My Mental Model to Perpetually Grow

How can I engage in activity that builds upon itself to accelerate me faster along this journey to a better place for all? What is my mental model to perpetually grow in the direction I’ve set?

Flywheels are large wheels that store significant amounts of angular momentum to keep systems moving steadily even as they face small bumps and drops in engine output. As it relates to strategy, your flywheel can be the framework you use to build momentum along your preferred path and inform what you invest in to accelerate you in that direction.

This post shares my “flywheels” to grow for me, for you, and for love. It builds upon the drivers originally defined in my first draft North Star post – now added to my evolving North Star page.

Flywheels for Me & for You

It starts for me on the left with (1) learning and sharing my human mind to motivate me to (2) live healthily to strengthen the heart and physical body along with the mind. As I pay attention to my mind and heart, I (3) breathe slowly to remain calm and strengthen my lungs which in turn helps the rest of the body. These all improve the likelihood of a longer life which I (4) spend wisely to prepare for while also spending on events to build memories and (5) connect deeply with those I love. As I connect with others, I become even more driven to learn and share which spins my wheel faster.

On the right, for you, it also starts with (1) learning and sharing the mind but now it is others’ minds! This brings hope and fuels my curiosity to go out and (2) explore happily into the world to spread that hope. As I explore, I am reminded by the needs of others and that hording resources doesn’t help me or the world. So I (3) share tangibly my goods and income with others which enables (4) deeper connection with the people around me. These connections provide access to others’ minds to learn and share and spin this wheel even faster.

These two flywheels, one for me and one for you, intersect to deepen my love. True love between two people requires a mutual and dual focus of each finding ways to grow as individuals for themselves and for the other. If one were to do it all for the other, they wouldn’t ever inspire and motivate each other with the example they set; and if they did it all for themselves there would never be that opportunity for deeper connection and growth as one shared love. Timeless love occurs when we align the activity for oneself in a direction to support the activity for the other which circularly supports oneself and then deepens the bond and love between the two. That is what I hope my two flywheels do!

Drivers & KPIs

Let’s expand on each of the steps in the above flywheel with more definition on the activity and how we can measure progress in each with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Five of the seven were included in the first sharing of my “North Star,” so I will lead with two new ones identified in the process of thinking through this mental model:

1. Explore happily. Go out into the world with a smile on your face with the aim to share that joy and calmness with others you come across. When someone walks by you on the sidewalk, intentionally look to connect with a simple smile and friendly hello. Use your body language and tone to let others know you are there with them, they belong, and they are seen. Look to leave an impression on them that will stay with them for hours afterwards, helping them to feel uplifted from that passing interaction with you. Reflect at the end of the day on how many people you connected eyes who seemed moved, also reflect on how many seemed to avoid connection to understand the fear that still exists in others and may need your help to diffuse by building hope for a better shared future.
2. Share tangibly. You must also share measurable and tangible goods such as monetary resources, and rarely used and unneeded possessions that someone else could benefit more from. Donate 10% of my bottom-line income (the amount otherwise going fully to your net worth) to non-profit organizations. Measure how often you clean out the closets and identify clothes, toys, and other possessions that you aren’t using to donate to someone else.

The following are the rest of my drivers (but not net new if you’ve read my previous posts).

1. Connect deeply. Spend quality time with the ones you love, it gives you energy and it gives others energy. Ultimately it is directly driving progress toward making this world a more loving and hopeful place. Do it more! Prioritize those smiles with your children over sending that email/Slack at 6PM. Measure how often you connect with your loved ones and friends. Measure your time.
2. Learn and share the mind. Live to learn (read) and share (write). Measure how much you read and how much you write. Don’t limit yourself to writing publicly, somethings are best kept private but still helpful to write down and work through, so journal as well as blog!
3. Live healthily. A dead person doesn’t add any more new information and perspective to an evolving world. Don’t die yet! Pay attention to what you consume and how you move your body. Track how many miles a day you move to stay fit for yourself and your family.
4. Breathe slowly (through your nose). Remain calm. Stop and pause to breathe and think before speaking and acting. Don’t react, anticipate and consider the consequences. Measure your resting heart rate and breathing rate to track how wisely and patiently you act.
5. Spend wisely. Earn and save money to fund your life’s future but do so to balance the unknown needs of the future with the known needs of today. Track your after tax monthly income, your disposable income (subtract expenditures on food, shelter, health, other staples), and your bottom line contributions to your net worth. But also track capital expenditures in a good way, make a target for what you want to spend on “big” purchases and vacations to make sure you balance enjoying the now while preparing for the future.

Next Steps to Spin the Flywheels

Now that I have a North Star to aim towards and a mental model in how to focus to get there, I can formalize and share my sequential steps I’m taking now, next, and later.

First, it’s important to recognize the momentum I have in (1) identifying my purpose: to help make the world more hopeful, happy, loving, and communal, and (2) finally getting back into writing to share and evolve my mind! I should build upon this momentum with my ongoing and future activity.

Now, I am mechanizing my growth drivers by scheduling annual and recurring traditions like a block party in my neighborhood or meetups with close friends we don’t have the chance to see much anymore. I’m also mechanizing the health tracking with a Fitbit, developing a cadence to my reading and writing, and automating financial tracking and donations.

These will be reinforced with recurring goal reviews to keep me honest and draw my attention to the activity I said matters and is needed to grow. By reviewing these on a regular cadence I can motivate myself where I am noticing a lack of effort and/or evolve my strategy as I see what is and isn’t working.

Next, I want to build and launch a hopeful AI (see my chat page) trained off hopeful writing from not just me but other past leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. This will be enjoyable and educational to research the writings of these great minds as I look to train the AI off them. I also want to start sharing the spoken words via a podcast with a friend that will, if nothing else, help force the two of us to connect on a regular basis to talk about the meaning of life.

All of this activity is to work in the direction toward sparking a movement to be part a 21st century renaissance. I’m not yet sure what this looks like, but I know I want to be part of a group of people working together to understand what it means to be human and sharing that with the world around them!