North Star
Do the impossible, and by doing so leave the world a better place than you found it.
*- Feb 2021 memoir “Road to Retirement”*
Towards the end of his 2022 book “Power of Regret”, author Daniel Pink outlines a guide for the life well lived through an analysis of patterns from self reported lifetime regrets. He lists four features; morals, foundation, relationships and boldness, as the positive correlates of his four categories of regrets. These four themes are also consistent with what is known in positive psychology about wellbeing, life satisfaction and what the Psychologist Marty Seligman refers to as “Flourishing”, the opposite of mental dysfunction in his 2011 book titled after the concept. These four themes, with some creative license word choice to stay on a theme of “C’s” and the addition of a fifth “contribution”, which I’m sure Dan would not object to, also match well with my own personal sense of life purpose, the “North Star” and the four learning themes that emerged towards the end of my February 2021 memoir and make up part of the framework for developing this year’s mission.
The life well-lived
| character | Psycho | Have an ethical foundation that guides your decisions, especially when dealing with your commitment to others. Live a principled life. Be authentic and trustworthy. Do what you say and say what you do. |
|---|---|---|
| compute | Data Detective | See the world with an empirical eye letting data drive decisions. When the facts change, so should your views. “If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist” and the corollary: “you can only improve what you measure”. Develop hypothesis and models to understand life and organize the structure of your projects around testing and refining these models. |
| capacity | Patron | Be conscientious and build a foundation. Make an investment using your decisions and behaviors today so that you have the capacity to do enjoyable and meaningful things tomorrow. |
| cum | Touch | Where physiology and other constraints permit, experience the pleasure of sex. Consensual, safe, conflict free, arousal, flirtation and orgasms with stimulating, compatible and attractive partners. Practice behaviors that support good sex hormone levels ie testosterone and make wise choices in the other areas that lower barriers to finding compatible partners. |
| challenge | Patron | Take up meaningful challenges. Put yourself out there. Take worthwhile risks and don’t let fear guide your life decisions. |
| community | Bridges | Be human and invest in relationships, especially close relationships. |
| contribution | Psycho | Give back. Leave something for the next generation and make something meaningful out of the limited time between birth and death. |