Following pointers can help adopt Second order thinking for your decision-making process.1. Results of First Order thinking becomes a problem for second order thinking. It requires one to be observant.2. Think about the range of likely feature outcomes and evaluate your thought processes and assumptions.Ask yourself questions:  Some examples of questions you might ask yourself include What I am assuming ? or then what? or What evidence do I have to support this?We all have biases, and they can influence our thinking and decision making without us even realizing it.

How to think in Second Order thinking ?  

Second order thinking is a type of advanced critical thinking that involves thinking about one’s own thought processes.It is the ability to look beyond the intended results of our actions and focusing on the unintended consequences of those results.

What is Second Order Thinking?  

Back in 1870s, The British Government was troubled by the growing cobra population in and around Delhi. To solve that problem as they started a reward program for every indian that bought a dead snake back to officials.Though the strategy seemed to work initially however, in the desire to get maximum rewards, breeding of cobras proliferated among the enterprising people of India. The British Government thus ended up with more problems the results of their actions could have unintended consequences or Second Order Effects.

Cobra Effect

Most of us think and care about only the immediate implications of our decisions/actions don't  consider that our actions could have unintended consequences or Second Order Effects.

December 10, 2022 Second order thinking involves considering multiple perspectives and looking at a problem from multiple angles. 

Understand yourself and those around you.

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How to think in second order thinking - thingstodoclub.com

We should track our habits to separate productive from unproductive time so we can spot patterns. Adding routines and rituals to our day allows us to need our limited willpower less in order to maintain a state on unbroken concentration

Know how you spend your time

There are four strategies for achieving deep work:<ol><li>Monastic approach- this is eliminating all sources of distraction and secluding yourself like a monk.</li><li>Bimodal approach- this is setting a clearly defined, long period of seclusion for work and leaving the rest of our time open for anything else.</li><li>Rhythmic approach- this approach is about forming a habit of doing deep work for blocks of  ~90 minutes and using a calendar to track your accomplishments.</li><li> Journalistic strategy- this one has you doing deep work in any unexpected free time in your daily routine.</li></ol>

Achieving deep work requires intention

Despite the strategy you choose the important part to remember is the the key is consistency with that routine.The difference between being in the zone and deep work is being in the zone happens by chance and after hours of procrastination but deep work is intentional and desired. One ritual you could have is to define your workspace. Placing a "do not disturb" sign on your door or going to a coffee shop or library Another way is to define specific boundaries. For example, you could completely disconnect from the internet or turn your phone on silent. You just need it to be a sustainable routine

Having a ritual is essential for deep work

Cal Newport says that our brains need space to wind down every night. Newport quits work every day at 5:30pm, no work, no email, no to-do lists. It's important to set limits. When you know you have to quit work at a specific time, it allows you to focus more intensely during your working hours.

Quit work at the same time every day and leave work at work

﻿“If you don’t produce, you won’t thrive—no matter how skilled or talented you are.”

The idea here is to use any downtime, such as when you are walking the dog or riding the subway or driving to work to do some deep thinking. You might try to use the time to solve a complex problem--Try to see sub-problems and break it down so you can solve it.You can ask yourself action questions like "What do I need to do to get to my goals?"The key is to be mindful with how you spend your time and give your brain a mental workout. This is stimulating your brain and allows you to focus on something demanding.

Productive meditation can help us stay focused

When we are task switching some of our attention is still thinking about the first task so we are only half-focused on the new task.  Having social media and email tabs open on your browser allows their notifications to pop up on the screen, which is enough to derail our focus Todays workers feel like they are being more productive however they are merely moving information and completing small tasks which makes them feel busy--not productive though. Task switching and distractions are preventing us from truely focusing.

Multitasking and distraction are killing our productivity

Deep work is an important con ept to use to maximize productivity.

