An antidote to the treadmill of self improvement
An antidote to the treadmill of self improvement
Level off, not up.
When I was younger I played a game called Warhammer 40k. It was a table top battle game. There were space marines, elves, orks, dwarves and creatures of chaos. In order to play, you had to buy little metal figures.
The figures were made to be painted. This was part of the fun.
And?
You could only do battle with the troops you had.
Every six months or so, they’d issue new figures.
The new troops would be sold as a way to ‘level up’ your army.
Giving people a chance to ‘level up’ didn’t add to our enjoyment of the game. It did however create a tension that was wonderful at making us want to part with our money.
No matter what happened, our armies were never quite good enough. We always were fantasizing about the new figures. We always wanted more. We were on a treadmill of ‘leveling up’.
Seth Godin calls this the ratchet of improvement. The tension of ‘wanting more’ drives people to be less content with what they have and crave something else, something new, something different, something better.
And the self help / coaching / leadership world is filled with ratchets of self improvement. And this industry is hell bent on playing on your sense of ‘not enough’ so that you can level up.
In this framework, the suffering that’s an essential part of being a human becomes a problem to solve. Not living like you want to? Someone will help you optimize. You can go for the brass ring. Be all that you can be. Just do it.
Capitalism at its finest.
The same goes for social status amongst the chattering activist types.
The Remarkable Fools Society is different than this.
We’re here to help you level off, not level up.
Suffering is part of life.
I would never attempt to convince you otherwise.
Our Registry of Certified Fools is designed to give you permission to give up on leveling up.
And?
You don’t need to be a Certified Fool in order to do so.
But the certificates are beautifully designed by Hanif Janmohamed aka The Reluctant Illustrator. Put on a wall, they’re a great reminder that you’re doing the best you can with what you have right now. No shame in that.
They’re a theraputic joke, making the statement that you’re ok - especially if you can laugh at yourself.
We’re working together to bring more levity to the world and help people take themselves less seriously.
Joining us for the Registry of Certified Fools Launch party on April 1 at noon Eastern, 1pm Atlantic to find out how you can become a Certified Fool too.
Sign up for the zoom invite here
It’s like the old saying goes:
They who laugh most, live best and they who laugh moist might have taken a drink at the wrong time.
Level off or level up? Neither seem organic. Or are plateaus and inclines more natural? Periods of growth followed by periods of quiet contemplation and repair? Like the seasons? We, in the northern hemisphere, are coming out of a dormant period and according to the crocuses, the natural world is starting a period of exponential growth that we call Spring. Summer is an energy peak and we literally have the energy Fall off into our Winter, when hibernation occurs in several species. I sometimes think bears are more evolved than us in this way. Bears get it. That's enough, I'm taking a nap. Before the industrial age, we had periods of physical and emotional fallow. Now, we are assaulted by information, shiny things and the constant comparison to others that induces symptoms of narcissism and sadness in many. Even on a daily basis, we advance during the day and retreat and repair at night. Maybe I am very foolish, but wanting more doesn't feel like lack to me. I don't feel less than. I just feel like a book with another chapter. There's no strife, sense of imperfection or need of correction. I just have more pages and I want them to be filled with adventures.