PLEASE NOTE I AM NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL AND NOTHING CONTAINED IN HERE SHOULD BE TAKEN LITERALLY, FIGURATIVELY OR IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER AS MEDICAL ADVICE. FOR PROPER MEDICAL ADVICE PLEASE CONSULT YOUR MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS IN YOUR AREA.
I have a theory that when someone is unwell there is one really bad time to ask them how they are. That’s during that time when any pain medicine has kicked in. Invariably, with their senses numbed they feel great or feel some improvement. They may even comment that whatever pain they were feeling before is not that bad! In my humble (non medical) opinion the best time to ask someone how they feel is at the point in the day where they have not taken any pain medication and can really feel the ailment for what it is. Then you get an honest assessment of what is really going on, what they are really feeling and what they really think.
Of course the pain killer doesn’t solve the root cause of the pain in many instances. It just fills the pain until the root cause is addressed. It is probably for this reason that many come with a warning to the patient to limit continuous use to a period of a few days at a time. With all this background in mind imagine my shock a few years ago when I found out that a “Pain Killer” was a colloquial slang term in Zimbabwe for a single male gentleman who is having an affair with a married woman. There were well known ladies who were known to have a “Pain Killer” on call who was used to well…take the pain away…from her loveless or dysfunctional marriage.
So this terrible example shows that pain killers do not need to be medicinal in nature. They can be behavioural too and I am sure we could collectively come up with a long list of options. From youth I have seen under a bridge injecting themselves with drugs near Durban’s harbour, the many people struggling with addictions of any variety or even the small things we do to temporarily make us feel better when dealing with a bad situation.
Like their medicinal counterparts the main issue with behavioural pain killers is that they mask the real state of affairs and cause us to avoid honest assessments of situations we have not confronted.
How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually, then suddenly.”
Ernest Hemingway – “The Sun Also Rises”
This popular Hemingway quote has been used to describe the financial mistakes people have made in both their working lives as well as their personal lives. Often a painkiller is deployed to solve a short term pain. Cash flow issue? No problem, do another investor roadshow. Can’t afford that car you have been eyeing all year. No problem, just ask them to rework the credit agreement. If the root causes are addressed, then that pain killer is fit for purpose and helps us survive another day. If that root cause is not addressed then the continuous use of that pain killer could end up killing you.
So as we continue with our growth journeys, maybe it is time to identify the pain killers in our lives. These pain killers that are giving us a false sense of security or comfort. That have become a false sense or relief and comfort but don’t solve the underlying problem. That usually get consumed in the process and require regular injections to maintain the sensation. That rob us of giving honest assessments of what is really going on. Painkillers that lie to us.
PLEASE NOTE I AM NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL AND NOTHING CONTAINED IN HERE SHOULD BE TAKEN, LITERALLY, FIGURATIVELY OR IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER AS MEDICAL ADVICE. FOR PROPER MEDICAL ADVICE PLEASE CONSULT YOUR MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS IN YOUR AREA.
300Paychecks 