While driving from my remote „home office“ place to one of my customers for „physical presence“, while listening to one of Dr. Joe Dispenza books, I wondered about what if it is so much easier to create extraordinary output when you are physically committed first and then mentally?
Typically all the self-help books and motivational gurus talk about being first strongly committed in your mind, being mentally focused blablabla so that you can strive and be successful. But what if, if this is just the 2nd best option? And what would be the problem resulting from, if we all only commit even more virtually and mentally in AR and upcoming metaverses?
Let me explain a bit, what I mean with being „physically committed“. Slowly over the last decades we realized, that we cannot see body and mind as two sperate entities. It’s one. And if you would add them, it would be rather a 1+1>2. There is so much entanglement, that we still not fully understand, how this in detail works as a unit. To simplify, we always break things down so that we can understand a complex system. So we say body, brain, mind and so on. And we have even different types of doctors for each part of it. And especially our brain, being just „one piece“ has different doctors to deal with different functions. Guess what, this doesn’t sound right to me. Many chefs in the kitchen will guarantee a mediocre dinner…
We are one entity and body and mind do significantly influence each other. We even can use this to our advantage. Let’s not forget, our bodies and brains evolved over millions of years in a very physical harsh demanding environment. Also our senses mainly developed to work in a physical world: Smell, taste, touch, pain etc. Hence we depend very much on our body and its influence on our brain to get things done. Imagine millions of years of evolution. Millions. That’s a really long time. Like a lockdown period times…..eh million!
Still with me? Ok, let’s talk about getting things done. When is it the easiest to get things done? Well, when you are motivated, you kinda feel it, you are energized and you are in an environment which creates the perfect room (and/or energy) for you to strive. Then we also feel very often flow, we are on the zone. Or is it really the physical presence in the environment, which triggers that energy to strive? Let’s check some examples:
- When I physically made the effort to drive to the gym, I typically get my workout done. (Look, I do this for decades now and I promise to you, that I am not intrinsically extraordinary motivated to get myself busted in an hardcore WOD, I just have enough energy to get my stuff and hop into the car, the rest does pretty much the environment for me).
- When I put my handwritten signature on a contract, I am truly committed. (We do this for thousands of years.)
- When I give you a handshake, you can count on me. (We do this for thousands of years.)
- When I’m physically in the office and the environment is fruitful, I create better outcomes. (Works as well in the home office, if you have a separate fancy room being your energetic home office.)
- When I’m fighting in a war at the frontline, I’ll do my very best to not get killed or to fulfill the mission.
- When I physically commit myself in front of many people to someone in a special place (aka marry) I am more committed than without being married. (There are studies proofing this…)
- When I am physically sitting at my client’s office I am more committed to put in the extra work. (I’m not saying the output is better, I am talking about commitment. However there’s for sure a reason, why onsite consulting engagements get better larger and more complex things accomplished).
- When I feel physically close to someone, I am more committed to that person.
- Monkeys „buy credit“ from higher ranked individuals, by providing physical commitment services („I clean your fur, and you defend me in the next dispute.“)
- Most records (world, olympic, personal) are made under special physical circumstances: Not in the training or at home, but out there in the arena.
- When a real Werwolf wants to eat me, I’m more committed to run, than when I’m sitting infront of my TV and watch American Werwolf.
- When I do a presentation on stage, I’m not just feeling the energy in the room, I’m also more anxious than doing it virtually.
Sounds and feels somehow logically, right? If we are in the middle of something, physically present in the right setup, we strive to survive or better: We strive to thrive. So why do we treat it so many times differently, better the other way around? Very often we start with the mind: Oh, I don’t feel like it. I must be mentally motivated. I imagine, this is so complicated. This is not the right moment. The list of (mind) excuses goes on and on.
Of course it also works from mind to body, but evolution worked the other way around on us: From body to mind. Or more specifically: From environment, to body, to mind. Our brain is nothing more than a big prediction AI: Environment – check. Body reactions/feelings – check. Memories – check. Brain („free will“): Ok, let’s do this (or not). So being at presence in the right environment is super important if we want to be successful in something. At least until we upgraded our minds to the next level. We are still social animals and we evolved mainly physically, too.
So if you want to get sh*t done, focus on your physical commitment first, the mental one will follow. Promised. So hit the gym, go to the office, marry that person, drive to that hotel room to write your book, book that personal trainer for a physical session, move to Berlin to found this start-up etc.
Back to our professional lives: How does this impact the so called future of work? Well, don’t expect extraordinary outcomes (especially when things gone south), when everybody is remote. And be aware you cannot fix this with money, because people don’t function like this. If the drone pilot is pissed by its commander or s/he thinks her/his salary is shit, s/he will „quit the game“. The soldier in the battle has a slightly higher threshold to „quit the game“. Even if both fight in the same war.
You can have and build a kick-ass working culture, but without physical presence you won’t (yet) succeed. Look at all the video gamers: If in one point of time the game sucks or is unfair, they will quit and look for another one. Bye bye dear loved gilde, I’ll join another tribe. Very human behavior.
Our mind evolved out of the very long and intense entanglement between our body and brain as well as the physical environment around us. For million of years. Your environment, body and memories are „creating“ your mind, not the other way around…so if you commit physically first the rest will follow.
The implications are obvious: You have to create physical experiences to get extraordinary results. And for the metaverse this means, without addressing all of our senses, we are not yet there to beat physical reality and overcome real world challenges. And I personally think this is a very good thing. At least for our human species called homo sapiens.
Same applies btw. for recovery and recharge: We naturally seek the presence of nature. Our bodies are craving for it. Sunrise, sunset, oceans, mountains, animals and plants are the environment, where we really thrive as human beings. Because it shaped us who we truly are. We physically committed ourseveles without knowing it already millions of years ago.
However the tipping point will be in this century. But that’s another story.
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