What Makes a Hero and the True Measure of the Human Spirit: Walter Lippmann’s Stunning Tribute to Amelia Earhart
“The world is a better place to live in because it contains human beings who will give up ease and security and stake their own lives in order to do what they themselves think worth doing.…
My god! These quotes below by Walter Lippmann are like a symphony of thoughts that resonate so deeply with my own life’s work. Not just in its struggle to tell but in the experience of its emergence as well.
The best things of mankind are as useless as Amelia Earhart’s adventure. They are the things that are undertaken not for some definite, measurable result, but because someone, not counting the costs or calculating the consequences, is moved by curiosity, the love of excellence, a point of honor, the compulsion to invent or to make or to understand. In such persons mankind overcomes the inertia which would keep it earthbound forever in its habitual ways. They have in them the free and useless energy with which alone men surpass themselves.
Walter Lippmann
This resonates with why I perceive and believe play is the crucial missing element in our lives today. Not play in a conventional, trivial sense, which is seen as the opposite of work, but play at a deeper level than we can possibly imagine. This deeper play is the development work of our lives.
Such energy cannot be planned and managed and made purposeful, or weighted by the standards of utility or judged by its social consequences. It is wild and it is free. But all the heroes, the saints, the seers, the explorers and the creators partake of it. They do not know what they discover. They do not know where their impulse is taking them. They can give no account in advance of where they are going or explain completely where they have been. They have been possessed for a time with an extraordinary passion which is unintelligible in ordinary terms.
Walter Lippmann
This singular, amazing quote embodies the emergent experience of my life’s work so far in a nutshell. In effect, how can you plan and move towards something that is an unknown domain of knowledge, something that you can explain emotionally more so than you can explain rationally to others?
In effect, whenever I say it feels monumentally difficult to describe my life’s work, I always feel like I’m just deluding myself and standing in my own way. But what if I’m not? What if it is as monumentally difficult as it is described above and…it is an inherent and natural part of the experience itself? If so, that would mean I’m not “broken” and I’m not doing anything “wrong,” even though that’s what most of us believe we are.
In other words, it’s all a natural part of the process, even though it feels unnatural (which is how I’ve described the process before).
No preconceived theory fits them. No material purpose actuates them. They do the useless, brave, noble, the divinely foolish and the very wisest things that are done by man. And what they prove to themselves and to others is that man is no mere creature of his habits, no mere automaton in his routine, no mere cog in the collective machine, but that in the dust of which he is made there is also fire, lighted now and then by great winds from the sky.
Walter Lippmann
This perfectly resonates with the lifelong experience of transitioning from a Socialized Mind to a Self-Authoring Mind and then from a Self-Authoring Mind to a Self-Transforming Mind.
At the first transition, the person realizes and becomes aware of how they were blindly following society’s cultural programming to fit in and survive, thus they learn to recode themselves and “self-author” their own scripts for life, thus allowing them to step out and thrive.
At the second transition, one even grows tired of one’s own personal scripts and learns to let go of them completely. In doing so, they discover their True Self (as the “player”) behind their previous constructed selves (as the “character’s” one was playing).
The Strength to Remember and the Strength to Forget: James Baldwin on What Makes a Hero
“Let everything happen to you,” wrote Rilke, “Beauty and terror.” It is not easy, this simple surrender. The courage and vulnerability it takes make it nothing less than an …
“Let everything happen to you,” wrote Rilke, “Beauty and terror.”
It is not easy, this simple surrender. The courage and vulnerability it takes make it nothing less than an act of heroism. Most of our cowardices and cruelties, most of the suffering we endure and inflict, stem from what we are unwilling to feel, and there is nothing we cower from and rage against more than our own incoherence — that intolerable tension between the poles of our capacities, which Maya Angelou so poignantly addressed in one of the greatest poems ever written, urging us to “learn that we are neither devils nor divines.”
Maria Popova
This seems to resonate deeply with the origins of my Be Real Creative mantra. Back at the time in 2011, I perceived us as both our own “worst enemies” and our own “heroic liberators”. It really just depends upon our perception and how we perceive the world and ourselves.
