Book 327 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: When Nature Meets Culture!

Book – The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self by Martha Beck (Part 3 of 3)

Book Description:

Inspired by The Divine Comedy, Beck uses Dante’s classic hero’s journey as a framework to break down the process of attaining personal integrity into small, manageable steps. She shows how to read our internal signals that lead us towards our true path, and to recognize what we actually yearn for versus what our culture sells us. With techniques tested on hundreds of her clients, Beck brings her expertise as a social scientist, life coach and human being to help readers to uncover what integrity looks like in their own lives. She takes us on a spiritual adventure that not only will change the direction of our lives, but also bring us to a place of genuine happiness.

Reflection:

As we’ve discussed before on this journey, culture is one of humanities most unique and awesome superpower.

Culture ensures that we survive and thrive as a collective. Culture binds society together, defines our shared values, helps us to connect and collaborate, and brings a sense of security and safety for individuals as it provides a unified sense of belonging.

Culture is incredibly powerful and acts like an invisible hand that builds our paradigms and guides our actions, whether you like it or not.

Some cultures we are born into and have no choice in whether or not we participate. Things like where we were geographically born, the family we were born into, the languages you speak, the religion that they practice, etc. Others, we discover for ourselves as our life goes on and we instinctively gravitate toward things that appeal to us like music, how we dress, how we talk, what we do for a living, sports, clubs we join, politics we participate in, education we seek, or hobbies we enjoy.

I personally am actively a part of the following cultures – the Sears family, the Iaria family, the tennis community, the pickleball community, English speaking people, the high tech community, the catholic church, the United States of America, the Delta Chi Fraternity, St. Mark Elementary School, Roncalli High School, Purdue University, the City of Indianapolis, the State of Indiana, the Midwest as a whole, Social Media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter), previous and current employers (Angie’s List, Dexter Axle, hc1.com, Salesforce, and OSF Digital), Riley’s Hospital for Children, the bereaved parents club, and the list goes on and on.

There are things that I like and don’t like about each and every one single one of the cultures I just listed above. I’ve spent the majority of my life in a constant back and forth / push and pull with all of them as I try to find a place that I can call my “home”.

For example, I think of the industry I work in, the high-tech world. A part of me loves everything about it. The people are amazing, the work is fulfilling, and we have a ton of fun. It checks the box on so many of my core values, until it doesn’t. The companies in this sector are famous for their culture building prowess…and they are damn good at it. They have mastered the art of culture building at lightning speed and creating family environments that unite around shared purpose and values to accomplish some larger mission. It feels great and like a place that you want to be forever, that is until they “must” lay off a bunch of people because their investors weren’t happy about the last quarter’s performance.

While you watch your “family” escorted out the door by security, you start to realize that this whole thing is a big bunch of dookie. How could I be so dumb? How did I not see that this culture isn’t an accurate reflection of anything close to my values? It is in these moments when the beautiful façade of these cultures come crumbling down to reveal the turd on the inside that we realize just how much we’ve let them dictate our identity and we don’t like it.

It's not their fault though, they were never designed for you in the first place. They were designed by someone else or a group of people and infused with their values, mission, and purpose to achieve their own goals.

So, what do you do? If we need culture, but none of the ones that exist in this world are the exact right fit for you…what’s the answer?

Build your own!

As the author says, “If you don’t walk your true path, you don’t find your true people”. Create the culture that aligns to what you hold dear inside you. Intelligently design this culture to reflect your values, your purpose, and your mission in life. As you walk the way of integrity, the people that agree with that will find you and join you. If they don’t, who cares.

Question: Do the cultures you belong to align with your nature?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - The Way of Integrity by Martha Beck