Life Beyond the Machine: Embracing the Infinite in a Finite World - MR #1
The Philosophy Behind Mid-life Renewal
Many of us wake up to ourselves in a dark wood in mid-life feeling lost and alone.
The paths we decided to take when we were younger don't seem to suit us anymore.
The material items that used to excite us no longer hold our interest.
The trips and parties that used to distract us no longer hold the same allure.
We have become tired of the games we have been playing since our youth.
But There is Another Game to Play
The way I see it, there are 2 kinds of games in the world:
The Finite Game & the Infinite Game.
I am a nurse who has worked at the bedside for many years.
I have seen what happens to people and families when they choose to play the finite game right up to the end.
I can assure you, it is not always pretty.
In mid-life we have an opportunity to at least try to start stacking the deck in our favor.
The game you decide to play from here on in will determine the outcome of the rest of your life.
The Infinite Game of the Machine-like Economy
Today, we are living in what I call the Machine Economy.
The fast pace and hustle-bustle is too frenetic for our nervous systems to handle.
People are beyond burnt out.
They are literally sick and tired.
This inhuman pace is set by something that seems to have a mind and goals of it's own.
This is the situation as I see it:
The Machine Economy is playing an Infinite Game with itself.
It wants to continue to grow and thrive as long as it can, just like we do.
But it's values and goals are machine-like and totally at odds with human-level health and well-being.
Do you ever wonder why the imagery and symbolism of the Matrix films resonate so deeply for so many?
Because, while the Machine Economy plays its own Infinite Game, we feel it sucking more and more resources out of our human-level systems.
In other words, it can feel like this machine is being powered by our own human vitality.
And what are we getting out it?
The current arrangement is destroying our health, our relationships, our communities and, for every year that goes by, our return on investment gets smaller and smaller.
Why do we continue to play a game that is designed to suck the life out of us?
The Machine Economy Does Not Care About You or Your Family
The truth is the machine economy is not designed to care about you.
How do I know this?
Because I've worked in a modern, industrial hospital for many years where I've personally witnessed the human-level values of care and concern totally and utterly trampled on over and over again by the industrial values of factory-like efficiency and toxic productivity.
AND
I can see that this way of thinking is cut deep into the culture itself.
"Machine-like efficiency at all costs" is the prevailing value of our modern economy.
Think about it:
If the goal of our economy is to ensure that humans have what they need to develop into productive and healthy human beings, then it's doing a terrible job.
BUT
I've come to realize something important.
Healthy human development is NOT THE ACTUAL GOAL.
The Machine Economy is playing an Infinite Game based on rules and values of its own.
Some of us continue to try to pull the cart, but many more are falling behind.
Even the people who are trying to lead us are shackled to the front of this machine-driven cart.
And everyone feels powerless to stop it.
So what can we do?
The experiences I have had trying to care for people in a modern industrial hospital has led me to the following conclusion:
The systems, processes, and values of this Machine-like Economy are totally at odds with human-level development, health, and well-being.
Think about your life and the Machine Economy as 2 intersecting lines.
On the one hand your life is about YOU and the wants and needs of yourself and your family.
On the other hand, your life is about feeding the wants and needs of the Machine Economy.
This is how I see this playing out in the real world:
Let's add another couple of intersecting lines to our framework.
In this framework, we have 2 choices:
We can choose to play the Infinite Game.
Or we can choose to play the Finite Game.
Let me explain by using a traffic light system to help you visualize what I'm talking about.
Here are 4 different ways I've seen these choices play out in people's lives.
🔴The Red Zone
If we play by the values and goals of the Machine Economy, we play by its own mechanized Infinite Game.
The goal of this game is to use our human vitality to power the machine-like processes of this giant behemoth.
If we choose to play this game, our human life force will continue to be drawn into it.
We lose:
⛔Our health
⛔Our vitality
⛔Our relationships
We get caught up in:
🔻Addictions
🔻Compulsions
To cope with our depression and anxiety.
We get caught in the doom loop of working our asses off just to scrape by and pay for our own downward spiral!
We end up losing our health and our ability to care for ourselves and others in the process.
We end up in the Red Zone⛔.
⬆🟡The Upper Yellow Zone
In the Upper Yellow Zone, you play and win the Finite Game.
In the Finite Game you compete with other humans to be the most powerful crab in the bucket.
You find a way to amass enough Money & Power to convince yourself that you are a winner.
You achieve the illusion that you have influence over the world and you can do what you want.
It seems like you have it all.
BUT
To get to this point you have to:
⛔Subscribe to hustle culture to win
⛔Adopt the killer attitude of toxic productivity
⛔Play a never-ending round of power and status games
AND
Your human-level values will suffer:
🔻Your relationships suffer
🔻Your health starts to erode
🔻You may even adopt addictions/compulsions to cope
So now you're back at square one.
⬇🟡The Lower Yellow Zone
In the Lower Yellow Zone, you play the Finite Game at a the medium level.