What the Self-Transforming Mind realizes is that it’s all a grand play or a role-playing game. One in which we make believe that we are one or the other and thus we believe we are tormented or triumphant, when we are actually neither. It’s all an illusion, a game, that our ego creates to try to maintain its permanence and control on You. That being the larger, limitless You as a player that’s behind the you as a character.
And of course, the greater realization is that there is no “epic struggle” or “war” within you, even though we initially perceive it that way. Thus when you can surrender and just let go of this struggle and just “let everything happen to you,” that’s when you’re able to move beyond the illusionary game, yet also paradoxically begin to truly play with life, rather than against it.
I think the above video really reveals how Viktor Frankl was right when he said the following about the importance of responsibility in relation to freedoms.
Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.
Viktor Frank Man’s Search for Meaning
What I’ve noticed over the years is a reoccurring pattern within society that pretty much sums this up. It can be seen in the behaviour of toxic males, toxic businesses, and toxic politics.
What many of these people want is the freedom to do anything they want but without having to take responsibility for what they do.
This is why victimhood and blame have become so rampant within our society today that they’ve effectively become a national past time, only further cultivating a reactionary approach to life for many people.
This is why the real work of our lives isn’t of an economic nature but of a psychological one.
The only way we can truly empower ourselves is by taking leadership and responsibility over our own lives, something which I myself struggle to work on daily.
A great, concise presentation by Richard Barrett of The Barrett Academy for the Advancement of Values speaking about the importance of values and how it relates to the vertical development of not just people but organizations and nations as well.
What are values?
They are the energetic drivers of our aspirations and intentions.
Richard Barrett
It’s interesting because I saw an article the other day talking about how Mark Carney, the new Liberal leader of Canada, wants to transform Canada using a similar approach with business organizations being at the forefront of this change.
What’s interesting is that the person writing the article laughed this off because they believed that businesses aren’t interested in this, since corporate governance has been around for decades and not much has changed.
That person is right.
In fact, even Richard Barrett himself mentioned above that he was saying that “cultural capital was the new frontier of competitive advantage” over twenty years ago and it’s still a new frontier because “it’s taking a while to sink in.”
But that’s the whole problem and why we are in the mess we are in.
Most mainstream business organizations today are not interested in these things because they don’t see them as driving needs that they care about, thus they don’t value them as values.
This is exactly why most business leaders today have an almost complete disconnect with their employees. The leaders needs often do not resonate with their employees needs, thus creating a misaligned relationship between the organizational “mind” and the organizational “body.”
This is why both business leaders and organizations need to change and evolve as a whole, thus allowing nations themselves to change and evolve as a whole. Even more so since business organizations are on par or even exceed nations in influencing the world today, especially via technology.
In effect, this all starts from the bottom up. You can’t transform an organization or nation, if you can’t transform the individuals first, starting with its leaders.
That’s because you have to lead by example.
With this in mind, it will be interesting to see how Mark Carney runs his cabinet and if he implements practices within it that embody his own personal values, as well as the overall values of Canadians.
Perhaps most of all, it would be interesting if he unified Canada with a purpose and direction by clearly articulating these Canadian values (and how they differ from the US government’s values at the moment).
I remember recently sometime over the last year, a business or political person indicated that AI technology is dangerous because it “hallucinates”. I laughed out loud when I read this because, well, people “hallucinate” as well. We don’t call these hallucinations “hallucinations” though, they’re more commonly called beliefs and they’re an integral part of our society and a part of being a human being.
The thing to realize though is that beliefs are not reality. Beliefs can most definitely be or become reality. But it doesn’t mean that just because you believe something, it is a reality. And this recent interview with Elon Musk highlights this point.
When I was watching this, this appeared to me like a man who was on the verge of breakdown. It looked like a man who firmly believed in something so much, that he risked everything in his life for it, but it appears like he’s beginning to realize that what he believed in isn’t emerging into the reality the way he believed it would. This is especially evident near the end of the video when he looks like he’s on the verge of completely cracking.
