Letters or Prescriptions?

I decided that this newsletter is going to be about self development.

And that means we are going to be exploring topics in the wide subjects of philosophy and psychology. 

Last week we started by looking at the human mind. And how to study it.

The email had the headline: How to Study Your Mental Life. I read it several times and after deep reflection, I realized how my ideas were based on old prescriptions which have little to do with how things turn out in the real world. And this does not mean that the last was entirely useless. Actually, it is very much useful in what is to come. Because everything I talked about can seem useless, but there is so much use in investigating those ideas and looking into their deeper meaning and where it was all headed. Because, inside every line and idea lies something worth to study to help us become happier and better humans. 

The prescription in my previous email was about how to study the human mind. Not in the act itself but in the approach. Why do I call it prescription? Because even if I read through the 1300 pages of the book. I would still not be able to understand the mental life of humans like the way a classic thinker from the 19th Century by the name William James did it. William James is perhaps among the most studied humans in history due to their revolutionary ideas in psychology and philosophy. And so what this means is that it is quite obvious that much self development talk is based on the things proposed by William James. Things like habits, decision making, emotional intelligence and freedom among others. This still does not mean that reading the book is bad!

And do not get me wrong, self development does not necessarily have to go back only to two subjects like philosophy and psychology.

It would be unfair to conclude it that way! The reason why I unknowingly chose these two subjects was because while philosophy tends to teach us about the external world, psychology tends to teach us about our internal world. Unless this approach is entirely wrong, I am convinced these two subjects are the foundations of self development. What may then follow from philosophy and psychology are other subjects like biology, communication, religion, art and more.

What is Self Development?

Self development did not start today! I am certainly not even among the first few in the world to talk about it. There are so many self developers out there. Some are real and most are fake. The real ones think and learn. The fakes ones throw around motivational speak. Many people confuse self development with the common motivational speeches and talks. In reality, that is not what self development is. Since motivational speak can make you feel good, real self development is often uncomfortable. Actually, it is just uncomfortable. It is because it involves a lot of vulnerability. It involves saying things which people are afraid to say. It involves surgically curating your mental life to fit where you want to end up in life as a person. It can also be very personal unless you have the burning desire to share your findings. Self development is the uphill task to free yourself from prescriptions and norms that keep you out of your original path. Following these norms and prescriptions puts a limit on human potential as we have seen from countless examples both in history and in present. Real self development is missing in society due to the tendency of people to avoid pain and follow an easy path. Out of this comes something called anxiety. 

To me anxiety is the most common condition in society. And a naive type of anxiety is thinking that your problems are based on circumstances then trying to change the circumstance only to realize and cause more bad problems resulting in more anxiety. It is why we see wellness and mental health movements thriving today. Popular culture has given us a look into the mental life of people and a lot of times we see the themes of anxiety in the work of musicians like Savara, Matata and Watendawili in Kenya.

Anyway, the very fact that people are joining mental health movements means that we have a problem of the mind as human beings. And this problem can be seen from the outside. It can be seen when you look at someone! Maybe the way they dress, walk or even the food they eat and the place they reside. Or the people they are romantically involved with. In simple words, the health or condition of your mind can be seen in the physical world.

As we move forward, please understand that I am not going to motivate you. Yes, there are places in my line of work where I really have to motivate some people to help them perform better at work, but I don’t want to motivate you even if my letters are aimed at improving our work and life. My aim is to dig deep and bring you the ideas that can potentially uplift your mental life and free you from prescriptions that limit your potential. That is my mission. And how you use these ideas is up to you. Take what works and discard the rest.

Naval Ravikant who is an American angel investor played a big role in my understanding of self development. Much of his works focus on the idea of freedom, wealth and happiness. Naval has also influenced the current self development movement in a very secret way. I know I could be biased in that but what I am really saying is that he is so influential and even successful to ignore.

On this topic of the mind, according to his podcast from March of 2024 titled conquering the mind, we can establish that the greatest freedom in the world is freedom from the mind. At this time, I am in full agreement with this idea. But freedom from the mind can be such a difficult task. It may even be logically impossible since according to some old thinker by the name Immanuel Kant, the human mind is incomprehensible and that it keeps changing from time to time that you can hardly grasp it. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung also once pointed out that the greatest power is the power to defeat the forces attacking our minds.

How then can we conquer our minds and become free individuals?

There is a way, but is hard. Yes, freedom from our minds is possible. It is not to be found in a Naval Ravikant podcast. It is not to be found in communities within the mental health movement. It is not even found in this letter.

Freedom is found outside norms. It is not found in self development books and courses and coaches. Because all these to some degree are prescriptions.

The problem with following prescriptions.

A few centuries ago there came a period in history called the renaissance.

This was a period characterized by widespread ideas and information. To this day, there is a lot of information available to us that we can live a more enjoyable life than most of our ancestors before the renaissance.

Even though we can easily find information and what to do through prescriptions, we can still see in society that most of us are just still not getting it. This is because if prescriptions worked, we would not be having any problem. For example, a community member at my local gym has been working out since 2020 but she is not the person you call fit just by looking. And the reason after my investigation has been that she follows a lot of prescriptions and norms when it comes to fitness. She is the first one to show up for gym classes, she is active in the forum and yet not the fittest. She is obsessed about the journey and less about the destination. Because how can you start a journey and not expect to arrive at a destination. The truth to me nowadays is that the destination is much more important than the journey. By that I mean, if you start something, go for a milestone and achieve it then set another goal. 

Last December when we met for our end of the year local party which I left after the head coach spoke, she had updated us on her journey and I heard some mediocre numbers about the weight she had lost in one year. And I am not saying she is entirely a bad human being, even if she is, it doesn’t matter. I am not also saying that it is useless to track numbers on the weight scale. What matters is that her approach to fitness was based on the collective goal of the gym members and nothing personal for her. And as we know it, following the masses and what is already laid up for you will never get you impressive results. Because that is all prescription!

This is the problem that will come to us if we follow prescriptions. If we do not study the external world and the internal world to get what works for us, just like this member, we will end up achieving mediocre results and probably have less satisfaction out of life.

Sometimes prescriptions can work. And they are not entirely bad. For example in our case, the lady follows the fitness prescription which without a doubt puts her in the few people who do actually work out. But for extreme results, we need more than just prescriptions.

The way to lift yourself is through this practice called self development.

How to engage in self development.

Firstly, we need to understand what development means.

Previously, we defined self development as the increase in skill, capacity and physical wellbeing. Anything that comes directly from us and goes into bettering our skillset, potential and material well being can be called self development.

Self development is much a personal game, despite there being prescriptions such as psychotherapy, motivational quotes, mental health and wellness movements. How you improve your life may not be the way I will do it. Even if you like the way I live, you are obviously not going to live like I do. Or to put it better, if you are inspired and influenced by people like Naval, it does not mean you will become like them.

Start by carefully finding out on a personal level the solutions to your problems and how those problems are unique to you. Then compare that with golden nuggets in the information available to us from people like Naval. Once you find that which you believe in, take a dive and be ready to fall!

And no! This is not motivation. So act on what you need!

Until next week!

-Nick Osale.

P.S

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