It represents my knowledge and my capacity to learn, the very foundation of my actions as an intelligent person. The knowledge I posses; its quantity, its quality, will directly influence my choices. My knowledge, my capacity to learn: it is the basis of my deeds. My very intelligence exerts its influence on every aspect of my life by informing my free will. This chapter of The One Life Catalog is about problem solving and poses the questions: to think or to not think, to choose to learn or to not learn?
As I survey the world today I am bound to find a great multitude of problems. Yet cultivating a love for problems is how I become adept at solving them.
My society is nothing more than the outcome of quadrillions of interactions between people participating in it. The foundation of each individual's choice, the actions they perceive to be available to themselves. All of this — this civilization around me, is rooted in each of our personal levels of intelligence.
When I delegate problem solving to an authority whom then mandates a top down solution, I am stagnating my problem solving skill. I am impeding my free will and limiting the free will of others.
At no point in human history has the cathedral of knowledge been so vast. There is such an abundance of information. Much of it practically free to access. The marginal cost is the time I spend selecting it, filtering it, studying it and coming to know it. So here I present a framework to offset the cost of my time and unlock the truths of learning that are hidden in plain sight. I may access the abundance of knowledge around me with a concrete methodology from ancient times, nearly lost in the deluge of competing ideologies that has afflicted us all for so long.
The One Life Catalog explores ways in which I can relieve the system pressures placed upon me by modern society. Not by abstaining from participation or absolving myself of any responsibility. Rather, by re-imagining my role in it. By reframing my part to play in the unfolding situation while exercising this gift of human ingenuity and expressing my right to self-determination; that, is my pursuit of happiness.
The One Life Catalog is a framework for accessing the abundance around you that for so many others remains elusively beyond reach. If you desire to seize control of your destiny, begin by declaring that you will first stop living day to day in uncertainty.
The One Life Catalog is a story for accessing the abundance around me that for so many others remains elusively beyond reach. If I desire to seize control of my destiny, I will begin by declaring that I will first stop living day to day in uncertainty.
It takes knowledge to shape a life story. It takes learning to access knowledge. I can't learn everything — nor can I afford to spend all of my time learning before I put a body of knowledge to work in my life. The most important thing is to recognize that learning itself is a skill that can be mastered. I don’t wait for someone to come along and teach me. Instead, I take a direct and active approach to gathering knowledge myself.
All of my kind, humankind, are born to learn, to think and understand. It's not a skill available only to an elite few, but to everyone. We all have a brain and we all start at zero. I have been growing from zero my entire life. I call that growth personal development and ask myself: Have I taken an authentically scientific, methodical or systematic approach to Personal Development?
If I could enhance my abilities; increase my intelligence, my memory, my capacity to learn and the speed at which I do it — why would I turn that down?
Give yourself the opportunity for continual growth and unbounded personal development. Go through Head Space and put the systems here to work in your life. Equip yourself with the tools to access learning and the ability to apply the following chapters of The One Life Catalog. Begin constructing your own access to the regenerative living system.
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