Stories, beautiful art, travel, books, music and movies are all ways to bring out the inherent magic and meaning that is all around us.
When I find a good audiobook with a message that resonates, when I read a good book or watch a beautiful movie (Life of Pi is my favorite) this can enhance my own experience of life and makes me see everything around me as more meaningful. After all, these stories are all based on the same world we all currently live in. It’s the perspective that changes. When you see life as a story and yourself as a part of this story, life becomes more interesting.
I went to see How To Train Your Dragon in the cinema yesterday. It was very inspiring, and I loved the theme of finding your own way in life, and not trying to walk in somebody else’s footsteps.
Life’s not meant to be a nonfiction. When you overdose on data analytics, study productivity hacks, and study a scientific discipline, you can easily forget this. We’re trained to think of nonfiction as something dry and neutral, unbiased, but this also kills the human perspective. It’s true that the brain is just electric signals, but that’s not the human experience. Make sure that in the name of trying to be scientifically accurate, you don’t forget to talk about what this means or can mean for human beings. We don’t need to just think something is true, we need to feel it is true, otherwise, no true understanding was achieved.
We’re not Homo Economicus, we’re not cold strategic robots that only act out of rational goals. And that’s a good thing. If you feel like nothing matters, if you feel like you’ve lost the magic, if work has become just work to you, it’s time to step back in to your own body. Center yourself. Focus on the relationships you have at work, the experiences you have in life, and how they make you feel. If I could tell you anything right now, it’s to embrace your human bias. Trying to think rationally is causing you to zoom out and lose touch with your own body, mind and spirit, and with it, the energy and passion that allows you to live fully in this world. I’m not saying don’t study biology – neuroscience – or psychology, I find studying and sciences fascinating.
I’m saying, study it as a human being, and don’t lose yourself in a discipline. If you go to a brain surgeon with a cough, they will tell you it’s neurological. If you go to a veterinarian with a cough, they will say you might be allergic to cats. Disciplines blind us to the truth of life – the holistic perspective or bigger picture that we’re here on this wonderful, beautiful planet. You’re a full package person having a complete experience of all that there is to offer, the entire smörgåsbord of possibilities, from art, to love. Most likely, all these things are emergent properties of things that can be deconstructed, but emergent properties still exist, and if you remove them, you’ll miss this. On the way home from the cinema, I spotted these bunnies next to the setting sun. Isn’t that magical?
Peace,
Erik
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