#1 – “I Swear”: Exploring the Connection Between Tourette’s, Evolving Consciousness, and Psychological Flexibility
“I Swear” is deeply moving, thought provoking, and hilarious at the same time.
It’s a BAFTA-winning biopic about the life of John Davidson—a Tourette’s sufferer whose life gets turned upside down after getting the condition in his early teens.
When his ticks started, Tourette’s wasn’t a recognised medical condition, which meant his uncontrollable verbal outbursts caused chaos in his life.
He got punished by teachers, bullied by peers, assaulted, and even into legal trouble.
The movie documents how John comes to live in harmony with his condition and thrive against all odds—eventually being awarded an MBE by the Queen in 2019.
This short post (520 words) explores how Tourette’s—and conditions like it—may play a vital role in evolving human consciousness and increasing psychological flexibility.
#2 – Are You Striving from Scarcity or Attracting from Abundance?
An idea I’ve been thinking a lot about recently is that our goals are often emotional states in disguise.
We think we want to achieve X or Y, but really what we want is the emotional state we believe achieving X or Y will grant us.
For example:
— We think we want a relationship, but what we really want is connection and safety.
— We think we want money, but what we really want is the security and freedom that money represents.
— We think we want success, but what we really want is a sense of purpose and significance — to be seen and to feel like we matter.
The unconscious rule we’ve set up for ourselves is that we won’t allow ourselves to feel the emotional state until we’ve achieved the goal—so we pursue from a place of scarcity and lack.
This short post (607 words) unpacks this idea in a little more detail and its implications for creating the future we want.
#3 – Addiction and Value Hierarchies
During our Holistic Recovery Summit, Dr. Bruce Alexander shared the original meaning of the word “addiction”.
In early English, to be addicted simply meant to be devoted to something—whether it was a person, cause, craft, or goal.
Back then, it wasn’t pathological.
Only later did it become associated with an object of harmful dependence.
Although this was one of the first interviews for the event, it planted a seed that grew as I spent the following months learning from 40+ of the world’s leading experts in addiction and recovery.
Over time, I began to see that each of us has a “value hierarchy” guiding us through life.
Whatever’s most important sits at the top, orienting our attention and behaviour.
It acts as a filter for making decisions, choosing projects, and what we spend our time on.
If you want to know what might sit at the top of yours, the best places to look are your bank statements (i.e. what you spend your money on) and your calendar (how you invest your time).
When our value hierarchy is in the right order—i.e. when the things that are most life-giving are at the top—we flourish.
And when it’s out of order, we run into trouble.
If you think about it, addiction is essentially a “hijacking” of a person’s value hierarchy.
When one takes hold, it goes right to the top.
And everything else—including family, friendships, spirituality, work, play, hobbies, and sometimes even health—are now subordinate.
The person affected is now devoted to this one thing.
And arrange their life so they can get their fix whenever they need it.
Since discovering this, I’ve wondered what the optimal things to have at the top of our value hierarchy are.
Which brings me to the next insight…
#4 – Maslow’s “Hamburger” of Needs
This article from Tim Ferriss offers an alternative view on one of the most well known models in the history of psychology: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Often depicted as a pyramid of gradually ascending levels—with self actualisation at the top—few concepts have influenced the Western mind more.
Interestingly, this was never Maslow’s view in the first place.
He described needs as “unfixed”, overlapping, and reversible in order.
There was no pyramid.
That is until corporate consultants co-opted his work in the 1960s to sell their programs.
This post (600 words) explores the toxic effects this pyramid-paradigm has had on our collective value hierarchy, and why Ferriss’ “Hamburger” may be a more appropriate alternative.
#5 – Values: Cultural or Universal?
I was speaking to a friend recently who is deeply versed in existential philosophy.
At one point, the subject of values came up.
My friend’s view—which is common to many existential thinkers—is that values are subjective and culturally dependent.
Which means what is “good” in one cultural context might be “bad” in another.
For instance, eating beef in certain parts of India is considered a sacrilege, whereas it’s a staple of our diet in the west. Same with eating dogs in Vietnam—standard practice for them, but morally reprehensible for us.
