CHAPTER 8

INNER PEACE

What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?

—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, THE RAPE OF LUCRECE

In conclusion, I want to share with you a few lines from a famous piece of literature. As I mentioned earlier, we all seek inner peace. You have learned the Reality Model, read examples, and learned the steps to apply it. In this chapter you will see an example that sums up much of what may go on inside someone’s head when he or she thinks about the results of future behavior.

Along with many wonderful and memorable plays, William Shakespeare wrote poetry. One of his poems is titled The Rape of Lucrece, and is about a man by the name of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (535–496 BC) who was the legendary seventh and final king of Rome. In the poem, Lucius is thinking about raping the beautiful Lucrece. And while he is thinking about this ugly, foul deed, these words come into his mind:

What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?

A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy.

Who buys a minute’s mirth to wail a week?

Or sells eternity to get a toy?

For one sweet grape who would the vine destroy?

Or what fond beggar, but to touch the crown,

Would with the scepter straight be stricken down?

(lines 211–17)

Think about this Shakespeare poem. It illustrates what we’re talking about. What if every time you had to make a decision, for good or for ill, these words came to your mind?

Meeting Your Needs over Time

You may never remember this verse in its entirety, but always remember the first line: “What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?” This is simply another way of asking, Will the results of my behavior meet my needs over time? Shakespeare understood this idea many hundreds of years ago. It is a very old idea. If people understood the power of their beliefs and how those beliefs affect behavior, what kind of decisions would they make? What decisions will you make now that you understand that power?

If you learn nothing more from this book than to start asking yourself this question, to quote the first line of this stanza from The Rape of Lucrece to help ground you, it will bring you a step closer to seeing a marked and measurable change in how you make personal and professional decisions. And what if you taught your children this concept of beliefs and perceptions? You’ll be changing the course of history.

I should give you an update on the experience I had with JD and the other tough students at the high school, as related in chapter 3. Six weeks after I led that seminar, I got a call from the drug and alcohol specialist for that school district. The first thing out of his mouth was, “What did you do to those kids?”

“What do you mean? I almost didn’t survive that.”

“Listen,” he said, “ten of those kids have completely turned around.”

JD was one of them. Eventually JD graduated from high school. Nobody had thought he would. He went to college, he’s now married and has a couple of children, and he understands and is teaching his own kids to understand “You are what you believe.”