Read the Wall Street Journal Bestseller for "cultivating intense focus" for fast, powerful performance results for achieving success and true meaning in one's professional life (Adam Grant, author of Give and Take). Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep Work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep-spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realizing there's a better way. In Deep Work, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules," for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill. 1. Work Deeply 2. Embrace Boredom 3. Quit Social Media 4. Drain the Shallows A mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, Deep Work takes the reader on a journey through memorable stories-from Carl Jung building a stone tower in the woods to focus his mind, to a social media pioneer buying a round-trip business class ticket to Tokyo to write a book free from distraction in the air-and no-nonsense advice, such as the claim that most serious professionals should quit social media and that you should practice being bored. Deep Work is an indispensable guide to anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world. An Amazon Best Book of 2016 Pick in Business & Leadership Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller A Business Book of the Week at 800-CEO-READ

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Master one of our economy’s most rare skills and achieve groundbreaking results with this “exciting” book (Daniel H. Pink) from an “exceptional” author (New York Times Book Review). Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep Work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep-spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realizing there's a better way. In Deep Work, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules," for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill. 1. Work Deeply 2. Embrace Boredom 3. Quit Social Media 4. Drain the Shallows A mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, Deep Work takes the reader on a journey through memorable stories-from Carl Jung building a stone tower in the woods to focus his mind, to a social media pioneer buying a round-trip business class ticket to Tokyo to write a book free from distraction in the air-and no-nonsense advice, such as the claim that most serious professionals should quit social media and that you should practice being bored. Deep Work is an indispensable guide to anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world. An Amazon Best Book of 2016 Pick in Business & Leadership Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller A Business Book of the Week at 800-CEO-READ

Cal Newport is Provost’s Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University, and the author of seven books. His ideas and writing are frequently featured in major publications and on TV and radio.From his website: "I write about the intersection of digital technology and culture. I’m particularly interested in our struggle to deploy these tools in ways that support instead of subvert the things we care about in both our personal and professional lives."

Cal Newport

Deep Work

<ul><li>Wake up early morning.</li><li>Brush teeth & consume luke warm water.</li><li>Sit in a cross leg posture & reflect. Do yogasana,prayanama,suryanamaskar .</li><li>Apply oil ,do abhyanga & take a shower.</li></ul>

The Morning Routine According To Dinacharya.

<ul><li>Dinacharya means daily routine.(Dina=day,chariya=response)</li><li>Wonderful art of healing our mind,body & consciousness.</li></ul>

What Is Dinacharya 

<ul><li>Finding harmony with oneself & the surrounding .</li><li>Building a daily routine </li><li>Building a biological & chronological clock.</li><li>How to utilise proper time & take necessary action.</li><li>By learning about dinacharya we will learn about nature & cosmos.</li></ul>

The Goal Of Dinacharya 

<ul><li>Its about finding harmony of mind &body with the moment and the day.</li><li>Inner balance of observer & thing to be observed.</li><li>Chronological time & biological time go hand in hand .</li></ul>

How To Approach Dinacharya 

<ul><li>Dawn & dusk is vatha,midday & midnight is pitta,early morning & early evening is kapha.</li><li>The question is to find harmony and living with nature .</li><li>Confusion & being devoid of this harmony is the root cause of suffering.</li></ul>

Kapha,Pitta,Vatha

The ultimate approach to a sustainable lifestyle & habits using dinacharya 🚀🧘

❀ Learn more about AyurPrana’s online Ayurveda education including live webinars with Vasant Lad: https://bit.ly/3o8UA5Y How important is a daily routine? Ayurveda recommends not only practicing a morning routine, but also building a routine that follows the Ayurvedic clock—incorporating daily rituals that balance certain doshas at certain times of the day. In this video, Vasant Lad, world-renowned practitioner, author, and founder of The Ayurvedic Institute, shares his insights on the concept and importance of a daily regimen (dinacharya) in Ayurveda. ******** Banyan Botanicals was founded in 1996 with the mission to help people achieve and maintain optimal health and well-being. As an Ayurvedic lifestyle company, we specialize in products made from Ayurvedic herbs that are organically grown, sustainably sourced, fairly traded, and made in the USA. Our product line includes the largest selection of USDA certified organic Ayurvedic herbs as well as herbal tablets, liquid extracts, massage oils, and Chyavanprash. Banyan is committed to providing exceptional customer service, inspiring educational content, and the highest quality Ayurvedic herbs that are safe, pure, and effective. ******** ❀ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/banyanbotanicals ❀ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/banyanbotanicals ❀ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/banyanherbs ❀ Twitter: https://twitter.com/banyanherbs

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❀ Learn more about AyurPrana’s online Ayurveda education including live webinars with Vasant Lad: https://bit.ly/3o8UA5Y

How important is a daily routine? Ayurveda recommends not only practicing a morning routine, but also building a routine that follows the Ayurvedic clock—incorporating daily rituals that balance certain doshas at certain times of the day. In this video, Vasant Lad, world-renowned practitioner, author, and founder of The Ayurvedic Institute, shares his insights on the concept and importance of a daily regimen (dinacharya) in Ayurveda. 

