Now that we know what illusionists are, the natural question is what can wellness do in the face of them? Especially since they can be more tenacious, camouflaged and resistant to discovery efforts than actual cancer?

Give the the training they need to do their jobs that they should have gotten in the first place.

As in another page, over 58% of managers in corporate America admitted they had received zero training according to a recent survey by careerbuilder.com

And the problem is that anyone who is put into a position of responsibility, including parenting, without proper training on how to succeed at it, will feel the call to become an illusionist. Also, as we slowly burn out in our own careers or lives, we become less willing to do what needs to be done... and can equally become called to dabble in illusions ourselves.

And thus we state that an illusionist is not really a personality type, as much as it's a symptom of lack of proper training, support and their own stressors. It should be seen as a disease. While they will be responsible for a majority of losses a business faces, those losses ultimately stem from a lack of management to begin with.

"Stepping up into responsibility" may as well be 'electing to jump into an illusionists grave' if it doesn't also include proper training and support on how to do that thing.

If you're the manager of a company, realizing that someone under you is actually an illusionist, it's going to be quite a heart break as much of their affection will also have been smoke and mirrors. But realize that anyone who's highly stressed, as in an untrained staff member, their ability to love themselves and other will be shot. Since this will equally affect husbands and wives, don't be too hurt if the love of an illusionist was a lie. They think they mean well, they're just trying to survive in a dog eat dog world. They will frantically feel like they're trying to just stay afloat as in the boat of life.

But at least you can easily do something about it, you can finally give them the training they need, show them our crash course in management, get them trained in the art of team building, get them trained in how to help others become more instead of insisting on playing king of a mountain of broken dreams.

They will also have to learn about stress and more importantly the combat of wellness, or the stress of their employees will prevent any and all training from truly sticking, and despite their new excitement to train, their failure in the face of stress will end up enticing them back to their old ways...

If you're not the manager, you're in a tough spot as illusionists main effort will be winning over management and higher ups, often to wild consternation to the requests of them doing work, often then 'overly delegating' to others who are then overwhelmed, just to then be targeted with criticism for mistakes that naturally result from their inhumane work load.

In person, my deepest enemies have no idea what I think of them. That's not just because it's part of my strategy, but because as per the story of the river, I recognize that my own emotions are irrelevant, only the solutions are, even if that includes the healing of my enemies.

I also believe that there may not be a good vs evil fight across our world. But an us vs stress. If there ever was a murderer or psychopath who wasn't first broken by stress, from whatever sources, I would be quite surprised. Or anyone even admitted to a hospital without hypertonic muscles. At the same time, we don't have to stress about stress, regardless of how ugly it can get, and no we haven't even seen the bottom yet. Much like saying we don't need to worry about the little fire in our building, treat it to a nice helping of water.

It's not just illusionists that want us all to focus more and more on everything else but them, like the drama, fires, problems etc. That's also the demand of fight or flight itself. Yes, that same system in our body demands that we focus on the problems and negatives that somehow give birth to endless fires. Management should be spending it's time on fire prevention, team morale, training and wellness, not fighting some new lawsuit etc. that stemmed from a lack of those areas.

Preventative actions will always cost far less money, time and resources. Don't worry about the fires, put them out and address the smoldering tinder at the base of your legacy.

The harder challenge is when the illusionist says something completely asinine, or statements that are clearly work to create division within a company, like, "All of the supportive staff say they are burnt out because of the doctors expectations." And then will turn around and tell those same supportive staff, "All of the doctors are disappointed with you guys." Or any of the constant little attacks they may directly throw at you. But just like in the example above, the strongest defense isn't offence, it's peace.

The challenge is to not hold onto their divisionary words as in the story of the monk and the river but to keep your center from your own pursuits in the combat of wellness.

And in those challenging moments just remain "White and nerdy" with a touch of aloofness. When you get that email or hear them say anything that relates 'to the opinions or rumors of others' just go 'oh really? Thanks for telling me!' And then go directly to the 'supportive staff' and tell them you heard '(the rumor)' and let them confirm or deny it. If it turns out to be 'true,' keep digging with a follow up. 'Which of our demands are burning you guys out?' And then you'll find that 'demands' were communicated to them by said illusionist or even created amongst them.

But remember that 'stress is relative and without proper training stress becomes the full time job.'

Then, like a river interested only in peaceful solutions, you can ask, 'what do you feel is leading to your burnout? Are you given the training, resources and time you need to do your work?' the answer will be no. Period. Then you can talk to the illusionist again and say something along the lines of 'Hey they did indeed seem to be a little burned out, thanx for telling us! They also said something about wanting a little more training. Thank you for pointing that out!'

