When life moves too quickly, it becomes challenging to build a unique identity.

Instead, outsourcing your character and personal qualities to the world makes life easier and helps you keep up.

As time accelerates, it becomes difficult to:

• Know what you should do next

• Think and synthesize your thoughts

• Figure out what you like and who you are

• Observe what is going on in the world and around you

Who are you if you don’t know who you are?

Discrete vs. Continuous Narrative

The de-temporalization (speeding) of time leads to the loss of narrative.

According to Merriam-Webster, narrative is defined as “a way of presenting or understanding a situation or series of events that reflects and promotes a particular point of view or set of values.” or “Having the form of a story or representing a story”.

Another way to say this is that narrative provides context and progression to your experience.

Life must be viewed cumulatively.

Your current moment did not arrive without the foundation laid by previous points in time.

When the narrative surrounding your life weakens, you begin to experience life as a series of independent points that you have to handle without previous knowledge or experience to rely on, potentially leading to stress and anxiety.

The “Smoothing” Populace

The loss of distinction and selection of important and personally significant events results in losing connection with yourself, creating a self-knowledge gap.

We may have a favorite activity, food, game, or entertainment choice but we did not consciously choose them. They were given to us.

We may go through life not even knowing why we enjoy a certain activity, food, or entertainment; to know you need uninterrupted time to think.

Uninterrupted time is an increasingly scarce resource in an accelerating Modern world.

There are aspects of ourselves that we could explore, understand, develop, or resolve to become better, more refined, and productive people.

It is our duty and responsibility, first to ourselves and second to those around us to do this.

Don't stop short and only observe the results of your thinking and actions.

Create the time and space to discover the unique you.

Reflect on you as a person

• Do I like myself?

• Do I like the things I do every day? What would I change?

• If I could do anything without fear of judgment, what would I do?

Reflect on the overall narrative structure of your life and interactions.

• Is there a common theme that appears in multiple areas of my life?

• What narrative do I see connecting my past to the present that will benefit me in the future?

• Where would I like to go next?

• What do I like to do?

• Who am I?

Reflect on the thought processes that led to the result.

• Was it valid?

• Was it informed?

Reflect on the action that brought about the result.

• Was it the best I could do?

• How can I do better next time?

• What level do I desire to operate ultimately?

• Am I comfortable making the sacrifices needed to achieve this?

These questions require pondering and dedicated reflection time to explore and answer but the answers to them will help you develop a unique identity and not fall victim to the conformity that comes with increasing time acceleration and loss of narrative.

If you don't know your story, others will tell you what it is.

In Mastery,

Matthew

P.S. There is more on this topic that I could not include in this newsletter due to length. If you are interested in checking out the paragraphs that didn’t make it in, reply to this email and I will send it over!

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