TGA Foundations: Quotable Quotes
Level 1: ...And That's Okay
If you hear members of The Guardian Academy speaking to each other, it might sound like a familiar-but-foreign language. If you want to understand the shared language in TGA, this article will bring you up-to-speed.
These are some of the quotes that make up much of the underpinning of The Guardian Academy. They are used and re-used often. We believe they explain or account for many things across many domains.
Seeking Dopamine Without Effort Will Destroy A Person
Andrew Huberman
In order to do anything productive we need to do the work.
How much work?
Enough work to make a meaningful change.
The way our world is currently structured, dopamine without effort can run rampant if left unchecked.
Imagine the emails, facebook notifications, likes on instagram, views on youtube, etc.
The dopamine you used to get from finding food in the wild is now accessible with the flick of a finger.
You’ll see this all over the place.
Unfortunately, it is just a matter of time until this becomes an issue, which we will go into more deeply when we cover the adaptive dilemma in a future article.
Cheap dopamine will destroy a person. Learn to appreciate earning your dopamine.
Most Prefer The Certainty Of Misery To The Misery Of Uncertainty
Virginia Satir
This is often referred to as “the devil you know…”.
I’ll give you two choices:
Door Number 1
Door Number 2
Behind Door Number #1: 100% chance things stay the same, but you’re not happy with how things are.
Behind Door Number #2: 20% chance of happiness, but what it looks like is unknown.
Which one do you choose?
Most people would say they would pick door #2.
In theory, a 20% chance of happiness is better than a 0% chance of happiness, right?
In practice almost everybody picks door #1.
They say one thing:
”I want to be happy, I can’t keep living like this!”
But their actions don’t align with becoming a happier person (DALA). They keep living like ‘this’.
Again, why?
It is less scary to know how we will be miserable than to change and possibly be more miserable.
“The devil you know.”
The unfortunate truth is that people tend to self sabotage themselves.
How do we know this?
Have you ever known someone who was in a toxic relationship? Yet they “endured” it for years, despite knowing nothing would change.
Why?
They’d rather be in a relationship that wasn’t healthy versus the uncertainty of being single and alone.
First we have to understand that most prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty. If we are unhappy, we have to ask ourselves:
“Am I choosing the certainty of misery?”
Side note: closing loops quickly is choosing the certainty of misery over the misery of uncertainty.
If so, we forfeit the right to complain. See: DALA.
Just bringing awareness to the choice by asking the question helps us understand where we are at and gives us an opportunity to opt-out of the certainty of misery.
“You Are Your Own Guide, You Are Your Own Guard”
"Live To Learn. Give To Earn”
The Master Key of Wisdom
This means that you must develop self-efficacy.
Nobody is going to carry you, you need to learn to walk.
If you let someone carry you, you are choosing to be crippled for life. Live to learn, give to earn is a version of this.
Live To Learn– You must experience a thing to learn it, you must engage the process.
If you want to learn how to farm (actual crops not virtual money farms) you must actually go and do it. You won’t get the same experience/can’t say you actually know how to farm from just reading a book.
Give To Earn- What we give is the gift of self-efficacy.
We don’t just give an apple, we show people how to grow an apple tree. Teaching others the skillset so that they can be successful later without you.
Don’t ask to be carried.
Don’t carry others.
Learn to walk and help others do the same.
You re your own guide, you are your own guard.
DALA
Nic Peterson, Nicsmas 2021
See: DALA: Directions For Acting Like and Adult (or Don’t Act Like an A-hole)
6WU: Wisdom Comes From Multiple Perspectives
https://twitter.com/TheGuardianAcad/status/1597716259613061120?s=20&t=YbYWec1unrULD6grICg5Kw
Resources
Master Key Of Wisdom Audio and Video
Nicsmas 2021
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Watch: YouTube