This plays into one of our philosophies on 'how to change people for the better' and that's simply act as if they were saying things they should have and are at least somewhat doing actions they should. As an example in Improving communication, instead of a wife saying 'You always leave the toilet seat down!' Instead that becomes, 'Huh, you left the toilet seat down, that's odd, no worries.'

Remember, illusionists mostly just need training in how to do their jobs. And with a little belief and encouragement even monsters can change for the better like in the story of the wind and the sun.

It's possible most of them simply need to read our crash course in management. For many of them, it will be helpful to find out what managements priorities actually should be instead of meetings about meetings. If someone sent this to you, it doesn't mean they think you're an illusionist, but that our hard won little gems of truth can possibly be of help as needed on a case by case basis.

Additionally, according to Sun Tsu, you want to remain close to your enemies. We say at least give back the illusion of kinship. As well as meeting their attacks with surprise and possible aloof investigation.

It's also ok to ask them how they're doing. At the very least they will honestly divulge frustration with the drama, antics and mistakes of the staff. And it's ok to casually discuss management strategy with them that's dressed up to appear like casual questions that's actually there to help give them the insights and tools to get a product. Or, if they ask, giving them direct advice. Yet remember no good deed goes unpunished. Especially in untrained Corporate America. If you're in a 'single party state' where only one side has to consent to conversations, I would record every conversation had with than illusionist. So that if push comes to shove, you have evidence. Yet they may be able to make management more scared of that fact that you're "a dirty evidence taker!" What's kinda funny is managements overaction "to the dirt evidence taker" can often be extreme enough to then warrant lawsuits. It's as if illusionists are masters of... illusions.

That's also why documentation is important. While they try to weave their smoke show, you keep firm grips on what the truth is. They will want everyone around them to think they're the weak link no matter how many accomplishments, publications etc. they have.

Part of the problem on getting through to an illusionist is also the Dunning Kreuger effect, or that the less trained someone is, the more opinionated they are likely to be in that subject, including the management staff. Which is why 'promoting personnel based on confidence' is the fastest way to sink a ship.

Your last hope may be sending management our page on illusionists as a casual thing, with no personnel in mind a last ditch hope they they wake up to what's actually costing their company most of their profits. But you can't name the illusionist for them, no matter how much they ask. Or the illusionist will probably be able to convince them that actually the condition of the company is your fault seek to have you removed.

The same impediment that makes it hard to train our staff will also be in our way to communicate with management, about thing that they don't already hold to be true, which is known as cognitive bias, or as we call it, stress induced stubbornness. General stubbornness is actually important to the survivability of a corporation. But when it's stressed induced, management is guaranteed to focus on things that have nothing to do with profits and eternally resistant to recognizing things that may literally be killing their staff.

Much like a spouse that's so afraid of loosing their loved one they push them away. Or a student who's so afraid about the test they can't study.

While management can be happy with the profits from a doctor they will usually be deaf to their quiet whimpers that, "They have an odd feeling they're going to die."

The less trained an area is, like management, the more complex the solution has to then become. The entire subject of illusionists and how to deal with them could be prevented if most corporations simply knew the crash course in management. And that's not some eureka science we came up with. That's just barebones common sense that somehow became not so common.

However, if an illusionist is continuing to kill ones corporation despite the gentle solutions as above a tough decision has to be made. Let them keep killing the corporation or fully explain them, providing documentation on them to management at the risk of that management choosing the illusionist over you, which is unfortunately likely. Much like a diabetic screaming at the nurses for his coca cola. In a similar fashion, processed sugar is an illusionist. Since our bodies are hard wired to seek out healthy sugar, processed sugar appears to be the best source of energy and dopamine, which causes our bodies to crave them with the passion of a thousand suns... just to find out energy, health and mood crashing more and more over time.

In the meantime, at the least, one can work to build comradery, transparency and help converse about wellness strategies. And hence, despite all of the complications of illusionists and stress. Ultimately I would say they don't matter, solutions do. Which include adding a dash of wellness along side any effort to increase profits or wellbeing in a society.

Recognize all of the socially awkward feeling of talking with ones peers to have been designs of the illusionists, their smoke made more powerful by the challenges of our times. Invite those colleagues to dinner again, be there for those who fall even when management comes down on you for 'interfering with others' when not even a tumbleweed was there for them otherwise. The trick is how to do this in a cheerful, gentle, kind way that doesn't also put a target on your head.

Above all, if an illusionist targets you, don't agree with their stories. Keep your center and get the best revenge possible.

Succeed

Photos by mirsad mujanovic, cottonbro and Alena Shekhovtcova from Pexels