Episode 074 - Crabs in a Bucket

Hear The Thesis

The Thursday Thesis  - 16/11/2017

People are strange creatures, and some are stranger than others – perhaps that’s where you and I fit in...

So here’s an interesting phenomenon with parallels in everyday life; see if it resonates with you, and if you know any crabs.

Take your kid crab fishing for a few hours...

Hopefully you’ll catch a load of crabs and drop them into your bucket, then you can watch them doing their thing.

Now, do you see that greenish one over there – the one trying to climb out of the bucket?

 Notice that he gets so far, then that other crab reaches up a claw and pulls him back down?

Yes, crabs in a bucket actually prevent one another from escaping from captivity. And here’s the thing – people do that, too. The people around us – and they’re usually the people who sincerely have our best interests at heart, because nobody else cares – try to hold us back, pull us back into the bucket. They want to protect us from danger and preserve the nice, safe status quo.

But if the status quo is making us unhappy...?

How is keeping us stuck in a place we don’t want to be in, a job we despise, a relationship that is toxic, ever going to help us?

Those grabbing claws are now another thing from which to escape, aren’t they?

Our best hope is to find an eccentric crab with a thick carapace who will allow us to climb on their back to assist our escape. Better still, find a crab who has already escaped from the bucket and who will give us an escape map and then pull us out of the bucket.

I found my helper crab in a book, after a helper crab named Norman, pointed a claw at it. Here’s the book: Think and Grow Rich, by Napoloeon Hill.

The book shops and libraries of this world are full of helper crabs - where will you find yours?

© Neil Cowmeadow 2017
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