Hello, and welcome
I’m Aaron J. Marx, and I want to help you improve the results of your leadership by sharing an unusually deep and honest understanding of the human condition that we all experience.
I’m a passionately dispassionate and compassionate observer of people. People like you. And those that you lead.
Let’s introduce you to the 4 Perennial & Perpetual Problems of the Human Condition that will help to improve your leadership and results…👇
4 Perennial and Perpetual Problems of the Human Condition that are affecting your leadership and company culture
Humans exist in time. Each of the 4 Perennial and Perpetual Problems describes a different perspective on our subjective experience of time within the human condition.
1. Narrative Trauma - Past meets Present
Humans experience the present moment driven by the pain of the past. It’s the pain of the natural world, the pain of intergenerational trauma, the pain of personal frustration, betrayal, and slights. Everyone experiences this, including you and the people you lead.
The paradox is that our pain is beautiful, and provides the very basis of our individual and collective growth journey. Humans are the only creatures who have the ability to create stories about their pain, and we LOVE to share them with one another. Traumatic stories even form the basis of our religions and myths. Pain, and our personal journey of transcending it, is deeply meaningful to us. This is Narrative Trauma and the Paradox of the Beauty of Pain. It’s in every person and culture you meet.
Signs of unresolved Narrative Trauma in your culture: team conflict, misunderstandings, seemingly irrational behavior
2. Existential Friction - Pure Present
All existence happens in the present moment. It always has and always will. In spite of our memories of the past, we can only ever perceive and act in the present moment. Further, we all exist thanks to copulatory happenstance, without having asked for it. This is true of all people.
Human self-awareness reveals existence within the present moment to be highly uncomfortable. The friction of the future is unremitting, and each new moment demands a new action. We can’t escape this. We can choose to numb against this, or improve life through leadership and creation. Both are unpleasant in their own way. That’s Existential Friction and the Paradox of Unavoidable Discomfort.
Signs of unresolved Existential Friction in your culture: avoidance of important conversations, ceaseless activity with little productivity
3. Combinatorial Explosion - Present Meets Future
As we proceed from the present moment into the future we are faced with an often paralyzing choice. How do we select the actions that bring the most benefit with the least effort and input? There are literally INFINITE actions we can take. This is known as “combinatorial explosion”. Most of us are not nearly as effective as we could be because our frameworks for selecting the next action lack intention and purpose. We can’t stop taking actions, and so we get unsatisfactory results.
As long as we must take actions anyway, we need to find a way of selecting the next action that brings us as close as possible to meeting our goals and realizing our visions. When the options are infinite and overwhelming, how can we possibly do this? Furthermore, how do we select the best actions, not only for ourselves, but those who follow us in the face of an uncertain future? This is Combinatorial Explosion and the Double Burden of Leadership.
Signs of unresolved Combinatorial Explosion in your culture: analysis paralysis, uncertainty, lack of confidence, second guessing
4. The Ideal of Imperfectability - All Times and Places
All responses to the Existential Friction of the present moment are actions. All actions are motivated by dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction motivates us to avoid discomfort and seek improvement. Every action reflects this. Every person is driven by their frustrations and aspirations as they move into the future. Frustrations and aspirations indicate a misalignment with an IDEAL that we somehow sense, even though it does not exist. All actions are taken to move closer to the IDEAL.
But, humans are necessarily growth-oriented beings. We NEED frustrations and aspirations at all times to motivate the actions we take. Therefore, even the IDEAL itself must include frustrations and aspirations. Therefore the IDEAL itself is imperfectable, and imperfectability itself is the IDEAL. We know this intuitively, but it is absurd. It is also the perpeutal driver of the human spirit and all progress on the individual and species level. This is the Sublime Sublimated Absurdity of the Ideal of Imperfectability.
Signs of unresolved Imperfectability in your culture: a sense of futility, deep frustration, despair, bitterness and cynicism
Services offered:Individual coaching/mentoring, group facilitation, speaking, retreats