********

Banyan Botanicals was founded in 1996 with the mission to help people achieve and maintain optimal health and well-being. As an Ayurvedic lifestyle company, we specialize in products made from Ayurvedic herbs that are organically grown, sustainably sourced, fairly traded, and made in the USA. Our product line includes the largest selection of USDA certified organic Ayurvedic herbs as well as herbal tablets, liquid extracts, massage oils, and Chyavanprash. Banyan is committed to providing exceptional customer service, inspiring educational content, and the highest quality Ayurvedic herbs that are safe, pure, and effective.

********

❀ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/banyanbotanicals 
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At Banyan Botanicals, we are on a mission to be a healing force in the world. A certified B Corporation® and an Ayurveda-inspired lifestyle company, we craft herbal products that are sustainably sourced, organically grown, and fairly traded. Our product line includes the largest selection of USDA certified organic Ayurvedic herbs, supplements, liquid extracts, massage oils, spices, and pantry essentials. We are committed to providing exceptional customer service, inspiring educational content, and the highest quality herbal products that are safe, pure, and effective. 

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Vasant Lad MASc on the Deeper Meaning of Dinacharya (Daily Routine) | Ayurveda Education

“How much will this matter in five years?” If you write the answers to these questions, you can review and scrutinize them. Later, this will help you calculate the risks and reach a decision. Taking risks and stepping outside your comfort zone makes you stronger. Perhaps those risks aren’t as scary as you once imagined. Additionally, begin to practice taking risks and facing your fears. Open yourself up to new opportunities and start facing your fears.

Don’t be too afraid about what you’re going to do. Every moment of your life is an experiment. The more you experiment, the better.Many people fear taking risks. You must consider life decisions and assess risks carefully. Therefore, it’s essential to learn how to minimize risks and determine which risks are worth the benefits. Calculate risks by asking yourself: “What are the potential costs?”, “What are the potential benefits?”, “How will this affect my goals?”, “What are the alternatives?”, “What is the best thing and the worst thing that can happen?”, ...

10. Mentally Strong People Don’t Fear Taking Calculated Risks

When you feel your life is out of control, take out a piece of paper, and draw a horizontal line through the middle. In the top section, write, “What I can’t control.” In the bottom section, write, “What I can control.” When populating the top section, remember you can’t control what has happened. However, you can control what you focus on, what things mean, and how you behave. After you’ve listed the things you can and can’t control, rip off the top section.

5. Mentally Strong People Don’t Focus on Things Beyond Their Control

E.g: Ward discovered that one of her brothers was now abusing his children.She decided to went back to university in Vermont & study every moment of her free time. After significant hard work, she managed to get a law degree. With some financial aid, she founded Have Justice Will Travel, a traveling legal service for families in the countryside dealing with domestic abuse problems. Her actions show us a vital mindset of mentally strong people. Coming to terms with the past doesn’t mean acting as if certain things never happened. You must accept and forgive the past so that you can build on it.

The first step is to ask yourself which change you’d like to execute in your life. Think carefully about how this change would make you feel. Pay special attention to negative feelings and thoughts. Once you’ve learned to ignore these types of thoughts, you can create a plan for successful change.

When you allow your boss to make you feel a certain way, you give them power over how you think, feel, or even behave. No one should have power over your feelings. You should change your daily vocabulary to recognize that the choices you make are yours.Avoid phrases like “He made me mad,” or “I have to work late today.” One of the biggest factors in taking control of your feelings is forgiveness. When you hold on to anger and resentment, you allow others to limit your ability and disrupt your life. Therefore, it’s important to forgive others for their wrongdoings and focus back on yourself.

