to sabotage ourselves, and introduces the idea of ‘Positive Intelligence’ as the antidote.
“Positive intelligence” measures the percentage of time our mind serves us as opposed to sabotaging us.”
In this book, Shirzad reveals how to achieve one’s true potential for both professional success and personal fulfillment. His research exposes ten well-disguised mental Saboteurs and explains that by building your Positive Intelligence, you can learn the secret to defeating these internal foes.
