Pareto Path

Charlie Munger was a genius billionaire.

He kept things simple and observed several interesting facts about life and humans. You can find hundreds of them online, but the one principle he popularised a lot was inversion.

Inversion: when everyone is doing X, do Y.

So in true Munger fashion, I’m going to start by telling you what you aren’t.

You are NOT static.

Humans label other humans with static, dead labels.

“Jerry’s a Doctor”.

“Susan has always been shy”.

“Mark was always interested in science”.

Jerry, Susan and Mark aren’t just those things. They are (we are) entities that change.

You are not the same you that you were at 14 as you were at 18. It’s likely that your change in music, films, general interests, career and a whole host of other things drastically changed between those 4 years.

Often people actually look back and are shocked as to what they were like all the way back then. We often don’t see the irony in reflecting at a past version of ourselves with surprise and comments like “I can’t believe how naïve I was”, not noticing that 10 years from now we’re likely to be making similar comments.

You are not a static entity. You are dynamic. You change across time.

You are NOT what you do.

You are not a unidimensional being.

Sure, you might clock in 80 hour work weeks every now and again as a Consultant, and it can be brutally hard and fun, but you aren’t just a consultant.

Most people are also at least a daughter or a son, and often also a friend, a runner/jogger, a gym enthusiast, a Netflix addict etc.

So don’t conflate what you do with who you are. They are not the same thing.

Who you really are.

Practical “You”

This we can address practically and deeply (spiritually/philosophically).

Paradoxically, to find out who you truly are, you have to behave like you don’t know yourself.

Because you don’t.

If you did, you wouldn’t say things like “Why did I do that?”, because if you knew, then you wouldn’t ask yourself the question in the first place.

So here are practical things that you can do to figure out who you are:

1. Complete The Big Five Trait Theory test: this maps out what the Big 5 Traits are for you. If unfamiliar, this is good video explaining the big 5.
2. Watch yourself for a week like you don’t know yourself: put a recording on in the background to just follow yourself along for the day and you’ll notice that you act in different ways than the ways you think you act. You are different to your conception of yourself. This is highly frightening so approach with caution.
3. Ask the best 5 people you spend most of your time with that you trust to tell you the truth about what you are actually like. And listen. And brace for impact.

Once you’ve done all three of the above you would have a psychometric analysis, a intrapersonal analysis and a interpersonal analysis of “who” you are. You can then use these and triangulate what is common across all 3 as your “core” characteristics/traits.

For example, Luke might find that he is highly agreeable, people pleasing and absolutely loves a party, but much to his surprise is actually quite shy in certain situations.

Spiritual “You”

All you have ever done is in the past, and all you will ever do is in the future, neither of which you exist in currently. All you have is this current condition of awareness, this current space what already is, because even when you think about the future or think about the past, you are doing it in the present.

The reason this is important is because it allows you to break the illusion of thought and come straight into the present moment: this is truly all there is. There is no other. You might say “Yeah but I’m going for a dinner with my best friend in 1 hour” to which Life replies “maybe”, because you might have an unfortunate fall and not be going anywhere, or you friend might, or your other friend might call you and tell you things that make you never want to see your other friend again. This future you have isn’t guaranteed at all. It is a half truth at best. So hold it lightly.

Recognise this fundamental truth, at least experientially, allows you freedom to let go of those things that you hold on so dearly: ego, achievements, opinions. These past deadweight’s that hold you down. Like a ship that has many anchors preventing it from going full sail, you can just let go and be.

The Main Takeaway

Who you are can be practically best understood using traits/characteristics and external observations of behaviour, and spiritually best understood as consciousness.

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I hope this has been of value, you can let me know in the comments. And remember AFQ: Always Follow Quality. 

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