Surviving, thriving and being happy in the twenty-first century is difficult. Here’s how to build a suit of armour to not only protect yourself, but to give yourself superpowers.
One of the most enduring business ideas of Xander, our nine-year old son, is to build his own Iron Man suit, a task to which his bedroom has been re-purposed.
For anyone without either children or a personal interest in the Marvel universe, Iron Man is the superhero that Tony Stark, the billionaire, genius, playboy, serial earth-saver, becomes he dons the super-powered suit of armour that he has invented. Iron Man’s armour comes in many variants, but generally allows him to fly, posses super-strength and near-invulnerability. It’s most important components include a core energy source – an arc reactor – which produces seemingly unlimited power, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a super strength exoskeleton. [change this to thruster propulsion system?]
The appeal of Iron Man is the idea that a human, weak and feeble, can construct for themselves armour which enables them not only to survives in a hostile environment but obtain superpowers. In the modern world, where we are safer than we have ever been and, on average, living standards are the highest in human history, the need for protection is less physical that is is mental.
When it comes to personal happiness and contentment, the modern world is actually a deeply hostile environment; for the health of our minds it’s as if we are in deep space with no protective suit
We are encumbered by the knowledge that our society is still exposed to existential threats such as climate change, pandemics or a large-scale nuclear war is frightening. For an acute period the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak converted the low-level humming of background anxiety into full-blown fear.
The way we receive our information about the world has fundamentally changed. The shift from tightly edited, mainstream broadcast media through a very limited number of channels – which perpetuated “lowest common denominator”, middle- of-the-road reporting – to the fractured world of social media bubbles has splintered society. This is unsettling; whichever end of any spectrum you sit on it is deeply disturbing to think that large sections of the population have a completely different viewpoint to you. And also probably think you are an idiot.
Meanwhile our scrolling smartphone addictions inhibits our ability to focus and think clearly; while social media gives us a perpetual view of “how life should be”. While our lives are clearly vastly better than say a medieval peasant (if you want to get a sense for the real historical short straw, do some reading on the 14th century), prior generations just went about their lives. They got up every morning, because that was all they knew. Whereas we question everything.
A final, and particularly insidious cause of anxiety, is modern guilt. We are told (correctly) that some of our biggest problems, most notably climate, are caused because of us, our consumer gluttony and our mundane, quotidian actions. Guilt and fear have quietly wrapped themselves around us.
If understood, managed and accepted anxiety can play a hugely positive role in life. Unchecked and ignored anxiety is debilitating and prevents us from living fulfilling lives.
The good news is that it is eminently possible to build yourself an impenetrable suit of armour, designed specifically for this world, and, unlike the $1bn price tag our son has estimated is required for his first Iron Man suit, you can do it for free – because you can build it in your mind. Built well, your suit will give you will incredible powers in terms of energy, perception and invulnerability.
The basis of your suit is how you view the world and your purpose, and how you go about your life on a daily basis. In constructing it you can draw on resources from the most cutting edge neuroscience to ancient philosophy. Over the course of these three articles I’m going to suggest components which have been remarkably powerful for you, along with some basic installation guidelines. But your suit will be bespoke to you, constructed by you to meet your own specific needs. You will need to feel comfortable in it so that you can where it everyday.
I would suggest that your suit will require three key elements:
- A Core Energy Source;
- An AI system; and
- A near-impenetrable Exoskeleton.
Let’s now describe each of these components in turn. After we’ve done that I’ll then set out some Installation Notes, explaining how you can practically install them into your daily life.
Your Core Energy Source – it’s your Will
Let’s start then with the Core Energy Source. Modern life drains your energy in several ways. We are permanently connected, and have to deal with the constant flow of information, requests to meet for coffee and a “catch up”; at the end of the day you may feel that you have barely scratched the surface of your to do list. Meanwhile those long-term underlying existential fears of climate and pandemics can be debilitating. When stress becomes genuine fear it can entirely rob you of your energy. Equally an ongoing feeling of “what can I do?” is discombobulating and equally paralysing.
