Having an ‘inner-voice’ gives an illusion we know more about ourselves and our motives than we do, and control more of our thoughts and action than we actually do.
Personally, the illusion fades when inspecting thoughts and impulses when they arise (and fade away). From my perspective, at best, I have conscious control of the level of attachment to thoughts and feelings as they arise.
How I respond is what matters.
The human brain may be the most complex thing in the known universe. Now think about human civilization: the interaction of billions of those brains at various scales. There’s a combinatorial explosion that makes it impossible to fully understand, control, or predict the future.
Despite that uncertainty, there are endless problems that need solving.The internet, by connecting everyone to everyone, succeeded in raising collective awareness —and anxiety levels — and the speed at which they are amplified. So my little rule of thumb I try to follow is this: choose a problem I’m fit to solve. ignore the pushback from others for not caring about their selected problem as much as they do.
The world is messy and noisy. Theoretically, however, the correct filter can get the world’s best information at our fingertips. Selection criteria for information we consume, then, is what needs to be solved for.
How we think is more important than what we think.
Here’s the core of my ethos: my responsibility is to make myself as potent I can be for the problems I’m in the arena to solve.
The correct filter strengthens my knowledge — and makes me more potent.
The right knowledge is powerful.
When looking out at the world, one of the most effective lens to look through is the 3 P’s: Profit, Power, and Prestige.
It’s also an insightful way to look my own motives. This often reveals an ugly part of me to myself, which subsequently strengthens and realigns me toward what really matters.
This is the Laboratory of the Self: committing to understand and improve how I think, speak, and act for my own selfish betterment and the betterment of things around me.