Living Life Powerfully — The First Power Course Graduation Speech
Date Delivered Dec 17, 2022

Thank you Amy, and hello everybody.

What an honor it is to be speaking to the very first graduates of the power course. We started this journey together nearly two years ago and have now arrived at the historical moment of completing our discourse.

From the bottom of my heart I want to congratulate the 8 of you for all the hard work you have put in this endeavor. It has not been easy, and I have a suspicion that at one point or another, every one of you thought about quitting. God knows, I did. But we are here now. So congratulations to you and to us. 

Two years ago, we started with the ambition to stand on the shoulders of giants such as Flores, Heidegger, Unger, Rumi, and others, to develop of a new kind of program for cultivating sensibilities & skills for dealing with messes, for reinventing our identities and careers, and really taking leadership in our communities that we care about. We promised you that we will provoke a new kind of observer of our shared and individual reality and introduce you to the ability for navigating it. In reflecting on my conversations with each of you, I can say with some confidence that thanks to the mystery, together we have delivered on that promise. Congratulations to us again.

And more importantly in the process, we have invented a new tradition together. You might ask, what kind of tradition is it? Before we associate this tradition with any kind of previous philosophical schools, such as linguistic ontology, or hermeneutics, or existentialism, or give it a new name of altWork, we can say that this is a tradition of breaking the barriers and going beyond what we previously thought possible. This is a tradition to tap into our innate superpowers to take care of ourselves, our communities, and our shared home called Earth. Looking at the results that each of you has gotten in your lives, we can say with confidence that it is a tradition of living life powerfully.

So let’s review, what does it mean to live life powerfully?

To live life powerfully is to live in an interpretation that you have agency, that you are more powerful than you imagine, and that you are not a victim of circumstances. To live life powerfully is to encounter the unfolding mystery of life and navigate change in such a way that the mysterious force of life nourishes you and doesn't work against you.

How could life work against you? The moment you begin to begrudge something, someone, or some event that has damaged you in any way, and you live in the interpretation that there is nothing much you can do about it, other than hope and pray, life begins to work against you. You build your prison cell of victimhood first, and then life says, ok, let’s let this be your prison cell and let’s live here in misery.

The master of life declines the invitation to stay small and stay trapped in situations and interpretations.

The master of life reinvents the meaning of each situation so that the new interpretation becomes the foundation and energy for a different kind of future.

Life force promotes those to higher levels that are willing to be a cause without cause. What does it mean to be a cause without cause? It is to stand for something for no reason other than your own conviction. That is to become a cause for something happening in the world, unreasonably, without normal rationalistic reasons.

Meaning you are willing to be the reason, and no other reason other than your willingness and commitment needs to be there for you to take a stand. Being a cause requires a stand, an actionable ethical stand of what is acceptable and not acceptable to you and what is worth pursuing in your life and with your work. When you become a stand, a cause without cause, the mystery begins to reshape your reality. You experience yourself as someone who doesn’t just go along with reality, like a swept-along observer but as someone who generates a new and different reality with your stand.

Becoming this kind of being who takes a stand and becomes a legend — to one’s family, and one’s community, no matter how small or large, becoming this kind of being is our historical birthright. How so? Let’s take a look.

You have learned that as lingo-bio beings, we are born into historical narratives and we can get trapped in these narratives, some that have been passed on to us, and some we invent for ourselves. But there is no power in stories of being a victim, and being not good enough and never getting what you want and so on and so forth.

As lingo-bio beings, we HAVE full access to transforming our stories, for ourselves and our communities. We are these beings who have the possibility to be open to new interpretations. Innovation is really a matter of delivering a new interpretation in a stuck situation where everyone else seems to be resigned.

You can build this capacity for transformation and innovation, by carefully examining your stuck interpretations about situations, and by inventing new interpretations, that give you room to move, collaborate, and think together with others. If everyone stuck to their own personal truth, we will fall to general societal anxiety, and loneliness, which is what seems to be happening right now.

To live a new reality that is different from what you are living now, you would want to build an ambition for philosophically seeing the reality in a different way. Philosopher means ‘lover of wisdom. You must be willing to be a philosopher of your life, and take full responsibility, as a matter of choice, not as a matter of obligation, in any domain, personal, or social that is less than satisfying to you in any way. There is a great deal of power in generating a new context for yourself to live in. Life is bound to bring you breakdowns and challenges. If you get trapped in the feeling and emotions of the breakdowns, you cannot possibly have a new possibility. But getting trapped is not probable, it is inevitable.

Since the dawn of time, human beings have invented and reinvented their existence repeatedly. The power to reinvent our existence has been our birthright since the beginning of time. In a mad rush to build a formulaic world, we have forgotten that we have these powers for reinventing ourselves.

It would serve you well to remember, and remind each other that you are the inheritor of these powers. You did not just get them with your hard work or your money. These are gifts that are your birthrights, that humans have simply forgotten. You can reclaim these at any moment. And no matter what the situation is, you can care, you can listen, and you can think. And then you can take responsibility for making an assessment. Don’t fall to the interpretation that you need to make perfect fail-proof assessments.

You will never have perfect assessments. Sometimes you will open your mouth and invent gorgeous gardens, and other times you will open your mouth and create messes. If you find out that you have just created a mess by opening your mouth, or breaking your promise, then you own it straight up, deal with the consequences, and clean it up. No more hiding messes under the rug. You own where you have fallen on your integrity.

We are the kind of beings that are designed to fall. We are fallible beings. Just because you fall once, twice, thrice or twenty times, does not mean, that you are stupid, you are not enough, you are less than, and that you will never have satisfaction. It means you are human. When you find yourself fallen, and deeply dissatisfied in some situation, you can take responsibility for your own satisfaction by taking any number of actions. What exactly to do in each situation will vary from person to person and from time to time. But how you be in those situations will determine the next state of your life. And we are always inside one or another situation. When we are satisfied, our situation becomes sort of invisible to us. But when we are dissatisfied, the situation reveals itself fully to us.

Whether to engage or to flee, fight or run in a situation, will be much better assessed by the kind of being you would have become, by the time you encounter the situation. Never hesitate to invest yourself and your resources into preparing and becoming ready. What is luck but a breakdown meeting preparation.

But what happens, despite all preparation, if one day you find yourself, in the darkest deepest hole, and all hope seems to have dimmed? At that moment, recall that what you really are, is a mystery, full of power, possibilities, and imagination, with billions of others belonging to your species, your human tribe. Pick your device and call one of them. Let someone help you with your stuck assessments.

Belonging is a secret of power. Your belonging is about your trust in being taken care of. It is cultivated by bringing to the table what you want for yourself—that is care. Your belonging is your story about who your family is, who your people are, who you care about, and the traditions and institutions that you become a member of. Your power essentially expands by expanding your story about your belonging. As a changemaker, you could belong to a major concern and a community of people fighting a monstrosity of your era and your community. In your deepest and darkest times, it is your belonging that comes to rescue you.

The commitment to belonging to some community is the most fundamental commitment of life. Today many of us live in this interpretation that if we commit, we will be trapped. So we ignore the challenges, opportunities, and communities that show up right in front of us. What shows up in front of you is your destiny. The illusion of unlimited freedom is actually a loaded gun pointing right at your foot. It is your commitment, your care, and your belonging that gives you true freedom. It is with commitment, and by honoring your commitment, you will unfold a mysterious potential and become a beacon of light in this increasingly dark world.

I have faith in you and invite you to meet every breakdown joyously, singing, and dancing. And in doing so, make the most out of your life by living it as powerfully as you possibly can.

Thank you for listening. Now I would like to hear from each of you what this conversation is provoking for you.