Personal technologies

Personal mastery and developing a productive outlook is essential in democratic development. Before we can co-create with others we must learn to create ourselves. If the people involved do not have the skills and awareness necessary, everything else is made that much more difficult. In the context of the personal, "technology" really means a way of understanding and relating to the world. This section outlines a core of beneficial, related personal technologies. Others will be added as they are discovered and/or invented. Feel free to make suggestions.

Dealing with assumptions - "Distinguishing" refers to the skill and habit of taking something that is normally in the background, and of which we are unaware, and bringing it into the foreground so that we can deal with it. This is a very important skill because it allows us to deal with the tangle of assumptions that form our blindspot. The realm of knowledge can be divided into 1) what we know, 2) what we know we don't know, and 3) what we don't know we don't know. This third category is our blindspot and is QUITE large, generally. If we are not careful, just as in driving, we are likely to run into something in our blindspot unexpectedly that can cause problems for us and others. We can get in the habit of distinguishing our situation when we experience unexpected negative or positive results that we would like to understand better, which allows us to rethink our previously unconscious assumptions and do something differently in the future to avoid repeating our mistakes. This process of distinguishing, rethinking assumptions and learning to produce better results is sometimes calld double loop learning. People and organizations that deal with this body of knowledge are Chris Argyris, Ronald Heifetz, and Landmark Education

Dealing with reactions - Humans have developed reactions because they help us survive. Unfortunately, reactions too often lead us astray in a modern, nuanced world and perpetuate dysfunctional patterns of behavior. (I can guarantee you that every persistent problem you experience in your life dervises from a combination of assumptions and reactions that negatively constrain your choices.) Personal and cultural evolution will require learning to move from automatic reactions to conscious choice. Some biologistst talk about our reptile brain (the oldest part), our monkey brain (not quite as old), and the human brain. Moving from reactions to choice means using our human brains and will power to transcend the programming of our reptile and monkey brains. Meditation, contemplation and inquiry are tools that help us with this challenge. They allow us to begin to separate stimulus and reponse and begin to insert choice between them. This is an often difficult and painful process, but one that can greatly expand our freedom to act intelligently and positively. Some keywords: Daniel Goleman, Vipassana meditation.

Making meaning - Humans are meaning making machines. There is no meaning inherent in the world, it exists only in our language and culture. We apply meaning to events, sometimes by choice, sometimes automatically based on our culture or upbringing. It is dangerous to jump up the ladder of inference and assign meaning without exploring assumptions and testing alternative interpretations. There are often a variety of equally valid interpretations for a given situation, so it is often to ask, "what interpretation works best for me and others involved?"

Ways of knowing - There are a variety of ways someone can know something to be "true." One is to take something on faith. A second is to take the word of an authority or expert. The third is because one has personally experienced/verified it to be true. Ut can often be helpful to determine how you or someone else "knows" something to be true.

Being vs. doing - Most people believe that you DO something, that results in you HAVING something, which ultimate results in you BEING a certain way. For example, I will push through this development, so that it gets done, no matter what, then the stakeholders will be happy. When we think more carefully about it, we realize that life rarely works this way. Along the way, while we are doing things, we are also being one way or another. We can be ruthless or inclusive, patient or impatient, etc. The cummulative affect of this being is at least as important as whatever one is doing. Be responsible not only for certain tangible results, but to maintaining a positive being as well. This will fulfill your intention

Possibility, generativity and embodiment - Possibility is the experience that something can be achieve. It can relate to a specific idea, or it can be more general. It is possible to cultivate the experience of literally anything being possible (with enough time and effort). Even those who are skeptical will recognize that if one believes strongly that something is impossible, he or she will not invest effort and that thing will remain unachieved. Therefore possibility is a prequisite to success. I will go further and say that it is my experience that human beings, by virtue of posessing a will, are fundamentally generative. In otherwords, we literally create our own reality in little and big ways by virtue of our beliefs (what we "know" about the world). Material change is never instantaneous, perhaps requiring significant adaptation over time, but the process of change begins instaneously when a sense of possibility is felt. Note that possibility is not something intellectual, but something felt and thus cannot be faked. One must embody a possibility. But when one embodies a possibility, others will be inspired, and thus that possibility has the potential to grow and spread and eventually become real.