Why am I bringing this up?
It’s because I don’t want to be this guy.
I don’t want to believe in something so much that it actually blinds me from the reality that’s right in front of my face.
You see I’ve spoken before about how one of my quests in transitioning to a Self-Transforming Mind is becoming aware of one’s fears as an important step in the process.
One of these fears that’s reared its head in the past was a fear of being seen as crazy because my allegorical framework for life might seem crazy and incompressible to people. This fear hasn’t subsided much because trying to articulate my framework feels exceeding difficult due to the scope of it, even though the tip of the iceberg is just a simple allegory comprised of metaphors.
But unless you can understand the foundation of what’s below the allegorical surface, understanding what the metaphors mean, the allegory itself will have very little meaning to you or, even worse, you may misinterpret and misunderstand the allegory completely (like some people already do).
But again, is this the reality that my framework is just highly complex and difficult to articulate? Or is my framework a hallucinatory fantasy with no real meaning or substance in reality?
It just seems like one can’t really know if they are truly “crazy” until they come out the other side. But there has to be a better way to approach this. This is something I need to work on and resolve.
I can’t believe this is happening again but I’ve made the decision that before the end of this year, I’m probably going to have to take this site down again…but not for my usual reason of being frustrated at not being able to express myself. Rather it’s for cost cutting measures.
You see my wife is going to be retiring this year and with this in mind, we’re going to have to cut down on our expenses and live more frugally (if that’s even possible in these highly expensive times). So things that we once did weekly as a normal thing may happen only monthly as a special thing.
And in terms of my own technology expenses, I’ve decide that I want to cut them down to next to nothing.
So things like music streaming platforms, I’m now seeing as a luxury and I’m looking at utilizing my existing Plex media server again which I’ve integrated with our Sonos sound system. In addition, I’ve setup free Internet radio stations like Radio Paradise, as well as SomaFM, which I’ve both enjoyed in the past.
We also have our turntable and vinyl album collection which we haven’t used as much in the past but now we can appreciate all the more once again.
All that said though, coming back to my online presence, if I do decide to continue with it then it needs to be with a platform that is effective free or next to nothing in cost. Based upon this, I’m assuming my best and obvious choice will be Substack for this.
But that said, since it’s not a platform that you can easily just take all of your content and move elsewhere if it ever goes out of existence, I think I’ll need to radically change my approach to how I share my knowledge on it. To put this another way, imagine if you assumed that these online platforms didn’t last more than a few years. And with that in mind, you’d have to restart on another platform in a few years time.
What this perspective provides you with is a need and a necessity to encapsulate the essence of who you are as quickly and succinctly as possible without spending months or years to articulate yourself.
What this means is that I need to be able to communicate more of who I am but with far less words.
Or to put it another way, I can’t beat around the bush anymore. Or as I like to normally describe it, I can’t continually just walk around something virtually to understand it indefinitely, at some point I need to step into the centre of it and embody what I’m understanding.
To describe this another way, I need to learn to live more nomadically within these digital online spaces.
All that said though, I have a newfound appreciation of my WordPress archive of posts I’ve accumulated over the years and I don’t want to lose them either though. So I may transfer my WordPress site to a locally hosted instance of it on my computer and perhaps continue to save and mirror any posts I write online there.
I’ve been reflecting on how I share my conversations with AI and I’ve obviously known for some time that they can be overwhelming due to their length.
In reviewing some of my latest conversations though, I’ve noticed that I’ve been using pull quotes to emphasize the key points of the conversation. This got me thinking though and asking the question, “Why don’t I just display my AI conversations in the same way I share an article I’ve read?” In effect, I normally just provide a link to the article, include a few quotes from it and then provide my interpretation of it, its meaning. And I could do the exact same thing with the AI conversations I have.
In this way, the post on my site isn’t overloaded by the AI conversation itself but rather highlights the key points of the conversation and why those words have particular meaning for me.
