1.) Productivity‍

In our hyper-productivised world it’s easy to seek emotional escape in your to-do list or schedule.
You might convince yourself: ‍

“Perhaps if I organise my google calendar better, put more on my to-do list or implement a new time management technique, I’ll get the peace of mind I crave. And when I do that, then I can finally relax and my angst to justify my existence to others can finally subside.”‍

But it won’t.

Because seeking emotional regulation in a productivity system is the problem itself. Not the fact that your productivity isn’t as good as it “should be”.

‍Better yet, the illusion of the to-do list is that if you complete everything then the game is finished. And when everything is finished, like a body falling from the sky to be caught in a warm, cozy blanket, then you can finally relax into the freedom of release that you so crave.

So then the devilish question becomes...‍

"Perhaps if I’m productive enough I’ll be able to relax into completion forever?"‍

But you won’t.

There are always going to be more things to do, more tasks to complete and more projects to take on. ‍

Productivity doesn’t end.

But your toxic relationship with it can. ‍

Instead of getting lost in tasks and duties, constantly caught up in the mirage of necessity, zoom out and keep your overarching purpose forever close at hand.

Refresh yourself with it in each moment of your life, lest you fall into the trap of "ticking as many things off the list as you can" in order to win the breath-retention contest of life where everyone is as purple as a beetroot and as stiff as a doornail.

As the saying goes, it’s hard to remember your purpose was to clear the swamp when you’re up to your ass in alligators. ‍

In other words, it's hard to remember what you purpose is when you never zoom out from your to-do list to see the bigger picture.

And instead of evaluating your days based on productivity, judge them based on presence.

As spiritual writer David Deida says,‍

"A man should never get lost in the details of his life and forget that, ultimately and in truth, life amounts to nothing other than what is the deepest truth of this present moment. Tasks don’t get a man anywhere more conscious or free than he is capable of being in this present moment... Know eternity. Do whatever it takes. And from this depth of being, live the details of your life. But if you postpone the process of submerging yourself in the source for the sake of taking care of business first, your life will be spent in hours and days of business, and then it will be gone. Only if you are well grounded in that which is larger than life will you be able to play life with humor, knowing that each task is a mirage of necessity... The test of your fullness in every moment is your capacity to die in free and loving surrender, knowing you’ve done everything you could do while alive to give your gift and know the truth of being."‍

Choose presence over productivity.

And allow yourself to laugh as you engage in your tasks with the awareness that they'll never end.

But that's ok.

Because they are but a mirage of necessity.

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2.) Uncertainty‍

All of our problems as humans stem from our desire for certainty.

The ultimate philosophical lure is,‍

“If I implement enough routine, predictability and order into my life, I’ll forever escape this gnawing anxiety that I have no idea what I’m doing nor do I have any idea what tomorrow could bring.”‍

But uncertainty isn’t a problem to be solved.

It's an inescapable truth to be embraced.

You see, the sooner you realise that despite your cozy conclusions, nothing is certain, has ever been certain or will ever be certain, you can breathe a sigh of relief.

Because if nothing is certain or has been anyway, that means everyone is making it up as they go along.

And this is the great human act; to convince ourselves and others that despite the fact we don’t, we do in fact know what we’re doing.

But no one knows what they’re doing.

We’re just a bunch of monkeys with a vague plan at best, destined to perform on the stage of life without having had time to rehearse any of the script.

So consider this the next time you’re hesitant to leap into the abyss or embrace change. Consider this the next time you feel nervous as you walk towards the door of a venue with people you've never met inside. Consider this the next time you find yourself waiting to make a decision because you “don’t feel ready yet”.

Then you might realise…

If all is uncertain anyway, inviting a bit more uncertainty into your life by making the decision won’t make any difference.

If all is uncertain anyway, there’s really no need to postpone anything until you feel “ready”.

If no one knows what they’re doing, it means other people are secretly crying out for some reassurance that; despite their unrealistic standards of needing to have “everything sorted out all of the time”, they too feel scared, lonely and existentially absurd.

So embrace your life as if up until now you've been kept behind stage shrouded in the darkness, only able to hear the echos of your fellow performers acting their lines in front of the audience. But then the scene ends and you get thrust on stage and into the spotlight. And as the audience awaits your first word, a new scene begins, and it's entirely up to you what the story line of your character will be.

But here's the catch... you're going to have to improvise.

