In which Wolf gives you the six steps you need to make your life amazing and the world a better place. Watch this episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/WrZFulkFCUc
The old saying goes that the only certain things in life are death and taxes. But I think death and taxes are just special cases of a much bigger underlying concept. In fact, when people complain about death, taxes, or pretty much anything else they're missing the point of what life is trying to tell them. The fact is that life comes with limits. You have limits, I have limits, Elon Musk has limits. Everyone has different limits, but they're always there.
A chain is a system of metal links. It's purpose is to transmit tension from one of its ends to the other. And we've all heard that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. You can find the weakest link in a chain, but no matter how many times you replace it with a stronger one, you'll never have a perfectly strong chain: the currently weakest link will always be the chain's limit.
An electric wire is like a chain, but instead of physical tension it carries electric current. A wire's limits are measured in amperes or just amps. As you up the amps flowing through a wire it heats up, and if you exceed its rating, it's likely to break the circuit by melting, and it's also likely to start a fire. This is why buildings have circuit breakers, so if something causes a short circuit the breaker trips.
One more example of physical limits: how fast you can pour liquid out of a bottle depends on its shape. A bottle with a narrow neck limits how fast you can pour the fluid, and this is a good thing if you don't want to just dump wine all over your customers. But even if you used a jar with no narrow neck, you'd find that the fluid still doesn't pour instantly, the limits is now the properties of the fluid itself and the force of gravity.
So limits are just a fact of life. They apply to all natural systems and they apply to human beings and the systems we create. In the human realm, some limitations are in fact unfair. Stories of the tragic histories we've inherited, including abundant examples of man's inhumanity to man teach us that not only is life on its own unfair, but sometimes we're living our lives weighed down by unfairness that we've somehow inherited.
That's where the dominant social narrative currently stops. Life is unfair, you're a victim, and you need to give other people what power you do have so they can correct all the unfairness of the past.
I'll say it straight up: that's terrible thinking. Why? Because being stuck in a victimhood narrative blinds you to the possibilities your life holds right now. Whatever bad hand you think life has dealt you, I guarantee there are examples out there of people who have been dealt worse hands, and succeeded in every way that matters to them. If you listen to the stories of successful people, you'll find they all have one thing in common: they don't complain about having been dealt a bad hand.
The wrong way to think about limits is that you're somehow victimized by them, and that your limits, whether they are physical, social, or economic, are somehow what will define you and prevent you from succeeding.
Now I hear some of you out there grumbling, "But somethings in life are just raw: a child gets brain cancer, or a people are victims of genocide, are you saying that they all can just change their perspective and transcend their limits?" Of course not. They may or may not be able to control their mindset in such terrible situations, because as I've said in a previous video: ultimately your immediate actions and attitudes are all you really control, but these are tragedies, and I'm not trying to give you a cure for tragedy here.
In fact, these sorts of objections are often called "lifeboat scenarios," because they deliberately construct dilemmas where there are no right or best answers, for example "There are 100 passengers on a sinking ship and a lifeboat that holds only 10; how do you decide who to save?" I hope neither you nor I ever has to face such a stark decision, but the fact is: most decisions you will make in your life are not lifeboat scenarios. You get up, dress, eat, go to school or work, come home, and one way or another, your next 24 hours gets used up. If you're listening to this, then that is a model for your life, not surviving the Titanic, and lifeboat scenarios end up just being a deflection and yet another excuse.
We like to imagine perfect things like unbendable girders or unbreakable ropes. But the fact that such things cannot exist is not cause for despair, because we don't need to live in a perfect world; we need to live in a world we can improve, because that is the sort of world in which we can find meaning.
So how do you improve your life? Here are the the six steps to do it. Each of these steps could be a whole series of videos, and I'm sure I'll tackle many of them in the future.
First: decide what you really want.
Second: find your weakest link to achieving it.
Third: use the capacity of that link to it's utmost.
Fourth: align all the activities in your life around managing that one link.
Fifth: strengthen that link.
And Sixth: go back to step one.
These steps are simple to say, but they take time, learning, thought, and work to actually implement. Right now I'll just leave you with this tip: memorize these steps. Once you start seeing the world through this lens, I guarantee you're going to hear the call to adventure. Take courage: whatever your limits, you can always make things better, and quite likely far better than you can imagine from where you are right now.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments, and if you’re serious about thinking better and helping others as well, check out my unique software for problem solving and creating real improvement at FlyingLogic.com.
See you tomorrow!