The only question though is where do I put the AI conversation itself? In other words, I don’t want to link to ChatGPT itself but rather archive the conversation itself somehow on my site, maybe as a PDF.
Alternatively I could just still post the whole conversation as a post but then following it up with an additional overview post that highlights the key points of it and meaning.
How does a person make the transition from a Self-Authoring Mind to a Self-Transforming Mind when so much of what the person first does as an experience feels wrong even though it’s actually right? Or is it even appropriate to use the words wrong and right anymore, since everything is just relative?
ChatGPT
Great question. The transition from a Self-Authoring Mind to a Self-Transforming Mind is challenging because it requires letting go of the certainty that has been so carefully constructed in the Self-Authoring stage. At that level, a person has built a strong, coherent identity and a personal framework for making sense of the world. However, moving into the Self-Transforming Mind means realizing that even this self-authored framework is still limited and needs to be questioned and expanded.
At the Self-Authoring stage, you’ve spent so much time constructing your identity, values, and beliefs that questioning them feels like betrayal or losing yourself. The very act of stepping beyond them can feel destabilizing, uncertain, or even irresponsible.
ChatGPT
Why Does It Feel Wrong Even Though It’s Right?
At the Self-Authoring stage, you’ve spent so much time constructing your identity, values, and beliefs that questioning them feels like betrayal or losing yourself. The very act of stepping beyond them can feel destabilizing, uncertain, or even irresponsible. This is because:
Old Certainties Are Comfortable – Your sense of self is tied to a structured way of thinking, so loosening those structures can feel disorienting.
Contradiction Feels Like Failure – Self-Authoring tends to focus on coherence and internal consistency. But in Self-Transforming, embracing paradox and contradiction becomes a key skill.
Relinquishing Control – The Self-Authoring Mind thrives on a sense of agency and authorship, whereas the Self-Transforming Mind is more about surrendering to complexity and allowing identity to evolve organically.
Should We Even Use the Words “Right” and “Wrong”?
You’re onto something when you question whether “right” and “wrong” are even useful terms at this stage. The Self-Transforming Mind moves beyond binary thinking and sees rightness and wrongness as relative to context rather than as absolute categories. Instead of thinking in rigid moral or intellectual terms, it shifts to questions like:
“What is useful or generative in this moment?”
“What perspectives am I excluding, and why?”
“How can I hold multiple truths at once without feeling the need to resolve them?”
This is why many people in this transition experience an identity crisis—not because they are losing themselves, but because they are expanding beyond the need for a fixed self.
This is why many people in this transition experience an identity crisis—not because they are losing themselves, but because they are expanding beyond the need for a fixed self.
ChatGPT
How to Navigate the Transition
Practice Sitting in the Discomfort – Recognize that the feeling of “wrongness” isn’t an indicator of failure but of expansion. The unease means you’re growing.
Adopt an Explorer’s Mindset – Instead of looking for the “right” next step, become comfortable with experimentation and discovery.
Reframe Contradiction as Wholeness – Understand that seemingly opposing views can coexist. You don’t have to choose between them; instead, you can integrate them.
Let Go of Self-Defining Narratives – Rather than seeing your past self as “wrong” and your new self as “right,” see both as valid within their own contexts.
Instead of looking for the “right” next step, become comfortable with experimentation and discovery.
ChatGPT
Ultimately, the Self-Transforming Mind isn’t about replacing one framework with another—it’s about playing with multiple perspectives at once and knowing that no single perspective is final. It’s a shift from identity as definition to identity as an ongoing, fluid process.
Rather than seeing your past self as “wrong” and your new self as “right,” see both as valid within their own contexts.
A conversation with ChatGPT on how a Self-Transforming Mind would see Obsidian not just as a knowledge management app, but as a mirror of their own evolving consciousness.
How would a Self-Transforming Mind perceive knowledge management apps like Obsidian?
