Save me from New-Year-itis
Paul King MSc (Psych)
I'm not 'a thing', but Therapist & Adviser (personal and financial), Artist, Potter, and Musician are what I 'do'.
It was with mild trepidation that I scrolled this platform in the last day or so. I was not disappointed. Amongst the escalating and increasingly acceptable violence perpetrated between tribal bands dressed up as races, religions, and Nations are the many glass-bead gems of reflections and lookings forward from people whose income depends upon selling pop-psych and pseudo-philosophy to people mired in the effort dispersing hamster wheels of consumerist Capitalism.
Gosh, that’s a sentence-and-a-half eh? ‘Pleased with that one ??.
Anyway, we are to start anew. We are to reflect on our tardiness and be grateful for all manner of things. We are to learn and move forward to greater “success” in the new year.
Lord help us!
Here is my gift to all for this coming arbitrary calendar designation of one of the rotations of the Earth. I give you… The Insanity Prayer.
God grant us the insanity to accept the unfolding extinctions, including our own, the blindness to increase our consumption, and the ignorance to ignore the difference.
I am all for helping people have what they need, want, or would like. Things and situations that could make them more fulfilled, and experience happiness and satisfaction. Helping people to gain a deep sense of what is truly important is why I don’t have legions of clients like many ‘coaches’ claim to have in their formula written, often ‘off the shelf’ marketing. Most people are stuck with “more”, be it money, power, status, influence, or all of them. Naturally, we are drawn to increase the us-ness of ourselves in-the-world, as we are aware of our temporality. What constitutes ‘us-ness’ is the fundamental question.
领英推荐
None of this has anything to do with an arbitrary incidence of planetary rotation.
It might have something to do with taking a break from the cycle of consumption enabling compliance most of us call ‘work’. There are connections we make attempts at recognising but look what we do at the same time. Not everyone, but a sizable enough cohort – headlong into a set of rituals prescribed by the American film and TV industry; a blurt of desperate gluttony in many forms, and then back into it “recharged”.
No wonder the ‘developed’ world is full of more-or-less knackered adults feeding an ever-demanding brood of wide-mouthed screeching chicks on a rolling life-cycle of intellectual denial and emotional faux bon homme.
It’s not going to be popular with the squawking masses who believe the message that greed isn’t greed, it’s a little luxury that you’ve earned. However, on an individual level, if you must do something new-yeary – maybe decide to be proud of any non-conformist things you will, will not, or will no longer do, that in however small a way, add less, subtract, or even help prevent the species extinction we’ve almost completed.
Maybe use 2024 to begin saying, "I do, or I do not do this, because it’s fulfilling to me, it makes me a little happier, to know that it’s a little less damaging". Not “and therefore you should…”, just, “this is me, this is my thing”. We are all complicit, but we can choose, with our big brains, to be less so. Little examples of unashamed, unjudgmental willingness, help.
Who knows where that kind of thinking and action could go if it got a foothold?
Unlocking Potential Through Technology, Innovation, and Creative Collaboration
10 个月I felt compelled to ask: Alright, let's break it down for a 10-year-old! Imagine you're scrolling through a fun online platform, like a game or a chat, but you're a little bit nervous about what you might find. When the person says "mild trepidation," they mean a small feeling of worry or uncertainty. As they scrolled through, they noticed something interesting. People on the platform were acting a bit like different groups fighting each other, pretending to be different races, religions, or nations. It's like they're playing a game, but instead of playing nicely, they're being mean to each other. But! There are also some really cool and thoughtful things people are saying. These are like little shiny gems in a pile of not-so-nice stuff. Some of the people sharing these cool thoughts make their money by selling ideas about pop-psych (popular psychology) and pseudo-philosophy (fake philosophy) to people who are stuck in the constant cycle of buying things in our society. So, in simple terms, the person is a bit worried about what they might find online, but they're happy to see some smart and interesting ideas among all the not-so-nice behavior. Curious to see what it'll make of the second sentence...
Unlocking Potential Through Technology, Innovation, and Creative Collaboration
10 个月Bart Flos for your consideration
Curating valuable patterns for customer-centric people driven Product cultures. Enabling flow from action to evolve out adaptive organizational ecosystems.
10 个月All this might be interestingly true but you forgot we’re human. And you’re possibly trying to project your cognitiveness to others which at best is wishful thinking and at worse useless. It’s bordering on here are some intelligent answers for you - you unaware being ?? Perhaps what is defined as insanity is just normal after all.
Chief Philosophy Officer & Transformation Companion
10 个月Hail to the Paul, what a genuine contribution - as refined and wonderful as your drawings and yes, that opening sentence is a beautiful kick in the nuts! ?? Godspeed, Brother! ??
WFH Representative
10 个月Paul King MSc (Psychology) , I loved your erudite, enlightening article. The Insanity Prayer is on target. I dislike holidays because they have all been turned into commercial enterprises. The endless need to shop, celebrate, and fake "loving" fruit cake -- ugh! Every year I dream of going to some hidden island from November 15 through January 15. Now we are heading into posts about "resolutions" and dieting. ?? Thank you for calling out the BS. I agree with you ??%.