In the Finite Game you still compete with other humans but you say to yourself and others that you are not playing to win because money, status, power, etc. is not important to you.
You try to content yourself with a modicum of recognition and professional status and convince yourself that what you are doing in the world matters to you.
You try to achieve the illusion that you are happy.
It seems like you have it all.
BUT
To get to this point you have to:
⛔Subscribe to a Culture of Careerism to survive
⛔Adopt a micro-managing attitude of toxic productivity
⛔Play a never-ending round of mid-level power and status games
AND
Your human-level values will suffer:
🔻Your relationships suffer
🔻Your health starts to erode
🔻You may even adopt addictions/compulsions to cope
So now, again, you're back at square one.
Again, we end up back in the Red Zone⛔.
So, from the perspective of human-level values, all roads ultimately lead to achieving the goals of the Machine Economy - The Red Zone
ALL BUT ONE
🟢The Green Zone
In the Green Zone, you start to play (and win) your OWN Infinite Game.
In the Infinite Game that you design for yourself, you play at the level of your OWN values that honor your OWN dignity and humanity.
→ You begin to slow down, take stock, and center yourself inside the circle of your own life.
You let go of your illusions that you will ever achieve mastery over the Machine Economy.
The Green Zone is where you take the time to:
✅Get Crystal Clear about what you value.
✅Detoxify and Declutter what does not serve your own human-level values.
✅Hyper-prioritize human-level values and your own Infinite Game.
AND
You begin to notice:
🍏Your relationships improve
🍏You start to feel lighter, fresher, more human
🍏Your body feels healthier and your mind feels sharper
🕊Now you are playing the RIGHT GAME and your life begins to feel more joyful.
The Infinite Game of the Mentorship Economy - A Message of Hope
It is true I am no economist.
I am just a simple nurse with one powerful message:
If we do not begin to re-center human-level values in our lives, we will not only continue to suffer in our personal lives, but our living conditions as a whole will continue to devolve into that which is incompatible with human life.
I don't believe this statement is an exaggeration.
⛔The hyper-consumerism that feeds the Machine Economy is turning our world into a garbage dump☣.
⛔The addiction algorithms that feed the Machine Economy are turning our minds and lives into private hells🧟♀.
It's getting harder and harder to live a human life full of joy, vitality, love, and peace.
Our human-level goals have been subsumed by the goals of our Machine-like society.
Human Centered Values are NOT the same as Machine Economy values.
The Power of a Critical Mass
If each person were to:
✅Clarify what they want out of life
✅Adopt a simpler lifestyle
AND
✅Hyper-prioritize their relationships with themselves and each other
I believe we could build a happier, healthier world for us all.
In fractal theory, simple patterns repeated at every scale create complex and often harmonious structures such as the branching of trees and the structure of galaxies.
The simple patterns of a better world lie in clarifying our own values and creating space for ourselves to live in line with them.
By taking care of yourself and developing yourself, you will begin to contribute to building the foundations of a saner and healthier world.
You may even inspire others in your life to do the same.
A Mentorship Economy vs a Machine Economy
Healthy human development requires mentorship.
In fact, all human relationships can be seen as a mutual mentorship where each person learns from the other and grows together.
Right now, the ancient patterns of human mentorship are breaking down.
This has been happening for a good long while and it has been DISASTROUS for human health and wellbeing.
There is little trust and depth of human connection in the system anymore.
People are feeling isolated and alone.
The BIG problem is that trust and relationship building takes a LOT of time and energy.
AND
These are the very 2 things that the Machine Economy steals from us throughout our lives.
What if we decided to stop for a second and take stock.
What if we decided to take a good hard look at our true values and begin to align with them?
What if we decided to contribute to building a Mentorship Economy instead?
The Mentorship Economy, as I see it, is based on 3 forms of value:
💎Time
💎Attention
💎Health
These are foundational values upon which all other forms of value are built.
There are already small pockets of mentorship and positive development operating alongside the Machine Economy.
These pockets act as parallel structures where people can choose to divert their time, energy, and money into something more fulfilling.
This creates an alternative economy that is more humanizing, more life-affirming, and where human-level values of care and concern can be re-established in our world.
This is where our human energy belongs.
And this is how great human civilizations are built and maintained.
Please don't misunderstand me.
I am no luddite.
I believe technology holds the key to many of our global problems including some of our human level problems of illness and disease.
But my hope is that we will begin to use our machines as they were intended:
🕊to support the well-being and thriving of the human-beings they were built to serve in the first place.
This is the philosophy behind the Midlife Renewal Newsletter and framework.
Even if you disagree with this philosophy overall, the principles of the framework will still work for you.
Whichever way you look at it, the key to living a healthy human life lies in these 3 principles:
✅Clarity
✅Simplicity
✅Focus
If you incorporate these principles into your life at even 50% of the time, I can guarantee your life and health will improve.
I would love to hear about some of the challenges you are facing with your own Midlife Renewal. Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment or dropping me a line here.
And, as always, thanks for reading🌺
Wow! This graph is amazing! This could be a TED talk!