The one thing that stands in your way
ChatGPT Summary:
This article explores the concept of avoidance as a significant obstacle in the human experience and leadership. It introduces the idea of five realms of existence: Motion, Life, Action, Strategy, and Purpose. The author emphasizes the human capacity for self-awareness and the ability to shape strategies and purpose. The article suggests that avoidance hinders the leadership process, breaking down the steps from embodied experience to purpose, vision, clarity, leadership, thinking, strategy, and action. The conclusion is that while certain steps are automatic and unavoidable, steps 4-8 are susceptible to the destructive impact of avoidance. The author encourages self-reflection and honesty about where avoidance occurs in one's process, asserting that addressing avoidance is essential for effective leadership and personal growth.
The one thing that stands in your way
I do it. You do it. We all do it. What is it? Read on to discover the answer. It’s built into the metaphysical fabric of reality for some reason, and, while other creatures express and exercise some version of it, we humans have our own distinctive version that is thoroughly integrated with the essence of our process of growth.
What is it?
Follow me…
There are 5 Realms of Existence.
In the beginning was MOTION. All that is is in motion, since the beginning, the Prime Mover of Aristotle and Aquinas.
Some of that motion became ALIVE. A very small part of what is is alive, driven by and made of a mysterious set of self-contained processes.
And some of that life entered the realm of volitional, intentional ACTIONs, taken with their cognition and will pointing in the same direction.
And a few of those creatures of action became self-aware and able to shape the very STRATEGY that aligns these actions in order to shape results. We call them humans.
And humans do a double jump, because it’s not enough to simply examine and engineer our strategies. We must ask where these strategies come from, what they are ultimately after, and what is the best outcome of our orientations. And that leads us to questions of the final realm, which is the Realm of PURPOSE.
Often we go through this process subconsciously, but some of us increase our awareness and awaken to the majesty of contemplating this process, which includes the story that brought us here and the visions we have for what could be. Humans have an expansive and open-ended relationship with possibility that no other creature seems to, and it is to wield this power that we go to this final realm, the Realm of Purpose.
Humans constantly measure what is against what we would like. This is the process of aspi-ration. The role of the leader is to turn this aspi-ration into a plan of action. And we all have aspi-rations.
Are we all leaders then? Are you a leader?
Here’s how to know. And it involves your relationship with subject of this essay, the aforereferenced one thing that stands in your way.
That thing is avoidance. If we all have aspi-rations shaped by our uniquely human sense of possibility, then we all have visions. And some of us act on these visions. Some don’t. What is the difference? It is avoidance.
The process of leadership is reliable. It looks like this every time, at least as far as I can tell:
Embodied human experience leads to frust-rations and aspi-rations.
Aspi-rations lead to Purpose.
Purpose yields vision.
Vision becomes clear.
Clarity leads to leadership.
Leadership leads to thinking.
Thinking creates strategy.
Strategy is a process of communication to influence audiences into the right ACTIONs.
And the process repeats. That’s the human condition. Leaders see, or at least own and lean into it. It’s a heavy existential responsibility that requires a strong and ever-more-finely-tuned sense of compassion and ethics.
Where do we avoid? Where do we turn away from and attempt to avoid this process?
Step 1 is automatic, so it can’t be that.
Step 2 is automatic, so it can’t be that.
Step 3 is automatic, so it can’t be that. Watch your daydreams to confirm this.
Step 4 often takes work.
Step 5 takes ownership, strength, resolve, and vulnerability.
Step 6 usually takes work, but often happens automatically.
Step 7 often takes work.
Step 8 is very hard. It takes real courage, empathy, resilience, and persistence.
The conclusion…certain parts of this process can’t be avoided (steps 1-3). All the others can, and therefore steps 4-8 are each subject to the destructive effect of avoidance.
Are you a leader. Yes. Being a leader doesn’t mean that you completely avoid avoidance. That’s not humanly possible. Further, your time and energy is limited.
But be honest. You are likely avoiding at least one, if not more of these steps. And if so, it is helpful to talk to someone like me to discern exactly where and how you are doing this: https://calendly.com/aaronjmarx/30min
Because then you have no excuse! And your leadership will flow effortlessly, bringing you the results you seek.
Animals avoid too, but their STRATEGIES are instinctive, and so it is impossible for them to alter their metaphysical processes.
But humans have a barrier to growth built in. It is this barrier that drives us to avoidance, but which your soul demands to overcome, in all times and all places. The leader you are here to be and become.
That is your work. Where and how are you avoiding it, and what is it costing you? Find the automatic steps first, and the answers will be clearer.
And I believe in you, because if you have read this far it is relevant to you by definition, and it wouldn’t have happened otherwise. So look closely, and be honest about where you find avoidance in your process, and watch your leadership transform, because avoidance is, has always been, and will always be the one thing standing in your way.