But if everyone else is improvising as well and no matter what you do you'll never know what will come in the next scene (or if there will even be a next scene), why not take a risk see what happens?‍

You'll never be able to escape uncertainty.

So embrace it.‍

“The whole future lies in uncertainty. Live immediately.”‍

- Seneca

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3.) Insecurity‍

The third pillar of human deception is the belief that by removing all of your insecurities you’ll be able to stand in assured confidence.

But insecurity is no more removable than a lizard’s tail.

Yes you can chop it off, but it’ll soon grow back. And when it returns it'll demand its revenge for having been given the chop.

We can see this play out with the celebrities and influencers who seek fame to fill their inner void of self loathing. Because they hate themselves, they seek external validation to justify their existence. But when that validation turns sour, the rug of comfort gets taken from beneath them and their life descends into a chaotic pit of self-hatred again. So just like a child will hide from the ghost on the TV by burying their head in the cushions, so too the celebrity will rush to find the next quick fix when the noise of external validation goes silent and they're finally forced to glance upon the figure of their wretched insecurity in the mirror.

But the only way to deal with insecurity isn’t to respond to its sourness with a quick remedy but to embrace it like a sweet recipe which will add some wind to your sails.

The only way to deal with insecurity isn't to just embrace it, but to become it.

To rid yourself of it, you must fully live it until it’s no longer a problem but a mere expression of you who are.

After all, people love a human that is unapologetically itself, with the same artful grace with which a tree is a tree.

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4.) Exposure‍

The fourth pillar of human deception is an introvert's worst nightmare.

It’s the belief that you can enter the social world without exposing yourself to others and instead, completely hide yourself in case others discover your inner nasty, naughty and all-too-human nature.

But exposure is a gift only you can give to others.

By exposing yourself to the world; contributing to a conversation rather than staying mute, approaching a group, buying a stranger a drink or going up on stage to sing your favourite song into a microphone in front of a bunch of strangers despite your trembling anxiety, you free yourself from the shackles of a constricted life and expand into the rapture of being your true self.

Better still, you realise "what was I waiting for anyway?"‍

And letting the facade die wasn't so bad after all.

As Ryan Holiday says, life happens in public, get used to it.

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5.) Pleasure‍

The fifth pillar of human deception is the belief that momentary pleasure will keep your inner dissatisfactions at bay for long enough.

The voice of pleasure reasons,‍

"If I binge now, I can relieve my tension. If I drink now, I can keep the procrastinations of yesterday going for a little longer. If I scroll today away I can keep my existential dread at a distance."‍

But the oldest truism of the human condition teaches us something monumental about pleasure; nothing comes for free.

All the benefits pleasure confers must be paid back.

For every ounce of pleasure we feel, we invite an equal measure of pain to the banquet.

But so too the opposite applies...

The more discomfort you expose yourself to now, the more pleasure you will feel later.

So the unsolveable problem of pelasure is that it can never be fully satisfied. ‍

But the type of pleasure you pursue can be carefully chosen. ‍

In essence, immediate pleasure is fleeting. Slow pleasure is durable.

As the stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus said,‍

“If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly, but the good endures; if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures.” — Gaius Musonius Rufus, Fragment 51

Choose the type of pleasure you pursue wisely.

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6.) Problems‍

Finally, what we've covered so far in the above 5 points have been some common illusions we create for ourselves as humans.

In other words, we’ve spoken about problems.

So here highlights our 6th and final pillar of human deception; the idea of problems. ‍

Us humans believe, if we work hard enough, learn enough, earn enough and do enough, we can finally rid our lives of all problems.

But by definition, life can never be free of problems.

Because problems are a feature of existence, not a bug.

True solace comes when you stop striving to solve everything and you instead give up this idea of problems.

So don't solve. ‍

Improve. ‍

Because if you can never rid your life of problems, you might as well work to improve the quality of your problems.

‍‍

Final word...‍

So now you might be thinking “well if we can’t solve these problems then what’s there to do?”

Well, you can still try to solve these problems.

But you do so from a different angle.

Instead of grasping for an external solution to quickly solve these 6 issues, you settle your awareness into a humorous understanding that, despite your screw-faced attempts, the only solution is...‍

To understand that there is no solution. ‍

And if you ask me, that's the greatest solution of all.

Happy new year.

And thank you for reading.

Lewis