Here’s the secret: your Core Energy Source is your will. Your will is your underlying intention, and your attitude, and it is something you can positively set. It is, in fact, the only thing in life that you can control: no matter what the situation is, no matter what is happening to you, or what is happening in the world (all of which you cannot control), you can choose your attitude. At any moment of any day.
You should set your intention based on your understanding of the world – in other worlds seeing the world as it is. And here I would recommend walking through a number of steps, which might be along these lines:
- Step 1: mentally digest the vulnerability of yourself and our world, because this acceptance will set you free. You are a self-aware collection of atoms, which were once stardust, which will one day again be stardust. You are one of currently about 7.5 billion of these extraordinary entities and exist within a thin film of life wrapped around a rock flying through space, utterly dependent on the continued energy emitted by a nearby star. No matter how tough you are, any point your life could end through a chance event, and ultimately at some point in the not too distant future you will die. As the coronavirus showed us, we are equally fragile at a society level.
- Step 2: recognise how lucky you are; you are alive during the greatest time there has ever been to be human.
- Step 3:understand that because we evolved to look out for sabre toothed tiger round the corner your mind is programmed to have a tendency to a form anxiety which may not be useful in the modern world.
- Step 4: separate the issues you into what you can control and what you can’t control.
- Step 5: understand that the more you feel you are contributing, whether at a family, local community, or global level, likely the more happier you will be.
- Step 6: recognise that by being content you can contribute more.
Once you have been trough these steps you reach an unavailable conclusion: that yes, there is plenty to be anxious about, and bad stuff will happen, but things are better for you and for our global society if you just get up in the morning, put a smile on your face and get on with things. If you have anxiety then interrogate it; how likely are the bad things you focus on to actually occur and, more importantly, what can you do to mitigate their risk or effects. Once you have taken all the sensible steps you can then you can do no more and you should instead focus on more useful things.
This then can set your will. Personally, as part of my morning ritual I will focus on setting my own will for the day ahead. For me this entails living my life in a bold and joyful way, with a growth mindset; and to appreciate each and every day on the planet. Including this one.
Your will is then your Core Energy Source. It is underpinned by the knowledge that whatever is happening, and whatever thoughts you are having, you and everyone else are better off if you just crack on. It is set in the context of understanding that it – your will – is the only thing within your control. But you can control it and over time you can learn the skill of recognising when it is waning or drifting, and re-setting it instantaneously.
If you want a single statement to live by it might be “choose your attitude“. Your attitude (ie. your will) is the one thing you can choose, because it is the one thing you can control, and your attitude, expressed over and over in moment to moment situations, over days, years and decades, will ultimately determine the outcome of your life.
Once you have truly absorbed this understanding, and learned these tools, your will will drive you forward as surely and consistently as Tony Stark’s arc reactor.
Your AI: its your Life Framework
Your AI system will give direction to this energy. In the modern world our senses our battered continually by messages competing for our attention through our smartphones. We are continually promised a better life if we buy something in particular, while being reminded of the perfect lives our friends and acquaintances appear to live. The saturation of (almost entirely bad) news feeds from traditional channels and new constantly give our brains something else to fix on, and worry about.
We evolved to live in small tribes, hunting and foraging, while trying in turn not to be eaten by something large and likely hirsute. Our minds therefore are programmed to be motivated by things which were critical to survival or progression then; such as being part of a group, or our personal status. Modern digital technology, weaponized by marketeers who can draw on the full resources of contemporary neuroscience, is designed to circumvent our reason and, in simple terms, push our most basic buttons – our fears, our desires.
Consequently in the modern world maintaining clarity of our purpose in life or even a basic road map for where we want to take things Much like whales assailed by the thumping cacophony of modern shipping, our navigation systems become scrambled and we end up beached; stuck on the sands of anxiety and confusion.
