You've seen titles like this, "Five Weeks to a Better Beach Body -- According to Science!"
Happy to deconstruct this morsel of self destruction disguised as self help another time. For discussion today is how these traps are baited.
This one follows the basic pattern refined over millennia to lure us to act against our interests.
Here are the boxes that get checked
Fear Greed Authority Formula
All of these are essential to our functioning, and we're wired to respond at different levels to each. Here's how they get hijacked.
Fear There's a program out there and you're not with it. Being exposed as not being with it, starts with shame and ends with loser.
Greed During the "I want it all." eighties, I saw a bumper sticker that said, "I just want a little more than I have." Bingo.
Authority The justification comes pre-baked. No need to do your own thinking: someone else has done it for you. They got it from God or Science, Just slice and serve.
Formula Get what you want without troublesome decisions: there are three to five steps: follow the primrose-lined path. it's easy, and if you don't succeed, go back to shame and start over.
Everyone from Machiavelli to the Harvard Business Review wants to handle the thinking for you, so you'll buy what they're selling -- whether it's t-shirts -- just one more, or political philosophy -- how to rule in 25 easy lessons -- average read time 15 mins each..
One of my clients described the important work she does as, "Intellectual heavy lifting." Yes.
There's nothing wrong with doing many things easier, faster, more efficiently. I hold with William of Ockham that the simplest solution is most often the best. At the same time, getting to simple often requires significant mental lifting. Simple often must be dug out from under the Mountains of Distraction.
And by all means, reach out for guidance from God or Science, and why not both? However in my theology, neither takes away the need for heavy thinking and lots of difficult choices.
Meanwhile, lots of clever people, and probably most of them well meaning, want you to think the thoughts they've prepared for you. Doordash for your brain, if you will. And now, no-contact delivery! Are you living the life you want, or is your life playing out slice-by-slice prepared and delivered by others, who first, magnified your need, then delivered the solution: friction free?
At Kairos, we're countering the trend. We realize "Ten Years to Transformative Health and Fitness" while true, isn't a path to a quick buck.
We're not giving you formulas. At Kairos, we're thinking partners with each other, and we want to be thinking partners with you as all of us struggle to find and defend the time to do the heavy lifts, and engage the necessary and constant work of clearing and training our minds to do those lifts.
Since you've gotten this far, I'm interested now in hearing your thinking, partner.