When the world seems impossible…..
Fit in/drop out?
Adapt to ‘the system’/leave the system?
Accommodate to the world/imagine new worlds into being?
I write these as binaries — suggesting an either/or response. They’re actually dyads — two perspectives required for healthy growth.
We live in times of exceptional, unsustainable and inhuman stress. The societies we’ve inherited thrive on our distraction and anxiety. Those with power enrich themselves by manufacturing misery and selling us solutions.
It’s a very real crisis which is unfolding around and within us
We’re obliged to overwork simply to survive, let alone thrive. It impacts appallingly on mental and physical health, self-worth, community and family connectedness.
We commute and consume to fill the void of constant busy-ness, to the detriment of our environment, mental health and sense of self.
Most of us need a job to put food on the table. Too often the price of the job is unsustainable pressure, absurd time-expectations and a willingness to be treated like shit.
The system is not designed to serve us, but to serve abstract notions of efficiency and profitability.
People break.
Some years ago, I broke.
Now, as I work with people, the unsustainable pressure of contemporary life is one (of several) elephants in the room.
How should we respond — adapt or drop out?
As I say, it’s not a binary, but a dyad.
When, in daily life, in order to survive, you find your soul, health, passion and resilience crushed, your immediate need is to survive better. You need to keep putting food on the table, keep supporting those who rely on you, keep alive your sense of purpose and agency.
This is adaptation.
There’s some coaching and mental health approaches that suggest everything is about ‘changing your mindset’ — helping you survive inhuman systems at less cost.
This entrenches and normalises inhumanity.
It implies that the problem is in you, not in what’s being asked of you.
It privatises the problem.
It reminds me of corporations that grind their employees to dust, then offer a yoga session at the end of the week to help staff de-stress.
A university I used to work for, aware its staff were breaking, created an online ‘mental health’ training. Then they made it compulsory. It became one more thing overburdened staff had to find time to do, and feel patronised by. If they didn’t complete the ‘training’, they were punished. They were told their mental struggles were clearly their own fault. If they did complete it, and still struggled, they clearly weren’t tough enough.
The university did nothing to change the system it imposed and profited from. They required staff to become less human to survive an inhuman system.
What then of revolution — of refusing to be part of toxic systems?
It’s attractive and important to consider radical change in life. Even if it’s not possible in the short term, it’s often both possible and essential in the long term. Be like an artist – imagine somethign into existence through practical steps.
If I’m working with someone and they’re struggling, we look at how they can adapt better to what they currently need to do AND imagine a future in which they no longer face unsustainable demands.
For some, that means changing job or finding new communities.
For some it’s about shifting to a new career path.
For some it’s letting go of outdated ambitions and embracing a simpler life.
For some it’s recommitting to creativity.
For some it’s dropping out and radically reinventing what it means to live an aligned life.
Each finds a balance between adaptation and revolution.
If you only adapt to an inhuman system, the system will eventually mutate and crush you.
If you don’t adapt, you may not survive long enough (with your self-belief, health and passion for life intact), to invent a better way to live.
For most people I work with, adaptation and revolution both involve (re)finding connection with passion, purpose and creativity.
You could think of this as ‘thinking inside the box’ and ‘thinking outside the box’. I prefer not to, because that suggests the box is real and permanent.
I prefer this: adaptation is ‘thinking inside and outside the box’. Revolution is realising ‘the box’ is a story we tell ourselves, and we can imagine a different box, or no box at all, if we’re brave enough.
Adapt when you must. Transform when you’re able. The trick is to do both by healthy choice, not when forced to, by breakdown, burnout or existential crisis.
Wherever you are today, I hope you find moments of deep joy.
After thirty years performing, directing and teaching around the world, now I coach and mentor artists and others to live in joy and creativity.
I published a free training ‘How to make BIG decisions when you feel really stuck’. It’s a PDF and video. Get your copy here.
More information about me here: www.johnbritton.co
Email: [email protected]