The Multiverse of Me

What I'm Up To (Scheming), What I Reflected On (The Multiverse of Me), and What's Occupying My Mind (Catching Your Wind) - all part of Allen's Friday Flights

HELLO to the Friday Flights

These are a flight of personal updates from me and it’ll be centered around what I’m up to, what I reflected on, and what book (or even thing) occupies my mind. I’m that guy who orders samplers all the damn time.

Ciao!

Allen

---

Inside:

• What I’m up to

• What I reflected on

• What thing occupies my mind

---

What I’m Up To

TL;DR: Duct taping various business models together, as a thinking exercise, as an advisor, or perhaps founder?

Photo by Lucas van Oort on Unsplash

The Things:

• Lightyear is an okay movie. I’d put it above Toy Story 4 though, but that movie sucked too.

• I got to meet Nate S. from Powder Keg. Turns out we’re both doing random things - he’s also a hell of a connector.

• I am blessed to have Liz Mohler, an actual coach of nearly 30 years and one of the current coaches of CHIEF, try my Action Passion Coaching Product. She is accepting new clients; DM me for a referral.

• Anyone want to try a Community Subscription Box business?

• I discovered Bubble, a no-code way to build a tech-driven product. Here’s an example that caught my eye. Everything, including the underlying data your info and inputs go to, is all done no-code.

• I learned about Revenge Procrastination, which is the habit of skimping on sleep to engage in leisure activities as a way to make up for long work days.

• I got to meet Bassil Eid who just has hilarious story about web3, accounting, startups, and Switzerland.

• My friend Adrian Ang published his Metaverse Thought leadership and I just want to rep it here: “What’s possible for the gaming industry in the next dimension?”

---

What I Reflected On

TL;DR: Collected thoughts around self-concept, and the different variations of me

The Multiverse of Me

After reading a previously recommended book on Adlerian Philosophy, and having many months pass since then, I’ve been able to collect my thoughts about self-concept. Yes it’s a play on Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, now available on Disney+.

What’s Self-Concept?

Self-concept is a collection of beliefs about oneself, which is embodied by the question “Who am I”?

I find that the simple question of who am I is incredibly hard to answer, and that I can’t answer it without describing the many versions of me. The question gets harder if you’ve had a work-centric identity and no longer work, or have removed from an institution that has been a major influence of both your life and family.

To establish my own self-concept, I had to thinking about the many variations of me.

1. Who I previously was // What I used to be
   This is every incarnation of me that has happened, but they are all in the past. Example would be the High School me. The Pre-7 years of Corporate working me. The who I was before I started travelling internationally me. The post version of that me.
   

2. What I wanted to be
   These are historic daydreams of different things I wanted to be, including past efforts to try. It’s the beginning part of what you say when you are asked “Where do you see yourself in 5 years” and then you make up a “I want to be a Partner” or “I want to be a CPO”, all the way to “I originally wanted to be a pro-gamer.”
   

3. What I could have been
   The one often filled with regret or doubt. These are the various fantasies about myself that are created when I think of these kinds of thoughts: “had I done X a different way, I could be there by now!” or “if I elected to study Y instead, I wouldn’t have to be doing what I am doing now”. These can also come up when you compare yourself to someone else, and see how “successful they are”.

4. What I could be
   The different possibilities of you could be in the future, but they aren’t your focus. This comes up when you say “I know I could be that, but I currently don’t have time to commit to it”. There is either an excuse, or a lack of interest, that would prevent you from making it your primary northstar.
   

5. What I am trying to be
   The potential future version of you that you have convinced yourself you are working toward. This one comes up because it has become your goal. It is your Northstar. Except the nuisance is that your Northstar can change, or it can feel like a constellation of stars that you’re trying to hit at least one of them - or in between them.

The Struggle

As I think about the different aspects that make up me - the many identities across the multiverses of me - there is one line of thinking that stands out. The competitive concept of being better and making improvements on yourself.

I have realized that the mindset and tools to constantly chase self-growth and chase a better you ultimately lead you to be in competition with yourself. This momentum created can then become a barrier to self-acceptance, and subsequently can warp your self-concept.

The underlying assertion with competing with yourself is that the the past you and current you is inferior, and by being actively and taking steps to better yourself, you can then cross over and be superior, or otherwise, less inferior, to yourself.

When you regress or revert, you may gas-light yourself to say “I should have been better” or otherwise beat yourself up for it. Competition naturally leads to a superiority complex, with yourself. (Btw, inferiority complex or the need to be the victim is part of superiority complex).

I have many multiverses of me compete to be the current me right now on the basis that they would be relatively better for me. How do I contend with the many versions of me that have existed, currently exist, and could exist in my mind?

Well, quite simply, I don’t anymore.

I don’t compete.

As Mr. Rogers has said:

Come back next week for part II of where I go into self-acceptance.

---

What thing occupies my mind

TL;DR: “Catch your wind” by going outside and breathing new air to get recharged.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Catch Your Wind

I previously wrote about running and its benefits to me. I also am a believer of being outside, going on walks, and being in nature. I feel refreshed, and in my best state to be me, and to take on the challenges that life presents.

Turns out, the Dutch call this uitwaaien, which poorly translates to “outblowing”, or doing activities that allow you to spend time in the wind. The proper translation is:

“The Dutch practice of jogging or walking into the wind, especially in the winter, for the purpose of feeling invigorated while relieving stress and boosting one's general health

Quite literally - go outside, walk around, breath fresh air - and catch your second breath.

The United States has an incredibly car-centric urban planning, to the point where it is absurdly difficult to enjoy nature in urban and suburban places. It’s pretty American to say “I went out camping in nature to get away from the city” because the city has no nature.

When I found my current place of residence, one of the most important realizations and necessities I told my significant other in our search is “I have to be able to run without having to check for cars all the time.” This translates to, have a lot of trees, a lot of parks, and the ability to get into nature quickly and even privately as possible.

I catch my wind quite literally being under a bunch of trees now, and going up a variety of walking trails, all without having to go under any bridges, cross any streets, wait for any traffic light, and without even putting much thought into existing.

I hope you can can practice uitwaaien - and catch your wind, daily.

p.s. how do you say uitwaaien? Turns out its “Ut - why - In”.