Extrapolating from this, the view is that it doesn’t necessarily matter which values you choose to live by.
All that matters is that you do live by them.
So if you value hedonism, and live out hedonistic values, that’s ok.
As Shakespeare put it:
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
Although this is an interesting idea in theory, when I reflect on my own experiences, this mental map does not accurately reflect the territory.
Call me naive, but I very much have the sense that certain values are objective and transcendent.
I remember hearing a story about Auschwitz a few years ago.
In the camps, guards would force inmates (already weak and starving) to carry 40-50kg sacks from one side of the camp to the other—and back again.
There was no purpose to this apart from their own entertainment.
So they were intentionally inflicting suffering on fellow human beings for their own pleasure.
When you reflect on this, can you think of any (sane) cultural context in which deliberately inflicting suffering on another being—for pleasure—could be considered good?
To me, this suggests there are some things which are undeniably wrong.
And given that everything in our world has an opposite.
This also hints that there are some things which are objectively and undeniably “right”.
Staying with the above, can you think of any cultural context in which the genuine intention to reduce unnecessary suffering in another being could be considered evil?
So, in the same way there are invisible laws like gravity and thermodynamics that govern the physical world, what if there are also objective invisible laws that govern our moral landscape?
And what if aligning with them is one of the most important things we can do if we want to navigate this life well?
I’m curious to get your thoughts on this.
Where do you sit on the issue of whether values are cultural or universal?
If you have 2 mins spare, hit reply on this email, and let me know.
#6 – How to Enjoy the Process
I interviewed Kevin Kelly for our Aligned Creator Summit this month.
If you’re unfamiliar, Kevin is the Co-Founder of Wired Magazine, and someone Tim Ferriss suggests might be “the most interesting man in the world”.
A key takeaway was Kevin’s maxim:
Never measure yourself against somebody else’s ruler.
In his view, if you want to live a content and peacefully creative life, it’s essential to get clear on your own definition and metrics for success.
The reason?
We’re social beings, hardwired for imitation. (For more on this, check out Rene Girard’s theory of mimetic desire.)
My experience with running is an example of why this is so important.
When I started, I would go out on long, easy Sunday runs in nature during Covid as a way to unplug, reset, and clear my head for the week ahead.
It became a weekly “moving meditation” that I both looked forward to and enjoyed the process of.
However, everything changed when I signed up for Strava.
If you’re unfamiliar, Strava is a social network for runners where your stats (speed, distances, times, heart rate, etc.) are on public display.
Not long after, running began to lose its magic for me.
It was no longer about exploration and rejuvenation in nature, but now about what speed I was doing, and how many km I logged each week.
Looking back, I can see that my metrics for success shifted from the internal to the external.
Now I was more concerned with what my stats would say afterward, than I was about actually enjoying the process of going for a run.
This shows that if we’re not clear on our own “ruler” for success, we can very easily start measuring ourselves against the predominant metrics in our social sphere.
This can happen in any area of life—whether it be work, finances, health, hobbies, etc.
So if something brings us a lot of joy—like running did for me—we’d be wise to clearly define our metrics for success in this area, so that if we ever find ourselves getting pulled into someone else’s game, we can drop their measuring stick, and get back to enjoying the process.
If you used to enjoy an activity, but no longer do, ask yourself:
1.) What metrics might be driving you in this area? Are these consciously chosen or have you picked up somebody else’s “ruler”?
2.) What are you really trying to get out of this?
3.) If external metrics were taken out of the equation—and nobody else could find out what you did in this area—how would that change your approach?
#7 – A Powerful Question for Figuring out What You Want
We’ve just wrapped up week 5 of our six-week Aligned Creator Pilot.
Last week, the focus was on clarifying our future self and strengthening our connection to them.
One of the questions we used was Dan Sullivan’s “R-Factor”:
“If we were meeting three years from today—and you were to look back over those three years to today—what has to have happened during that period, both personally and professionally, for you to feel happy about your progress?”
If you’d like more clarity on the goals you’d be most excited to pursue in the years ahead, spend 10-15 mins journalling on this. You won’t regret it.
