I brainstormed quite some time about Jason's thoughts. I tried to find ideas to each sentence he said and I found various thoughts within myself.
For me, being on the ERE journey is like comparing my Current-Self with my Future-Self. I am not final and I never will be. But there is a start and a beginning of my ERE journey. Let’s just say, that I think currently about those three aspects:
1. How I want to be
2. What I want to do
3. What I want to have
Being+Doing+Having. That could be one way for me to think about my Future-Self.
So first, I want to live authentically within my core values and virtues. That means, that I want to be independent, free, conscious, integer, trustworthy, honest, genuine , rational and open.
Secondly, I want to grow, develop, learn, experience, behave healthy, think, write and just be myself.
Thirdly, I want to have fulfilled my basic and comfort needs. I want to have a life full of memories and experiences. I want to have skills, competency and wisdom. I want to have a book and a pencil to write my daily Journal. I want to have my freedom to do what I want to do without any dependencies to work for money. I want to have a bike for mobility and I want to have various sources of information (books, internet, videos, etc.) That is my interpretation of my Future-Self for the moment.
ERE gives my tools, methods, instruments, techniques and a way of thinking to make changes from my Current-Self to my Future-Self. ERE is some way of a change management toolset, as I think about it. There is this need to change myself. In order to achieve things I have to let go, eliminate and reduce, as Jason said. On the other hand, I think I have to learn and grow.
These two ways (eliminate+learn) can be combined with Being (habits, thoughts, feelings), Doing (activities, skills) and Having (things, posessions). By that, I look at my life from a different view, perspective and angle and through different „glasses“. I have learned that by looking at something from a different perspective, I will learn something new about it.
Minimalism, Simple Living, Downshifting, Buddhism, Spirituality, Psychology, Personal Development and Growth, Maslow’s pyramid of needs, Loevinger’s stages of ego development, even Project Management, Kaizen (Japanese for continous improvement) and Kaikaku (radical change), Process Management, Goal- and Processorientation, Comfort- and Stretchingzone, Personality Models, Philosophy, Stoicism, Producing/Consuming/Pausing, etc. All that has shaped me so far and will shape me in the future.
I don’t know where all this leads in my life. I am quite sure that if I live authentically all the time, I will be happy and satisfied with the progress and the results at the end.
For me this is about both: journey and destination, process and goal.
From
Loevinger’s stages of ego development I learned about the postconventional stages (but I don’t want to judge or compare). I have learned about conscientious, individualistic, autonomous and integrated stages. There is a good German translation of the wikipedia page. They call it self-determined, relativise (put into perspective), systematic, integrated and flowing stages. I want to be like that. I want to do things like that. I want to have things like that. Well, but from Buddhism I have learned to let go. So, I try to let go to want. Instead, I just be, do and have. And that, I find sometimes difficult and other times easy. It changes always, so do I.
Again, Jason many thanks for your inspirational thoughts. By thinking and writing about it, I have learned something new. And that has a positive influence on my day and my life
