If I have a healthy dinner, then I’ve had a good day. That means my discipline skills were sustainable throughout the day. Taking a walk or stretching right before sleep is also a way to take one last break before going to sleep with a healthy nightly routine.
This holiday timeframe I’m going to be very much in Integrator mode. Integrating my learning from this year. Personally, professionally. I’ve been in Creator mode last couple years. Now it’s time to start integrating. To put a lot of the pieces together. For a scaled 2023. 2023 is going to be huge. The year of integration. I haven’t really spent much time reflecting this year compared to 2021. I mean, who would have compared to my 2021 self. That was a lot of planned, sustained, deep reflection. 2022 has been much more frequent, unplanned, shorter bursts of reflection. Lot more execution. I’ll want to integrate the results of all that execution. Transitioning into that type of role at work will be exciting. Reflection is a way of creating space for that integration. Strategy and execution. Visionary and Executor. We spend so much time on these two that we overlook the crucial role of Integrator.
Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. Creator, Preserver, Destroyer. In terms of energy, they align with Visionary, Integrator, Executor. Visionary creates the potential energy. Executor converts the potential energy into kinetic energy aka ‘destroys’ potential in a positive connotation. Integrator connects the dots between the two. Preserves, or in energy nomenclature, conserves energy. None being gained or lost. Too many are in Executor / Destroyer role / feeling. That’s why we always need a break.
Writing is a way, the primary way for right now, that I can take time to practice integration. To process everything. When we say process, that’s actually what we’re doing. We’re attempting to integrate the experiences and events of our lives into our identity, beliefs, values in some manner.
Is that what Swami meant by Constant Integrated Awareness? That if we have a high enough level of awareness, we should constantly becoming a different, better person by integrating those into our self-concept.
Being a jack of all trades, world-class in none right now, I have to lean ore into my integrating. Integrating people of various skills and experience levels. A system just does that. It just facilitates that.
Me being one of the better harmonium players for someone who’s never actually taken a single class for it. While being clearly a level or a few levels below others who obviously practice for hours a day or even hours a week. I have glimpses into both realms. I can speak both languages conversationally but neither fluently. That’s literally my dilemma right now. Outside of English, no other language is fluent. Table tennis, tennis, chess geography. I’ve gotten as good as I can get without that formal teacher, mentor, coach. The activation energy to overcome this to the next level though is substantially more. It’s a logarithmic function. [see pic] Diminishing returns graph also.
Going back to integration though, we don’t take the time to do that. Integrate life. Integrate perception into reality. That’s how perception becomes reality. Through the process of integration. We have models, maps, beliefs, archetypes, systems of our world and ourselves in that world. How can what I experience integrate into who I am and what I believe?
There is very little time at work either to integrate. I think that’s why I’ve overindexed on it in the past. There are enough Visionaries and Executors, but not enough Integrators. Startups especially value the other two. Because you can more clearly see the impacts of having or not having Vision or Execution. But with integrating, you don’t realize you have it until it’s gone.
It’s like numbers. Vision, Creation, 1,2,3,4,5, 100, 1,000,000, ♾️. Execution, Destruction, -1,-2,-3,-4, -100, -999, -♾️. You can clearly notice it. But Preservation, Integration, 0. Is what connects them. It’s usually what is found last, as I’ve already realized a few months ago.
It’s akin to a Draymond Green or an Andres Iniesta. The glue guys. Don’t notice their impact on the game in the box score. Don’t notice their extraordinary skill in anything. But when you take them out, the glue weakens and crumbles.
The world has overindexed on Visionaries and Executors but severely underindexed on Integrators. Time to bring them to the forefront.
A semi-related topic is that businesses also overindex on ‘quick thinking’ and ‘thinking on your feet.’ That seems like an ideal world made by extroverts. People who can have quick strategy or quick execution. Solve problems quickly. But is that the type of people we only want to attract? That leaves out all the people who solve problems with depth. Who want to take time to understand the issue and solve it comprehensively. Who want to integrate it into existing structures and systems. Thinking on your feet requires you to know the answer and communicate it effectively. Thinking with depth probably means that there is no answer immediately, but pondering the inputs can give a much more comprehensive solution. An integrated solution. Thinking on your feet is overvalued. Integrated, deep thinking is undervalued. I want to change that.
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