Jargogled Impressions.

We play a number of different roles in our life. Some of these roles come naturally to us, while we grow into some of the other ones. There are those remaining few where time and effort does or always lend themselves well towards clarifying what it is that you are meant to do.

There are roles that are tenaciously linked with the environment you operate in. These roles can and does change without your inputs, at least in a direct form. These are the roles you play in a reactive mode. I call it the react-and-tackle mode or RTM. The best it seems you can do is to become anti-fragile and able to sense and adapt quickly so as not to be left behind. These are your agile mode plays where a constant reflection and adaption is the Schelling point for your strategic moves.

In RTM, there are a number of ways you can strategize on playing depending on the school of thought you find yourself close to. First, you can become a stoic and let your life flow like a stream of water. Disaffected by the constant humming of the wild around you, your attentive focus on your biggest goals would shield your existence and let you roam free in the expanse of your own fortified world.

You could, on the other hand, adopt a modern contemporary approach and let the garden of your consciousness adapt freely and passionately to the vagaries of the Mother Earth. Commonly called a growth mindset, you carry on with your roles not with an intention to master but with a goal to learn. Learning is a shield with which you can dress your roles and carry on unaffected by what life throws at you.

Third approach is what I term a hardened Sisyphean model or HSM. Within this construct, what you do and how you fare are decoupled resulting in a gritty detachment of the outcome from the effort. It’s what Krishna advises Arjuna to pursue in his exposition on Karma. When the concept of meaning is remodeled to suit your own needs, and the worldly construct of value or fruits-of-labor is disassociated, you are free to roam the world carrying out your deeds. It’s what I sense the American model of existence broadly looks like with its innate appreciation of hard work, dogged persistence, and the great American dream.

The RTM model is present in many forms and in many different levels of play. Regardless of who you are and where you come from, you have few arenas where RTM tunnels in, leaving you with a choice. What you choose may not entirely limit the paths you take for there are multiple paths to reach wherever it is you want to go, but it sure does make the journey and the vistas you travel through different and distinct. That, in itself, is a decision worth making.