The month of July will be an article series about the Compass of Life. This was a concept introduced by Dan John in this article on balance. The concept comes from his second grade teacher, Sister Maria Assumpta. For a balanced life we need to - work, rest, play and pray. Over the next four weeks we’ll go into more depth on each one of these topics.
The reason this article is important is because I’m seeing an increasing prevalence of people who are surpassing their capacity. As a result, people are growing increasingly symptomatic. Our suffering is preventing function. Being a presidential election year in the US, I suspect I’ll see more sick people this fall as a result of increased stress in an already overwhelmed state.
People are beyond “stressed out.” I don’t know if this is the residual effect of changes that took place following 2020, the fact that we are generally less resilient people, or a combination of the two. Maybe we are pushing beyond our financial limitations, maybe we are socially isolated, maybe we think we should be further along in life than we currently are, maybe we are comparing ourselves to outliers, maybe we haven’t exercised or gone on a date in a really long time, and maybe we are losing faith in institutions. I don’t believe there is one direct cause of where we are, but I think many of these factors are contributing.
My personal belief is our current American culture is less educated in the basics of being a well adjusted adult. My assumption is that we are not taught personal finance, we are not taught effective communication skills, we are not taught critical thinking skills, we are not taught how to exercise, we are not taught to consider and respect differing perspectives (you don’t have to accept them as your own individual truth), and we are asking less big questions. In fact, my concern is we are being taught the opposite.
We are overall just less diversified in what makes us, us. We are identified by race, political affiliation, hobby, profession and are steering away from just being who we are. We are trapped in our heads, focused strictly on ourselves, and rarely focus on anyone else. We are focused on our individual traumas and have limited capacity to care about anyone else's. We don’t like how we feel, and we have the expectation that everyone around us should cater to our desires. This is amplified by social media algorithms and technology which cater to our individual ideologies, the expansion of the customer service industry, and a culture that is shifting away from accountability.
The Compass of Life is just a framework or model. Given its modular nature it will not be perfect and it will not take into consideration every aspect of a life well lived. In order for it to be of any benefit, the two most important ingredients must be added - time and energy. We’ll work through the model over the next four weeks and hopefully there will be enough practical suggestions that you’ll be able to take something away to ease your burden. The only consolation I can provide - if you’re currently struggling, know you’re not alone and things can get better with time and energy.
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