Fool-Proofing Your Life?

One of the interesting features of our current, information-fueled world is the challenge it places upon how to navigate it all. Not just the mass and speed of it, but the conflicting information, and the rapidly multiplying misinformation, and the incredible change it all represents.

Remember, we humans were created and evolved with an egoic structure that always seeks to hold thing tightly in place. That’s not a bad thing, in fact, it’s no doubt useful for survival. Of course, in the presence of so much acceleration and exposure, that individual and collective ego will always feel threatened. No surprise that the pattern is an increase in the challenges and anxieties many experience.

Yet here’s the reality. We cannot put the genies of technology, information, diversity, and the like back in the proverbial bottle. Despite many who want to roll back our reality to a much more comfortable, static, and predictable time, the historical evidence gives no reason to think we can successfully turn back the clock.

So how can we proceed?

There are two powerful notions in which we can rest, though neither is necessarily comfortable. By the way, the “growing edge” is always in a zone of discomfort. We might as well see what we can do to get comfortable with discomfort.

The first notion is a stark one, courtesy of Charles Darwin: Adapt or perish.

Yep, given that our environment is always changing, and sometimes doing so with disturbing speed, our first best strategy is to commit to changing along with it. That means letting go of old ideas and old approaches, along with as much willingness to experiment as we can muster.

Granted, there is a deep bias to the young, and to those with growth mindsets, which means that some will fail to negotiate the terms of this requirement. Of course, as cold as it may sound, it has always been true that if we cannot adapt we will not thrive, and very likely we will indeed perish. The comfort in this is the awareness it has always been the way of things. That means we have to get much more comfortable not just with change, but with our own mortality. Not an easy matter for those egos of ours!

The second notion is at odds with our western ethos: Cooperation is almost always more successful than competition.

Ever wonder why many canines and felines have thrived so well in the modern world? Not only did they adapt from wildness to domestication, they figured out that cozying up to these humans was highly effective at getting shelter, food, and nurturance. Even coyotes have figured out how to stay wild and yet ease into the larger domesticated world. Not surprisingly, domesticated cats and dogs are multiplying, while those that are clinging to wildness are diminishing.

Here in the US, and in much of the modern world, we lean toward competition. No wonder there is a shift from a more masculine motif to one that is more feminine, or communitarian. It just works better in the changing landscape of reality.

Always the big question is whether we can see truly, and in turn, can we muster the wherewithal to work with that reality rather than resisting it.

Seeing True in Reality and In Practice™

Here’s a reflection from the wisdom and teaching of my long-time mentor, Sam D, affectionately known to me as Master Samwise.

We should always keep being curious. That allows us to gather valuable data, which then allows us to be more effective. Of course, we can learn from that or suffer, and maybe die.

We get to choose.

“Would you like to choose again?”

~ A Course in Miracles