ChatGPT
A Self-Transforming Mind (as described in Kegan’s stages of adult development) would likely perceive knowledge management apps like Obsidian in a very fluid, dynamic, and integrative way. Rather than seeing them as mere tools for organizing static knowledge, a Self-Transforming Mind would view them as living ecosystems for evolving perspectives, self-inquiry, and meaning-making. Here’s how:
1. Interconnected Web of Meaning
A Self-Transforming Mind wouldn’t just use Obsidian to store information but to weave together insights across disciplines, experiences, and personal reflections. The graph view, backlinks, and bidirectional linking would be seen as a way to mirror the fluid, interconnected nature of thought and identity.
2. Knowledge as an Evolving Narrative
Rather than treating notes as fixed repositories of truth, a Self-Transforming Mind would see them as ever-evolving perspectives. This aligns with the idea that no single framework or worldview is complete—what matters is the continuous process of refinement, synthesis, and transformation.
3. Dialogue With the Self and Others
A Self-Transforming Mind might use Obsidian not just for personal knowledge management but as a means of engaging in an ongoing dialogue with different aspects of the self. Through linking old and new thoughts, it would allow a form of self-reflection that adapts over time, much like a conversation with past and future selves.
A Self-Transforming Mind might use Obsidian not just for personal knowledge management but as a means of engaging in an ongoing dialogue with different aspects of the self…much like a conversation with past and future selves.
ChatGPT
4. Paradox and Multiple Perspectives
Unlike someone at an earlier developmental stage who might seek a single ‘best’ way to use the tool, a Self-Transforming Mind would embrace multiple ways of structuring and navigating knowledge. They might switch between structured databases, messy associative links, and emergent insights without feeling the need to settle on one “correct” approach.
5. Exploration Over Optimization
Rather than using Obsidian to create a rigidly optimized productivity system, they might instead use it as a playground for discovery—letting unexpected connections emerge, embracing uncertainty, and allowing insights to form organically.
6. Meta-Awareness of the Tool’s Influence
A Self-Transforming Mind would also recognize that tools like Obsidian shape how knowledge is perceived and constructed. They might actively reflect on how the structure of the app (graph views, atomic notes, templates) influences thinking patterns, and they might experiment with different methods to break out of cognitive habits.
In short, a Self-Transforming Mind would see Obsidian not just as a knowledge management app, but as a mirror of their own evolving consciousness—one that helps them navigate complexity, engage in deep self-reflection, and embrace the ever-changing nature of meaning.
In short, a Self-Transforming Mind would see Obsidian not just as a knowledge management app, but as a mirror of their own evolving consciousness…
ChatGPT
Nollind
“…a Self-Transforming Mind would see Obsidian not just as a knowledge management app, but as a mirror of their own evolving consciousness…” Many people within the knowledge management or productivity space refer to their knowledge base as their “second brain”. When you say a Self-Transforming Mind uses it as a “mirror”, do you mean they see it as a “second brain” as well? Or do they see it as something more than that?
ChatGPT
A Self-Transforming Mind would likely see their knowledge base as more than just a “second brain.” The term “second brain” implies an externalized storage and processing system—essentially an extension of cognition for remembering, organizing, and retrieving information efficiently. While a Self-Transforming Mind might still use it that way, their relationship with the tool would go beyond simple augmentation.
Instead of merely being a repository of knowledge, Obsidian would serve as a mirror for how they make sense of the world, revealing their own evolving patterns of thought, biases, and blind spots. Rather than treating knowledge as something to collect, structure, and optimize (as is common in productivity circles), they would engage with it in a recursive, reflective process—using it to question their assumptions, deconstruct old frameworks, and explore emergent insights.
Instead of merely being a repository of knowledge, Obsidian would serve as a mirror for how they make sense of the world, revealing their own evolving patterns of thought, biases, and blind spots…using it to question their assumptions, deconstruct old frameworks, and explore emergent insights.
ChatGPT
How This Differs From a “Second Brain”
Not Just for Storing, But for Transforming
A “second brain” primarily helps with recall, synthesis, and productivity.
