Stoic Exercise To Help You Make Decisions [And Me Using It As A Persuasive Tool to Sign-Up To The Devil]
Sometimes you need an extra push before you sign your soul to the devil. Usually it's a nice car or watch ... but for me it's the vision of suffering and a potential for growth there.
That's right. I'll sign my soul to devil just so I can endure the pain and come back out of it victorious, looking the devil straight in the eyes and uttering in a calm, composed voice:
"HA. Is that all you've got? If this is hell, then I have nothing to fear. You are not even scratching the surface of the power within..."
It's a great Stoic exercise :).
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Chances are, if this is the first post you're reading you are probably lost right now :D. Yesterday I explained that I got a job offer from an EvilCorp and how it's messing with my head. So now I am weighting the costs of going for it. And I am also a fan of Stoicism which I wrote a post about before - my favourite - 'Suffering is great - Why Homelessness, Stoicism and Minimalism keeps me happy and steady as a rock?')
Therefore I will use another Stoic-inspired exercise (All credits are due to Tim Ferriss who introduced me to this) that can help you decide to go and do something, but with a spin.
Dun Dun Duuuuun!!! :D
Usually this is done the other way around, for when you want to quit your job, or you wanna make a risky decision that goes against the status quo and the "walked path" (which is just excuse to not having to make your own decisions).
But I'm gonna use this to see how I can survive Corporatism.
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Good stuff, but what's the exercise?
I'm glad you asked.
In my previous post I talked about practising the worst case scenario. This is a great "hack" if you will. Now, we're going to make a list. Three lists actually.
This exercise is great for decisions like starting your own company, quitting your job, leaving everything behind and starting afresh but you can probably use it with any decision to a various degrees of success.
So here are the steps
- Choose the Decision you want to analyse.
- Write a list of "Worst case Scenario", what's the worst thing that can happen.
- Write down what you can do to minimize the impact of those worst case scenarios.
- Write down what it would take to get back where you started. And this is important, how long would it take you?
I think that's pretty self-explanatory. Let's see how this goes with my current decision - getting a job in EvilCorp.
Worst-case scenario
- I get sucked into a corporate world and lose my soul and will to live
- I miss out on potential new opportunities that might come up
- I realize I hate pen-testing and that I want to do something else, e.g. Android Development, Movement or Life Coaching, etc.
- I lose time doing something that's not for me and won't have time and energy to do anything else.
- I won't create an app helping people with Social Anxiety and someone else does that before me.
- I will start thinking that this is the only way, that society was right all along.
Mitigation
- Don't give them everything. Don't fall into a trap of sucking people's assess, pleasing everyone, overworking to please the manager for a potential raise, etc. Stay true to your own values and make sure you live a balanced life.
- Keep your doors open. Don't sign up for anything long-term, or at least have a way of backing out when needed. (Eg. don't take relocation bonus, don't sign a one year lease, etc.)
- Do all those things in parallel so you keep improving as well as try them out to see if they stick.
- Refer to number one and three. Keep yourself sane and live a balanced life.
- Work on it now, pitch your idea at a mobile hackathon you are attending and maybe get people who'd join you.
- Do other things. You are not your job. Live life fully and be open to new opportunities.
Okay, these are not the best mitigation as they are very general. It'd be better if I was more practical.
Let's say, instead of saying what I did in 3, I could say "Organize movement classes during the weekend and attend many classes during the week (mould your work around it, not the other way around) and code for 4 hours each weekend". Though that would turn into a too long of a post.
Getting back where I am now
Well this one is easy. Right now I'm at the rock bottom so that would be easy to get back where I am. Just let the gravity do its thing :D.
Well, so it's not that bad at the end. And there are some positive sides, too. Like a potential to attend lots of crypto-anarchist events in the city I'd live in, a potential to meet lots of people involved in that scene and maybe get new ideas or opportunities to work on something different. And I won't be completely broke and could actually attend some classes, etc.
About the Author;
Hi, I am Joe and I love freedom.
Freedom of all sorts, social, financial, emotional, physical, freedom from your stuff or place.
My biggest passion is to show that it is possible to live life being free, work towards my freedom, and help others obtain their own versions of freedom.
I also love exploration and experimentation (of all senses).
My articles are about all of this (Freedom, exploration, experimentation)
as well as my own transparent and authentic experiences.