Is vs. becoming - "Is" a powerful concept that has the power to hold fixed what is ultimately flexible and adaptive. In reality, there "is" nothing. Instead, reality is an unfolding process of becoming. This applies to you, me and everything else on the planet, including mountains. (Mountains are slowly becoming dust.) Is is only a useful concept in a certain frame of time. (A mountain certainly is a mountain today, at least.) But we must be careful about using "is" because we may inadvertently perpetuate things, even things we would rather see change. The generativity described above depends on the ever-flowing becoming of the universe, because we can insert our will between what was and what will be and make adustments!

Identity as a choice - Most people think of their identity as something permanent they are born with, but this is not the case. Because of our "becoming" nature, the concept of identity is something that prevents our adaptation and limits our freedom. It creates us/them dichotomies that keep us separate and encourage unnecessary conflict. When we recognize our identity is a choice, we can make choices that work better for us and others moment to moment.

Paradox and transcendence -Paradoxes simply are places in our experience where two things, which on initial inspection seem incompatible, both exist at the same time. Paradoxes invite inquiry and distinguishing to see the nuanced truth that underlies the apparent paradsox. Paradoxes can be transcended and it is always best to do so: choosing one half of a paradox cuts our future experience in half as well. Transcendence allows us to retain the full richness of our lives.

What we really want - There are levels to our wants, starting with transitory, surface wants, but extending all the way to deep, immutable core wants. It is important to ask ourselves, "Why do I want that? And why do I want that? And why do I want that?" etc. This allows us to get to core wants and get past apparent wants, creating greater flexibility for us and others.

Thinking in systems -It is important to be able to think in terms of systems, because highly interdependent systems rule our lives and it is best to understand them. Virtuous and vicious circles, feedback, side effects and unintended consequences are all a part of everday life. Thinking in systems, and understanding our role in them, is essential for avoiding negative patterns of behavior. Seek to see beyond singular events to underlying patterns and trends, and then to system that generates those trends. Then you will have the power to change them.

An organic vs. a mechanistic worldview - We live in an organic, living world. Adhering to a mechanistic worldview limits our ability to be effective. They cut us off to the possibility of emergency, self-organization, adaptation, growth, etc.

Authenticity, self-trust and creativity -It essential to know who we uniquely are, beyond the identity we are given by virtue of culture and upbringing. It is never fully possible to do so, but we can learn to reach greater levels of authenticity, and it is through being who we uniquely are that we are able to make our highest contribution. This happens through a gradual process of trusting ourselves more and more. Listening to and trusting our intuition. As we do this, the creative source that is at the core of our being is slowly revealed. Christians talk about this as being "led by spirit." The Artist's Way is an example of this process.

Love vs. fear - One has a choice to view the world through a lense of love and acceptance or judgment and fear. It is the same world, but our responses change dramtically. Love and acceptance create space for adaptation and growth. Fear and judgment stop them. Cultivating our ability to love and accept more ironically gives us more power to create the space necessary for them to adapt themselves.

Stretch and adaptation -We'd like to think that we can just make decisions and change result immediately. Anyone who has made a new year's resolution knows this is not true. Change is a process of adaptation that comes when one holds a certain intention/possibility in the mind. We are stetched between reality and what could be. Our ability to hold this stretch is a measure of our emotional and psychic strength. Reactions can be a sign we've stretched too far.

Gratitude - Practicing gratitude on a daily basis keeps one strong and moving forward.

Managing your ego - Many philosophers, theologians and others have talked about the dangers of ego and the need to move beyond ego. More...

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