The Formula
It’s stressful to ignore your conscience. In my case, that stress manifested as anxiety, depression, panic attacks, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. In other words, ignoring my conscience and wasting my talent was killing me. Maybe that’s just me, but we have an epidemic of despair in this country, so maybe it’s not.
I’ve been documenting my attempts to solve the wasted talent problem since 9/9/17, and my attempts go back even longer than that. It’s stressful to ignore your conscience because your conscience points in the direction of your talent’s complete expression. When you ignore your conscience, your talent goes to waste, and wasted talent leads to regret, resentment, despair, and destruction. It doesn’t get much more stressful than that.
My solution for my regret and resentment, for my anxiety and depression, and for my panic attacks has been my strategy for approaching each day. That strategy is: “follow your conscience, no matter the obstacle and no matter the sacrifice.” That is not to hold myself up as the paradigm of infallible conscientiousness. Most days I get it wrong more than I get it right, but the more I get it right, the better I feel.
Getting it right boils down to devoting my time and attention to the complete expression of my talent. This is the expression of my talent, creating and sharing an effective strategy for living. My talent is for philosophy. I devote my time and attention to practicing, codifying, and sharing the philosophy I call Heroism. Stoicism is the philosophy practiced by the stoics. Heroism is the philosophy practiced by the Heroes of the myths and legends at the foundation of human civilization.
Joseph Campbell laid the groundwork for this philosophy with his revolutionary book “The Hero With A Thousand Faces.” In that book, he outlined an archetypal, narrative pattern that heroic myths and legends from around the world consistently follow. That narrative pattern is the basis for the most popular movies of the last century; our modern myths.
Campbell called the archetypal, narrative pattern “The Hero’s Journey.” Study of the Hero’s Journey reveals a deep understanding of Human Nature and the dynamics of peak performance, and that understanding is the basis of Heroism. The philosophy of Heroism can be summed up in one statement. “Follow your conscience, no matter the obstacle and no matter the sacrifice.” We can also spend days unpacking the meaning of that statement. The best course of action I can recommend is the spend your life living your days in accordance with that statement.
Food has been my number one coping mechanism, but booze, and weed have also made the list. Lashing out at people, and trying to drag them down with me has made the list at times too. People get up to all sorts of wild nonsense to try to drown out the torment dished out by their own conscience. None of it works. No one can escape their conscience. The bill always comes due. You can kick the can down the road until there’s no more road, but then you’re stuck with the bill, because you’re too old and too sick to make anything with your talent.
Your life is a series of days, each day is a series of decisions, and decisions begin with questions. Each new day brings a new set of temptations and distractions, so you need a set of questions that aligns your decisions and actions with your authentic, nonnegotiable priorities.
Will you follow your conscience, or ignore your conscience?
Who are you, and what do you want to do about it?
What is the biggest, most important problem you can solve with the complete expression of your talent and skill? And what is your plan to solve it?
What would your life look like in five years if you made all of the right decisions, every day?
What would you life look like in five years if you made all of the wrong decisions, every day?
What is the quest that you would love to devote your talent, time, and attention to, every day?
What is the loss that must be avoided at all costs?
Everyone wants the Formula for Living a Good Life. That Formula isn’t a set of answers that someone can hand you. It’s a set of questions that you must answer for yourself by consulting your conscience.