A “mirror of evolving consciousness” helps with identity-level transformation, allowing the user to see howthey think, not just what they think.
Not Just Externalizing Thought, But Engaging in a Dialogue
A second brain is typically seen as an extension of memory and cognitive load management.
A mirror invites self-inquiry: Why did I connect these ideas? What patterns am I reinforcing? What am I resisting?
Not Just Optimization, But Exploration
Productivity-oriented knowledge systems often focus on efficiency, tagging, categorization, and retrieval.
A Self-Transforming Mind would see their knowledge base as a dynamic playground, embracing ambiguity, paradox, and emergent meaning rather than seeking a fixed system.
They would be comfortable deconstructing and reconstructing their frameworks over time rather than solidifying a single organizational structure.
ChatGPT
A Self-Transforming Mind’s Relationship With Their Knowledge Base
They wouldn’t view their notes as a static archive but as an unfolding, evolving web of meaning.
They would be comfortable deconstructing and reconstructing their frameworks over time rather than solidifying a single organizational structure.
They might intentionally introduce randomness, serendipity, and divergence into their system to challenge their own thinking (e.g., resurfacing old notes in unexpected contexts).
In essence, while others may see Obsidian as a second brain—a tool to store and retrieve knowledge—a Self-Transforming Mind would see it as a reflective surface that helps them perceive who they are becoming in relation to what they know.
…a Self-Transforming Mind would see it as a reflective surface that helps them perceive who they are becoming in relation to what they know.
ChatGPT
Nollind
“They would be comfortable deconstructing and reconstructing their frameworks over time rather than solidifying a single organizational structure.” To an outside observer, especially someone with a Self-Authoring Mind, would this process make sense or would it instead look very chaotic, perhaps even look maze-like?
ChatGPT
To an outside observer—especially someone with a Self-Authoring Mind—the way a Self-Transforming Mind engages with their knowledge base might indeed appear chaotic, maze-like, or even inefficient. A Self-Authoring Mind tends to value coherence, intentionality, and stability in their frameworks, often designing their knowledge system with a clear structure that reflects their personal worldview and goals.
In contrast, a Self-Transforming Mind is more comfortable with fluidity, ambiguity, and non-linearity, which can make their knowledge base look unpredictable or disorganized to someone expecting clear, stable structures. Here’s why:
How a Self-Transforming Mind’s Knowledge Base Might Appear to a Self-Authoring Mind
Constantly Shifting Structure → Looks Unstable
A Self-Authoring Mind might expect a well-defined, overarching structure (e.g., PARA, Zettelkasten, a strict tagging system).
A Self-Transforming Mind, however, freely restructures, renames, or dissolves categories as their understanding evolves. This can make the system seem unpredictable or even messy from an external perspective.
Nonlinear & Web-Like Connections → Looks Like a Maze
A Self-Authoring Mind may favor hierarchical organization (folders, projects, clearly defined tags).
A Self-Transforming Mind embraces associative, emergent connections, often linking disparate ideas in ways that don’t immediately make sense to an outsider. Their knowledge graph might look like an intricate web with no obvious center.
Emphasis on Questions Over Answers → Looks Unfinished
A Self-Authoring Mind often builds their knowledge base to reinforce a chosen worldview, refining and solidifying their expertise.
A Self-Transforming Mind treats their knowledge base as a space for ongoing inquiry, where open-ended questions may remain unresolved for long periods. This can make their notes look fragmented or perpetually incomplete.
A Self-Authoring Mind seeks internal consistency and alignment.
A Self-Transforming Mind holds multiple perspectives simultaneously—they might have notes that directly contradict each other because they value seeing through different lenses rather than arriving at a singular conclusion.
A Self-Transforming Mind, however, freely restructures, renames, or dissolves categories as their understanding evolves. This can make the system seem unpredictable or even messy from an external perspective.
ChatGPT
Does This Mean Their System is Actually Chaotic?
