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I'm asking this question seriously.
I realize that many of you live where monkeys exist in the wild. As a matter of fact, monkey's are actually rampant throughout most of the world.
And even if you live in largely monkey-free zones like the U.S. or Canada, for example, modern zoos typically go out of their way to create living spaces for captive creatures that simulate their "natural habitat".
So if you have any kind of curiosity and/or life experience whatsoever, you've probably observed monkeys live and in-person (in-primate?) at some point.
And if you have, you know that they're not only endlessly entertaining, they're immensely fascinating as well.
For our part, Emily and I have hand-fed bananas to wild monkeys in Cambodia, seen (and heard) huge Howler Monkeys in Costa Rica, had our backpacks raided in in Gibraltar and even "socialized" with Rhesus Macaques on public transportation in India. All of that was pretty amazing.
But the MOST mind-blowing thing of all is to watch in awe as they literally leap from tree to tree...fully expecting only good things to happen.
They really seem to care little about the fact that they're 80 or 100 feet off the ground. Some of them are probably 30 or 40 pounds, yet they fully expect to grasp that faraway branch. What's more, they somehow instinctively know it's not going to break.
Even the very young monkeys are up there jumping around...effortlessly.
Now, who knows? I'm not going to discount the possibility that there might have been an individual critter or two who took a pretty mean fall along the way and decided to sit out any further leaping escapades going forward.
But I seriously doubt it.
Every last one of them is an unstoppable force of raw, unadulterated CONFIDENCE.
Why is that?
Well, it's pretty simple really. They're MONKEYS...and that's what monkeys DO. They leap around from tree to tree, and they tend not to mess up.
That confidence is instinctual. It's born of the realization that they're competent at both leaping and catching branches, and bolstered by sheer optimism after having successfully leapt and caught so many times in the past.
Another fascinating thing about monkeys is, well, how strangely human they seem.
Yeah, yeah...I realize that we're all primates here. Yet when you get pretty close to a monkey, it's nevertheless straight-up wild how they have facial expressions kind of like ours, opposable thumbs like we've got, and even a very real social structure.
Yet at the same time, it's obvious that they're not quite as "evolved" as we homo sapiens types are.
So then, here's the big question. If that's so true, how come WE aren't typically as stone-cold confident as monkeys are?
I mean, think about it. As the "higher life form" among primates, shouldn't we have everything figured out that they do?
Granted, maybe we aren't physically equipped to be tree leapers (Tarzan notwithstanding). But hey...if there are certain things that monkeys were born to do, it follows logically that there are certain things WE were born to do.
One of those things is meeting women and attracting them.
Another is managing relationships as the head of a family.
And if you get right down to it, we don't even need the example of monkeys leaping around in the treetops. Consider this instead. Have you ever seen a monkey (or ANY animal for that matter) that suffered from "approach anxiety"?
Oh sure...there may be some fear in the eyes of certain male primates (or bighorn sheep, water buffalo, alley cats, etc.) when confronted with the need to defeat another, more-intimidating male for the right to procreate, or whatever.
But when it comes to fulfilling on nature's natural order with the females themselves? You've got to be kidding, man. Critters are on point...every time.
So what's up with US?
Could it be that our uniquely human ability to reason can often become our own WORST enemy...in a way that separates us from literally every other species in the animal kingdom?
You bet it could. In fact, I believe that's EXACTLY what happens to most of us along the way.
The truth is that we really are born with the innate confidence necessary to deal with MOTOS (members of the other sex) with great success.
But somewhere along the way most of us let over-analysis and worry creep in, and we lose our "mojo".
Our worries become self-fulfilling prophecies, we experience defeat, and our optimism regarding our competence takes a hit.
Meanwhile, it's a pretty safe bet that monkey's don't understand what a "self-fulfilling prophecy" is. That means, of course, that they're not affected by such drivel in the slightest.
What it boils down to is this: What we spend SO much time fretting over is literally so easy a chimpanzee can do it. Heck, it's actually so easy that cockroaches can do it.
Give some careful thought to this whole phenomenon. Can you believe that you were born with the same inherent ability to succeed with the opposite sex that literally all other animals are?
And knowing that, can you see how you've let external factors that are purely psychological negatively affect your level of success with MOTOS?
Most importantly, can you "reverse engineer" the process and rightfully reclaim your confidence?
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below!