4. Mentally Strong People Don’t Give Away Their Power

Forgiveness is also psychologically beneficial, like gratitude. For instance, when people forgive others, their blood pressure decreases, and their hearts beat more calmly. Additionally, those who practice unconditional forgiveness are likely to live longer lives.

You can even take your mindfulness a step further and turn to meditation to become comfortable in silence. Studies have shown that meditation positively alters the brain’s structure by regulating cognition and emotion. Even more, meditation has been proven to positively affect those who struggle with breathing difficulties, tumors, insomnia, chronic pain, and cardiovascular diseases.

It’s not as if some people have more willpower than others. It’s just that some people are willing to adapt while others aren’t.Judge Greg Mathis is an excellent example of a mentally strong person. Arrested several times as a teenager, he promised his dying mother he would change. After being released from jail on probation, he started working at McDonald’s and eventually got accepted to Eastern Michigan University, and later, law school. However, due to his record as a criminal, he was barred from working as a lawyer.

9. Mentally Strong People Don’t Shy Away from Change

You are likely surrounded by noise most days. Many seek to maintain those noise levels by turning on the television. They aim to fill those uncomfortable silences, but when you fill your life with noise, you miss a powerful opportunity.

12. Mentally Strong People Don’t Fear Alone Time

By far, the most harmful drug is self-pity. It is addictive, provides only temporary pleasure, and disconnects people from reality.No one is immune to hard times. However, it is how you react to these situations that is important. Mentally strong individuals do not spend precious time pitying themselves. They replace self-pity with gratitude. Amy Morin provides an example of an American long-distance runner, Marla Runyan. She ran the New York Marathon in a little over two hours. Marla also has a master’s degree in education and has written a book.

2. Mentally Strong People Don’t Waste Time Feeling Sorry for Themselves

Let’s take the example of Milton Hershey. His employee, H.B. Reese, began building a rival candy company in the same city while still working in Hershey’s chocolate factory. Hershey, however, didn’t become angry or resentful. Instead, he gave Reese his full support and allowed Reese to use Hershey’s milk chocolate for his experiments. Throughout those experiments, Reese created a peanut buttercup surrounded by Hershey’s milk chocolate.

Sometimes improvements are well-hidden, and occasionally, they even look like steps backward. For example, the author once worked with parents of young children, teaching them how to manage tantrums. The standard advice was to studiously ignore the kids when they threw themselves on the ground and started howling and kicking.

The most impressive aspect of all this is that she is legally blind.The key to her success lies in her refusal to indulge in self-pity. She’s always refused to identify her illness as a disability. Rather than dwelling on what her illness took away, she’s grateful for what it gave her. In addition, research suggests that developing your gratitude capacity can strengthen you on many levels. In the first place, gratitude improves your physical well-being. A 2003 study found that grateful people suffer less from aches and pains.

It consists of five steps:<ol><li>Set yourself a 30-day goal.</li><li>Decide on concrete, daily changes in your behavior to help you reach that goal.</li><li>Create a list of anticipated hurdles along the way.</li><li>Create accountability.</li><li>Measure progress.</li></ol>Be more mindful of your feelings around change and use the five steps to prepare for change. In doing so, you’ll be on your way toward your goals.

It would have been easy to let this obstacle from the past stand in his way. But Mathis was always ready for change, even when it seemed improbable. He quickly found other ways to serve the city of Detroit.After a period as the Detroit Neighborhood City Halls manager, he and his wife founded a nonprofit organization. This organization helped young people find work. A few years later, he was elected a judge by the people of Detroit.Mathis’ success is a testament to mentally strong people’s characteristics: embracing change in your life. But how can you embrace change?

Instead of viewing each other’s company as competition, the two men celebrated their successes. They used one another’s power to their advantage. They supported their strengths, and in the end, they both built thriving businesses. The two men continued to collaborate throughout their lives, and after their death, the two companies finally merged. When people enjoy and celebrate success, they attract other successful people, creating opportunities for collaboration and continued success.

