Sometimes, life doesn’t go as you have thought, and 2019 has delivered personal circumstances I had a hard time seeing coming. It has been really challenging, but in the midst of this, I noticed ways to get out of the mist.
The upside of such life-changing events has been that I have reached out to my network of people, that I both know and don’t know. Having a couple of beers with a wise fellow from the mentor program is one example and reaching out to the Farnam Street Learning Community is another example. The latter is a formidable network of people who are willing to pay to be members and engage in learning as much as possible about themselves and the world. I asked what others have done to move through the turbulence to see the sun again. The amount of wisdom I received is fantastic.
Via the Farnam Street Learning Community, I also saw the post where people were asked to list their most valuable YouTube channels, and why. One of them recommended Awakening from the Meaning Crisis by professor John Vervaeke. This is a truly remarkable series of videos, about an hour each, where he guides us in both cognitive science and everything from Plato, Jung, and many others. I wanted to binge-watch it to receive all the wisdom quickly but noticed I needed to pause after one or two episodes. The ideas are so fundamentally interesting and potentially life-changing that I will watch all of the chapters and see how it can change my life. John is right when he says we engage too much in bullshit, confirmation porn, and self-deception instead of building trusted networks and focusing on the things that are both true and meaningful.
I will continue to work with myself, but beneath all the noise caused by the above, I noticed that I am still me. It will take time to recreate myself, but with all the help I can receive from my friends and network, the ride will be smoother. Thank you for listening.
Photo by Christiaan Huynen on Unsplash.