Unless, that is, we have a pre-programmed Artificial Intelligence, that is encased in impermeable solid lead and tamper proof. The secret is that your AI is really your life framework; how you view the world and the core principals, or life tenets, that you apply which allows you to filter your view of the world and guide your actions.
Having a pre-programmed life framework will continually bring you back to clarity. It is impervious to the sonic pollution of your daily life. And you can upload it right now, by incorporating these three key components to your life:
- Gratitude: start each day by being thankful for whatever is genuinely important for you: for having opportunity in your future; for having friends, a family; for living in what for most people is the best time in human history; for being pain free, if you are. Or simply for having woken up this morning – that is always a good start. Gratitude, expressed quietly but regularly, will build contentment and repel the nagging sense of lacking contentment that comes from constantly being told we want / need stuff.
- Humility: once we recognise that our ego can be our enemy we also recognise that a life spent in service rather than in the pursuit of status can not only give us more contentment, but also bring clarity. When ego is in charge we are in a constant state of anxiety, worrying what people think of us. Ego can also act as trap door, through which the marketeers can access us and our desires. Humility, and the pursuit of serving others, frees us from anxiety and from the risk of perceived failure, and focuses us on achieving what is important in life.
- Love: by filling ourselves daily with a feeling of love, not only for those we know and quite demonstrably love, but also for humanity in general and perhaps this incredible planet that we have the extraordinary privilege of inhabiting as a whole, we provide ourselves with a moral compass. We no longer need to waste time trying to answer the question of “what should I do” in life; once love is at the core of your intentions then such questions go away.
Gratitude, humility, love: by layering these words into ourselves every day we have giving ourselves our Guiding Intelligence. In any situation – at work, in personal relationships, even in the most challenging of circumstances – if you can bring the words to your mind and act in accordance with them, you will not only be more content and happier, but you will make better decisions.
Your Exoskeleton: it’s your Purpose [change to Thruster propulsion system?]
With your Core Energy Source activated, and Artificial Intelligence engaged; the final component is the Exoskeleton of your suit. You can have all the energy in the world coupled complete clarity of purpose, but it is all for nothing if you, and your mind, are fragile. More than ever we are susceptible to having our mission and objectives thrown into disarray – once again the crowded and continual bombardment of social media plays its role here.
This is a simple one: your armour is your purpose. A purpose here is any kind of objective beyond your own achievements in terms of status or consumption. The purpose may be to contribute to society globally, or to help particular groups of people, or your community. It may simply be to look after and raise a family. The point is that once you have established a purpose you have decoupled your happiness and focus from events outside your control.
To put it another way: once your happiness is not longer dependant upon your own fate – ie. your success or failure, or how you are perceived by other people – then you become bullet proof. Having a purpose in life galvanises you, and puts the little slights we receive on a daily basis into perspective.
Who cares if someone in a meeting undermines you if, on a daily basis you remind yourself that your purpose is, for instance, to try and contribute to humanity surviving the century?
Installation Notes
These components I have sketched out are suggestions based on what has worked for me. Once you have an initial idea of what might be effective for yourself then you need to “install” the relevant components into yourself, as if they were software on a computer, such that they become ingrained in your thinking.
I find the best way to achieve this is to set a morning recital that you speak to yourself as part of a meditation – here is an example which would “upload” the components:
It is my will to live my life in a bold and joyful way, with a growth mindset and to appreciate each and every day on this planet.
I have a life framework. I feel deep gratitude for my life, for my family and the opportunities this day presents. I seek humility and a life in service, not by status. I am driven by love for my family, my friends and for people I have not met.
My purpose is to provide for my family, to be an active member of my community and to contribute to society through sustainability and long-term thinking.
In case it is not obvious: the three statements above refer to each one of your components, which are in effect your superpowers: your Core Energy Source, your AI and your Exoskeleton. Together you might think of them as your personal mantra.
By repeating your mantra daily, or just pretty regularly (to be honest I don’t bother at weekends; I’m too busy lying in), and specifically by listening to the words and reflecting on their meaning to you, you will be ingraining your understanding of each component. Soon you will be able to conjure up each one at a moment’s notice, simply by repeating a trigger phrase (such as “my Will”). This is important because at various points in any day you might need to call upon different superpowers.