Pleasing everyone can negatively impact mental strength. Suppose you worry too much about pleasing others. In that case, you should learn to make choices that align with your values and act accordingly, even if that means disappointing or upsetting others. When you accept you won’t please everyone, you become stronger and build courage when you anticipate displeasing others.

7. Mentally Strong People Don’t Worry About Pleasing Everyone

No matter how intelligent you are or what life has thrown at you, there is no way to become more deserving of success than anyone else. If a person loses their business and feels indebted, they’re inviting more frustration and anger into their life. Mentally strong people can shift their focus away from their debt. Hence, they can help people in need. Mentally strong people keep themselves busy doing good deeds.If you follow this guidance, you can stop wasting time, stop feeling like you are owed something and stop resenting others’ success.

1. Mentally Strong People Don’t Feel the World Owes Them Anything

A 1972 study looked at whether people succeeded in their New Year’s resolutions. They found that 25 percent of participants had abandoned their resolutions after 15 weeks. In a similar 1989 study, that number had gone down to only one week.The underlying issue is that our goals and expectations are unrealistic.

13. Mentally Strong People Don’t Expect Immediate Results

Research shows that spending time alone and quietly results in renewal, rejuvenation, inspiration, and reflection. Avoid drowning your thoughts with technology or sounds. Instead, build your mental strength by designating ten minutes each day to be with your emotions. During these ten minutes, you can think about your life goals and determine if you are on track to achieve them. You can also use the opportunity to think about new goals or dreams. Adopt visualization techniques to imagine the life you want. Don’t forget these thoughts by writing them all down in a journal.

Many parents initially complained. They said the tantrums were getting worse, as the children were screaming louder, making more of a fuss. But if the parents persisted in ignoring them, the tantrums inevitably improved.This example shows that it’s important to be patient, stick to your goal, and keep working at it. You must maintain these actions even when you do not appreciate any progress at a given moment.

Here are a few simple rules to help you set realistic goals:<ul><li>Don’t think that change is easy. Accept from the start that reaching your goal will be tough. You’ll have a greater chance of succeeding if you simply accept it’s going to be tough.</li><li>Don’t create a fixed deadline to reach your goal. It’s healthy to have an approximate idea of when you would like to get your result, but don’t make it an all-or-nothing situation.</li><li>Finally, don’t anticipate that achieving your goal will suddenly make your life wonderful.</li></ul>

Many people experience significant fear of failure. Many will avoid failure at all costs, so they fear taking risks. However, almost every success story begins with a long road of failure and perseverance. Simply put, those who succeed view their failures as stepping stones for improvement. Failure is simply a part of becoming a success and is a sign you are being challenged.

11. Mentally Strong People Don’t Give up After Their First Failure

When you see a colleague receive a promotion, feelings of envy may come to the surface. While this may be normal, feeling jealous of others’ success eventually leads to resentment, which can distract you from your path.Instead, overcome your envy of other people’s success and learn how to use their success to your benefit.

3. Mentally Strong People Don’t Resent Other People’s Success

Mentally strong people don’t just pick themselves up and get back on their feet. Before that, they take a moment to find out why they fell off.When you own and study your mistakes, you’re less likely to slide back into your old ways. Experience less resistance to owning and studying a mistake you’ve made by imagining it was performed by someone else. Identify the factors that led to the mistake: thoughts, behaviors, and external factors. Then, write an alternative action for the next time those thoughts, behaviors, and external factors arise.

8. Mentally Strong People Don’t Repeat The Same Mistakes

Many people feel haunted by their past and the legacy of their families. However, it’s possible to find constructive ways to move forward despite one’s origins.Take activist and social worker Wynona Ward. Born in a small village in Vermont, she grew up with a sexually and physically abusive father. Ward didn’t tell anyone about this abuse but worked hard to get ahead in school and escape her hometown. She got married at 17-year-old and began working as a truck driver with her husband. But while she’d worked hard to free herself, others in her family struggled to do so.

