This will be the fourth and last of The Guardian Academy (TGA) foundational orientation. This article will get you caught up to speed on some of the language and concepts that you’ll see over and over in TGA, much of it is repeated from different angles and context (double loop learning, see what we did there?)
If you missed part 3 of TGA Foundations- have a read through that article, watch the video, and then complete your 6 word update exercise found inside the article before moving onto this Foundation.
https://guardianacademy.io/tga-foundations-3-rocky-road/
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Quote 1
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.
You’ll see this all over the place: people, projects, companies, etc. will have you retweet or follow in order to win free stuff. This works because just about everyone loves free stuff (even more relevant if you’re getting something you are passionate about for free) without doing the work. 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.
How do we utilize this quote in TGA?
TGA is built on dopamine (as a reward) in exchange for effort. Improvement of self, adding to the body of knowledge, creating meaningful connections and discussions are just some examples of earning your dopamine.
Quote 2
Most Prefer The Certainty Of Misery To The Misery Of Uncertainty
Virigina Satir
Another way you can view her quote is “the devil you know”.
I’ll give you two choices:
- Door 1
- Door 2
Behind Door 1- 100% chance of misery as you know it currently.
Behind Door 2- 20% chance of happiness.
Which one do you choose?
Most people would say they would pick door 2, yet in reality they would pick door 1, bringing back DALA. They say one thing but their actions don’t align. They would rather know how they’d be miserable rather than the misery of uncertainty.
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.
How do we utilize this quote in TGA?
It is a tool to help you make a decision of whether to opt back in or opt out. Am I choosing the certainty of misery? If so, you forfeit the right to complain. If you opt into the certainty of misery at least you understand that you are choosing to do so, which again means you forfeit the right to complain, DALA.
You can’t complain about things that you choose to do.
Having an understanding of this concept now allows us to think about the situation and decide what we would like to do. If we were unaware, the default path would be the certainty of misery.
Quote 3
Live To Learn, Give To Earn.
4200 Year Old TeachinG, Which Was Translated To The Master Key Of Wisdom
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.
How do we utilize this quote in TGA?
This is what we are embodying within TGA and we encourage all members within the community to do so as well if they would like to participate.
Quote 4
You Are Your Own Guide, You Are Your Own Guard
This will fall under similar lines of self-efficacy.
How do we utilize this quote in TGA?
When you are here and learning, you are learning to be your own guide to make your own decisions. TGA can give you the exact directions and show you to where the banquet is, but when you get there to enjoy in the festivities you’d have to eat and participate on your own volition, at your own pace (whatever is appropriate for you).
When you give to earn, this also falls under you helping others with the skillsets to become their own guide and their own guard.
Quote 5
DALA
TGA Foundations 2 went into DALA- if you missed the orientation or you want to go back for some double/triple/quadruple loop learning you can read/watch about it here.
6WU: Wisdom Comes From Multiple Perspectives
https://twitter.com/TheGuardianAcad/status/1597716259613061120?s=20&t=YbYWec1unrULD6grICg5Kw
Resource
Andrew Huberman: https://hubermanlab.com/
Dopamine Nation: https://www.amazon.com/Dopamine-Nation-Finding-Balance-Indulgence/dp/152474672X