Here are three types of needs which will require your three superpowers:
- Need for energy: you wake in the morning and feel flat, and a bit down. You lie there for an hour or two and your general lack of mojo is compounded by the feeling that you have already wasted some of the day. Let’s assume that a cause of your feeling is that you have been thinking about how you can contribute to solving global problems such as climate change. You have been learning more about it, having moments of optimism as you learn about technologies and solutions that can play a meaningful and positive role. But right now you feel overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the challenges, by the amount of information, much of which is contradictory. Maybe, to take a totally random example, you have been trying a plant-based diet to make a contribution, but you are starting to learn about the massive complexity of the food production system and appreciate the role that livestock may play.
- Answer: bring up your Core Energy Source by saying to yourself “It is my Will” and this will give you an instant understanding that all you need to do is to swing your feet – swing them out of bed and on to the floor. Why? Simply re-read the steps above on how to install your Core Energy Source (which is your Will) and you will understand all you need to know. With your feet on the ground you can get on with the day.
- Need for re-centring: you are about to walk into an important work meeting. There will be people senior to you there, as well as your peers. There will be polite jostling for airtime, attempts to make clever points and perhaps for claim credit for things. Your brain is working overtime to try to implement strategies. You feel stressed and skittish.
- Answer: activate your AI by repeating your core words of Gratitude, Humility, Love (or your equivalent of them). This will then re-set your thoughts and actions in the context of what really motivates you. It will also instantly bring up your understanding of how our brains work, and the dominance that our sub-conscious has. You will not be able to completely master your primeval brain, and indeed you will still be able to think tactically about how to handle the meeting. However, this will free you to think more clearly on what your objectives are and set a strategy around that.
- Need for resilience: you are working on a local voluntary project to raise funds for a new youth community centre. It is not something you have huge amounts of experience in, and it has been much harder work than you expected. You receive personal criticism from the head of the town council on how you have gone about things in a variety of ways, from how you have interfaced with the council and failure to adhere to agreed policies, to how you have engaged with local residents. The underlying implication is of incompetence and naivety. The criticism stings, partly because some of it is objectively accurate – but they are made personal by the council leader.
- Answer: don your Exoskeleton; like for Ton Stark this can be done instantly at the push of a button; for you it is simply by saying the phrase “my Purpose”. Your purpose here is to contribute something of value to your community, something for young people at formative years in their lives. Something lasting. Maybe this is not bigger than you and your life – but its certainly bigger than your “career” as a project organiser, or your reputation and ego in this particular and extremely narrow context. When you focus on your purpose you are also able to see in context the smallness of the criticism. Who cares if a jobsworth at the council wants to score points? You take on board any objectively useful points and move on, thanking the person for their feedback. You are focused on your purpose and you are bullet proof.
Of course you can continually improve, refine and modify your suit as you go. Like Tony Stark you may end up with dozens of different variants.
In Summary
Despite fairly incessant requests to fund the our budding young Tony Stark’s prototype development his father has remained tight-walleted. Consequently e has had to get by using cardboard alone – which, though useful at deflecting nerf-gun bullets from his brothers, probably wont be much use when repelling an alien invasion.
You don’t need any money, however, to build Iron Man armour for your mind. The soft technology of philosophy is available for free for you to build a suit that will not only help you survive in modern life, but actually give you superpowers. And although most of us live lives which by historical standards are blessed with huge abundance in material terms, in psychological terms life these days is hard – so we need all the superpowers we can get.
Tony Stark originally built his armour simply to survive after a piece of shrapnel from an explosion lodged near his heart. The suit keeps his heart beating, but over time enabled him to become Iron Man.
You may set out to build your own armour in order to provide yourself with protection in this new world we find ourselves in, but in doing so you too may find you end up with superpowers.
[Add postscript: missing ingredient is self love and…don’t take life to seriously].