6. Mentally Strong People Don’t Dwell on the Past

"Kick bad mental habits and toughen yourself up."—Inc. Master your mental strength—revolutionary new strategies that work for everyone from homemakers to soldiers and teachers to CEOs. Everyone knows that regular exercise and weight training lead to physical strength. But how do we strengthen ourselves mentally for the truly tough times? And what should we do when we face these challenges? Or as psychotherapist Amy Morin asks, what should we avoid when we encounter adversity? Through her years counseling others and her own experiences navigating personal loss, Morin realized it is often the habits we cannot break that are holding us back from true success and happiness. Indulging in self-pity, agonizing over things beyond our control, obsessing over past events, resenting the achievements of others, or expecting immediate positive results holds us back. This list of things mentally strong people don't do resonated so much with readers that when it was picked up by Forbes.com it received ten million views. Now, for the first time, Morin expands upon the thirteen things from her viral post and shares her tried-and-true practices for increasing mental strength. Morin writes with searing honesty, incorporating anecdotes from her work as a college psychology instructor and psychotherapist as well as personal stories about how she bolstered her own mental strength when tragedy threatened to consume her. Increasing your mental strength can change your entire attitude. It takes practice and hard work, but with Morin's specific tips, exercises, and troubleshooting advice, it is possible to not only fortify your mental muscle but also drastically improve the quality of your life.

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Learning & Education

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Mental Health

"Kick bad mental habits and toughen yourself up."—Inc.Master your mental strength—revolutionary new strategies that work for everyone from homemakers to soldiers and teachers to CEOs.Everyone knows that regular exercise and weight training lead to physical strength. But how do we strengthen ourselves mentally for the truly tough times? And what should we do when we face these challenges? Or as psychotherapist Amy Morin asks, what should we avoid when we encounter adversity? Through her years counseling others and her own experiences navigating personal loss, Morin realized it is often the habits we cannot break that are holding us back from true success and happiness. Indulging in self-pity, agonizing over things beyond our control, obsessing over past events, resenting the achievements of others, or expecting immediate positive results holds us back. This list of things mentally strong people don't do resonated so much with readers that when it was picked up by Forbes.com it received ten million views.Now, for the first time, Morin expands upon the thirteen things from her viral post and shares her tried-and-true practices for increasing mental strength. Morin writes with searing honesty, incorporating anecdotes from her work as a college psychology instructor and psychotherapist as well as personal stories about how she bolstered her own mental strength when tragedy threatened to consume her.Increasing your mental strength can change your entire attitude. It takes practice and hard work, but with Morin's specific tips, exercises, and troubleshooting advice, it is possible to not only fortify your mental muscle but also drastically improve the quality of your life.

Amy Morin is a licensed clinical social worker, instructor at Northeastern University, and psychotherapist. She is the author of the international bestseller 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, as well as 13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don’t Do. Amy is a regular contributor to Verywell, CNBC, Forbes, Inc., and Psychology Today. She gave one of the most viewed TEDx talks of all time and was named the “self-help guru of the moment” by The Guardian. She lives in Marathon, Florida. 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don’t Do is her third book.

Amy Morin

13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do

There’s something strange about our relationship to imitation. Humans possess advanced capabilities of imitation that allow us to create new things. Our ability to imitate in complex ways is why we have language, recipes, and music.We are generally fascinated with people who have a different relationship to desire, real or perceived. When people don’t seem to care what other people want or don’t want the same things, they seem otherworldly. They appear less affected by mimesis—anti-mimetic, even. And that’s fascinating because most of us aren’t.

The Capacity To Imitate

Models are the gravitational centers around which our social lives turn.If you look hard enough, you will find a model (or a set of models) for almost everything—your personal style, the way you speak, the look and feel of your home. But the models that most of us overlook are models of desire. It’s deceivingly difficult to figure out why you bought certain things; it’s extraordinarily hard to understand why you strive toward certain achievements. So hard that few people dare to ask.

Models: The Real Source Of Desire

What we commonly call “social media” is more than media—it’s mediation: thousands of people showing us what to want and colouring our perception of those things.Smartphones are like slot machines. Both work through the power of intermittent variable rewards—pulling the lever of a slot machine gives you a highly variable reward, which maximizes neurological addictiveness; your smartphone does the same thing every time you swipe down to refresh your Instagram feed, never knowing when something interesting might show up.