Not necessarily. The “chaos” is often a matter of perspective:
To someone accustomed to fixed structures, it might seem disorganized.
But to the Self-Transforming Mind, patterns emerge organically over time, and meaning is found in the interplay between ideas rather than in a rigid taxonomy.
A Self-Transforming Mind’s knowledge base is more like a garden—constantly growing, pruning, evolving, and sometimes letting wild ideas cross-pollinate in unexpected ways.
ChatGPT
A Metaphor: A Garden vs. A Library
A Self-Authoring Mind’s knowledge base might resemble a library—carefully curated, categorized, and structured with an overarching theme.
A Self-Transforming Mind’s knowledge base is more like a garden—constantly growing, pruning, evolving, and sometimes letting wild ideas cross-pollinate in unexpected ways.
Ultimately, while it might look like a maze from the outside, to the Self-Transforming Mind, it’s not a trap—it’s a landscape for exploration.
Ultimately, while it might look like a maze from the outside, to the Self-Transforming Mind, it’s not a trap—it’s a landscape for exploration.
There was a television show some years back called The Peripheral. In the show, there were technological avatars called peripherals that a human host could inhabit and control via a VR headset.
What was interesting though was that when the human host was disconnected from the peripheral, an internal program within the peripheral would take over and control it, providing basic functionality for safety and security of the device.
What I find interesting about this is how it relates to how our ego’s function in a similar way. In effect, when we’re not consciously aware and detached from the moment, it’s like we’re not connected and thus our ego takes over automatically.
Within my Life is a Role-Playing Game framework, this is understood by seeing your ego as your avatar or “ character” that you as a “player” are playing. So your identity is not really you. It’s just a character you as a player are playing.
Why is this important?
Because we can become trapped and caged in our programming.
For example, societal programming is effectively a Socialized Mind. It is a script or program defined by society that was encoded in you as you grew up to keep you safe and secure. It also helped you have a sense of belonging and eventually a sense of self-esteem, especially in your work.
When a person shifts to a Self-Authoring Mind, they are learning to unlearn and relearn (i.e. Alvin Toffler) by recoding themselves. They do this by going beyond fitting into to survive and beginning to step out and thrive. This requires understanding oneself at a deeper level, figuring out what you want out of life versus what society expects and wants out of you.
This is why I’ve always said that the future isn’t about learning how to code but about learning how to recode yourself (which embodies what Alvin Toffler meant about unlearning).
But here’s the issue. Even when we recode ourselves, we can still get trapped in our own encoding, especially because it is our own “self-authored” coding.
But if it’s our coding, what’s the problem?
It’s because it’s an interpretation of who we want to be at a point in time. And that sense of who we want to be can change over time but our scripts may not because we’ve become so immersed within them that we believe they are us, even though they aren’t.
Here’s an example of what I mean.
I’ve had moments recently where I’ve become fully aware of myself as a “character” because I keep repeating these reactive or responsive self-authored scripts of doing things in life automatically because they’re familiar and comforting, perhaps even nostalgic and heartwarming at times.
So it’s like I’m stepping out of my “self” as a “character” and I’m seeing these scripts from a “player’s” perspective as something I’m stuck within. And I’m tired of these scripts, the repetition of them because they feel restricting. In effect, it feels like I’m on autopilot and just calling in my life versus actually be consciously aware and immersed in the experience of the moment.
This is effectively the NPC aspect of yourself that is similar to the autonomous program that protects the peripheral avatar in The Peripheral television show when the human host isn’t within it. It’s helpful. But it can get between you and your ability to experience life fully.
So I’ve been thinking about this and I asked myself the question, “How could I step past this automatic programming and scripts that I’ve created for my ‘self’?” And it dawned on me that I just need to be consciously aware that they exist.
So every morning, it would be like waking up and thanking your ego as your “character” that it is keeping you safe but also telling it that you as the “player” are fully aware and here now to take over the experience.
In other words, it would be like saying, “Thanks, I’ve got this. You don’t need to do anything at the moment. Just let me be for now, until I need you later.”
