Philosophy
“The point of philosophy is to become a better person.”
Life is the quest to unleash human potential by following your conscience. Everyone is born with the potential to achieve excellence and the desire to unleash that potential. Your conscience is the voice that calls you to be your most courageous, most authentic, most excellent self.
“Never Surrender” is a system of prioritization, skill development, and accountability that is designed to promote human thriving by aligning your decisions and actions with the dictates your conscience. By embodying courage, authenticity, and excellence, you will contribute something meaningful to your community.
How can you more consistently follow your conscience?
This system is not about telling people the right answers, because the answers are unique to the individual. This system is about the universal questions that put you in direct contact with your conscience.
Who are you? And what do you want to do about it?
When you are your most courageous, most authentic, most excellent self, are you: an artist, a warrior, an engineer, an entrepreneur, a craftsperson, a leader, or a healer?
What’s the biggest, most important problem you can solve with your unique set of gifts and skills? And what’s your plan to solve it?
By answering those questions, you will clearly set your priorities, you will create a plan to develop the skills you need to get the results you want, and you will set a standard that you can hold yourself to.
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. ”
What happens if you don’t follow your conscience?
Human beings will sacrifice everything for their highest priority. What do parents sacrifice for their kids? What do champions sacrifice for victory? If you’re going to sacrifice everything for your highest priority, what is the right priority?
Your conscience tells you that the most important thing in life is human potential because the saddest thing in life is wasted talent. Wasted talent leads to regret and despair, because your conscience not only calls on you to unleash your potential, it calls you out when you don’t. That’s what shame is, it’s your conscience tormenting you for falling short of your potential. This is not metaphysical, it’s fully embodied. When you fully embody courage, authenticity, and excellence to unleash your potential, you become ecstatic. You enter the flow state.
The virtues give you access to your conscience. They keep you on the path to ecstasis/flow. The virtues are: courage, authenticity, accountability, discipline, and sacrifice.
Develop courage by focusing your attention and effort on the achievement of a meaningful goal.
Develop authenticity by creating a plan that aligns your daily decisions and actions with your vision for your life and your career.
Develop strong, personal accountability by focusing on skill acquisition and high standards.
Develop discipline by reviewing your goals and priorities on a daily basis.
Sacrifice appropriately by letting go of something meaningful so you can reach for what is most meaningful.
“Sins” disconnect you from your conscience. They drop you onto the path to shame and despair. The sins are: gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, pride, wrath, and envy.
The word “sin” comes from an archery term that means “to miss the mark.” What happens when you miss the mark? Greed is when you miss the mark by sacrificing your true potential for money. Lust is when you sacrifice your potential for sex. Sloth is when you sacrifice your potential for comfort, and so on down the list.
How many people do you know who have fulfilled 100% of their potential? How much talent is going to waste because we are so distracted by our desires for comfort and safety, for status and acceptance, and for pleasure? How does that make you feel? What do you want to do about it?
“Myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of human life.”
Be the Hero of Your Own Journey
You have the opportunity to become a hero, and you have the duty to avoid becoming a villain. One day you will be too old and too sick to become a hero, and then your fate will be sealed.
The saddest thing in life is wasted talent because wasted talent leads to regret and despair, and that is the path to villainy. A villain is someone who gave up on their own potential. A villain is an enemy of human potential and human excellence. A villain punishes courage and punishes authenticity anywhere they see it because it reminds them of their shame.
You have a duty to begin your quest unleash human potential, and you have a duty to give it your best effort, because if you don’t, your life will become a tragedy.
If you step into the arena, and you leave all of your effort on the field, you’ll become a hero. If you work to develop your talent and unleash your potential so you can embody your most courageous, most authentic, most excellent self, you will become a credit to yourself and a credit to your community. You will live a fulfilling life, and you will find peace.
Take a look at every hour of your day, and find all of the hours that are not devoted to developing your talent and unleashing your potential. Is your activity for that hour more important than your potential?
Well, who are you, and what do you want to do about it? Will you sacrifice your potential for comfort and acceptance? Or will you sacrifice comfort and acceptance for your potential?
“Everybody acts out a myth, but very few people know what their myth is. And you should know what your myth is because it might be a tragedy and maybe you don’t want it to be.”