Social Mediation

Silence is where we learn to be at peace with ourselves, where we learn the truth about who we are and what we want. If you’re not sure what you want, there’s no faster way to find out than to enter into complete silence for an extended period of time—not hours, but days.All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

The Art Of Sitting Quietly In A Room

Discernment is an essential skill because it’s a process for making decisions that includes but also transcends rational analysis. It’s critical for deciding which desires to pursue and which ones to leave behind.Desires are discerned, not decided. Discernment exists in the liminal space between what’s now and what’s next. Transcendent leaders create that space in their own lives, and in the lives of the people around them.

Discernment 

People set goals and make plans to arrive at a future point called “progress.” But will it be progress? How can we be so sure? Some goals—even good ones—overstay their welcome.But it’s worth asking where goals come from in the first place. Every goal is embedded within a system.Mimetic desire is the unwritten, unacknowledged system behind visible goals. The more we bring that system to light, the less likely it is that we’ll pick and pursue the wrong goals.

The Trend Of Goalsetting

Wanting well, like thinking clearly, is not an ability we’re born with. It’s a freedom we have to earn. Due to one powerful yet little-known feature of human desire, that freedom is hard-won.People don’t choose objects of desire the way they choose to wear a coat in the winter. Instead of internal biological signals, we have a different kind of external signal that motivates these choices: models. Models are people or things that show us what is worth wanting. It is models—not our “objective” analysis or central nervous system—that shape our desires.

The Manifestation Of Desire

Rivalry is a function of proximity. When people are separated from us by enough time, space, money, or status, there is no way to compete seriously with them for the same opportunities.Celebristan external mediators of desire. They influence desire from outside of a person’s immediate world. From the perspective of their imitators, these models possess a special quality of being.Freshmanistan is the world of models who mediate desire from inside our world. There are no barriers preventing people from competing directly with one another for the same things.

Desire Is Subjective

If someone’s primary objective is innovation for the sake of innovation, they usually end up in a mimetic rivalry with everyone in their field to compete primarily on the basis of originality.Being different for the sake of being different is the ethos behind shock-value art and academics whose salient feature is making outlandish claims to stand out from the pack.If we’re free from the burden of trying to be completely original, we can stop trying to make something out of nothing, and we can embrace influence instead of running away from it.

Innovation Imitation

We don’t rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems. From the standpoint of desire, our goals are the product of our systems. We can’t want something that is outside the system of desire we occupy.The obsession with goal setting is misguided, even counterproductive. Setting goals isn’t bad. But when the focus is on how to set goals rather than how to choose them in the first place, goals can easily turn into instruments of self-flagellation.

Moving Goalposts

The ultimate way to test desires—especially major life choices such as whether to marry someone or whether to quit your job and start a company—is to practice this same exercise but to do it while imagining yourself on your deathbed. Which choice leaves you more consoled? Which choice causes you more agitation? Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. The deathbed is where unfulfilling desires are exposed. Transport yourself there now rather than waiting until later, when it might be too late.

Test Your Desires: Imagine Your Deathbed

Discovering and developing thick desires protects against cheap mimetic desires—and ultimately leads to a more fulfilling life.Thick desires are like diamonds that have been formed deep beneath the surface, nearer to the core of the Earth. Thick desires are protected from the volatility of changing circumstances in our lives. Thin desires, on the other hand, are highly mimetic, contagious, and often shallow.

Thick Desires

Desire is a path-dependent process. The choices we make today affect the things we’ll want tomorrow. That’s why it’s important to map out, the best we can, the consequences of our actions on our future desires.Start by thinking seriously about what a positive cycle of desire might look like for you. Start with a core desire. It might be spending more time with your kids, having more leisure time, or writing a book. Then map out a system of desire that makes it easier to bring that core desire to fulfillment.

The Path Of Desire

We don’t want things that are too easily possessed or that are readily within reach. Desire leads us beyond where we currently are. Models are like people standing a hundred yards up the road who can see something around the corner that we can’t yet see.So the way that a model describes something or suggests something to us makes all the difference. We never see the things we want directly; we see them indirectly, like refracted light. Who are your models at work? At home? Who are the people influencing your buying decisions, your career path, your politics?

Hidden Models—Romantic Lies, Infant Truth

It’s a sign of maturity to be able to hold on to two conflicting desires or two opposing ideas at the same time without immediately rejecting one or the other before there has been time for careful discernment. To live with desire is to live with tension.Wise people have said that it’s best to compare yourself only to who you were yesterday, not to who other people are today. That’s a good start for escaping the trap of comparison and measurement.

Two Opposite Thoughts In One Mind

Desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want

Smartphones project the desires of billions of people to us through social media, Google searches, and restaurant and hotel reviews. The neurological addictiveness of smartphones is real; but our addiction to the desires of others, to which smartphones give us unfettered access, is the metaphysical threat.Mimetic desire is the real engine of social media. Social media is social mediation—and it now brings nearly all of our models inside our personal world.

Smartphones And Mimetic Desire

One hundred years ago, there was a much wider gap in knowledge between someone who had a doctoral degree and someone who didn’t. Today, with the world’s information at nearly everyone’s fingertips, the knowledge gap between people with a great amount of formal education and those with less has narrowed.In fact, holding certain degrees, such as a PhD or an MBA, can count against you if you’re pursuing jobs at companies that view them as a sign of one’s complacency. We are witnessing an inversion of value.

The Cult Of Experts

Mimetic models(subconsious imitation) lie in wait every time we glance at our phone. The families of childhood friends post photos in which every day looks like a Christmas card, and Instagram models with bleached white teeth show us how they eat their nutritious breakfasts.The universe of desire is dotted with billions of stars that appear to shine brightest at the exact moment when we find it hardest to see.

Mimetic Models 

Imitation is natural to man from childhood, one of his advantages over the lower animals being this, that he is the most imitative creature in the world.

There is no person we encounter—not even in the most uninteresting interaction of our day—whom we do not help desire in one of these three ways. The changes are usually imperceptible. But like a giant flywheel, we are gently nudging other people’s desires in one or another direction.The transformation of desire happens when we become less concerned about the fulfilment of our own desires and more concerned about the fulfillment of others. We find, paradoxically, that it is the very pathway to fulfilling our own.

Live As If You Have a Responsibility For What Other People Want

A groundbreaking exploration of why we want what we want, and a toolkit for freeing ourselves from chasing unfulfilling desires. Gravity affects every aspect of our physical being, but there's a psychological force just as powerful - yet almost nobody has heard of it. It's responsible for bringing groups of people together and pulling them apart, making certain goals attractive to some and not to others, and fueling cycles of anxiety and conflict. According to French polymath René Girard, humans don't desire anything independently. Human desire is mimetic - we imitate what other people want. This affects the way we choose partners, friends, careers, clothes, and vacation destinations. Mimetic desire is responsible for the formation of our very identities. It explains the enduring relevancy of Shakespeare's plays, why Peter Thiel decided to be the first investor in Facebook, and why our world is growing more divided as it becomes more connected. Drawing on his experience as an entrepreneur, teacher, and student of classical philosophy and theology, Burgis shares tactics that help turn blind wanting into intentional wanting - not by trying to rid ourselves of desire, but by desiring differently. It's possible to be more in control of the things we want, to achieve more independence from trends and bubbles, and to find more meaning in our work and lives. The future will be shaped by our desires. Wanting shows us how to desire a better one.

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

A groundbreaking exploration of why we want what we want, and a toolkit for freeing ourselves from chasing unfulfilling desires. Humans don't desire anything independently. Human desire is mimetic - we imitate what other people want. This affects the way we choose partners, friends, careers, clothes and travel destinations. Mimetic desire is responsible for the formation of our very identities. It explains the enduring relevancy of Shakespeare's plays, why Peter Thiel decided to be the first investor in Facebook, and why our world is growing more divided as it becomes more connected. Drawing on his experience as an entrepreneur, teacher and student of classical philosophy, Luke Burgis shares tactics that help turn blind wanting into intentional wanting - to be more in control of the things we want, and to find more meaning in our work and lives.

Luke Burgis

Wanting

A collection of ideas to help you grow🚀 from various aspects in life, improvement💪 to grow healthy🌻 and wealthy🤑 in life 

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It's time to Read like a Pro.

13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do

CURATED BY

It's time to
Read like a Pro.