Many of you know that Peter and are running Cohort 3 of Beyond Self-discipline on September 3rd. Today I want to share some raw thoughts on why it’s been hard for me to tell more people about it. Skip this email if the idea of self-conscious, meta-anti-marketing makes you uncomfortable.
I’ll start by saying that I’m very proud of what Peter and I have created. I have no problem selling something I’m proud of. I’ve seen it dramatically improve the lives of our past students and I know there are a lot of you out there that would benefit from the experience.
You can read about BSD here and you can sign up here. We are closing registration this Wednesday (11:59pm EST tomorrow).
But in my heart of hearts, I feel that courses (cohort-based or otherwise) aren’t really the answer. Something about the business model feels off for what we’re trying to do.
You definitely don’t need more information (e.g. a standard course). You probably don’t even need a well-crafted virtual experience (e.g. a cohort-based course).
You likely need more courage to trust your instincts. You definitely need some friends to help along the way.
Modern people are alienated from their instincts. Our consumption-oriented society exacerbates this. People think they are one book, article or course away from “figuring it all out.”
I don’t want to encourage consumption by marketing something to you. Standard marketing practices highlight an inner sense of lack and then promise that a product will fulfill it.
Modern people are also alienated from each other. Hyper-individualism makes us assume we’re supposed to do it alone. We think life is a single-player game. Here’s an alternative thesis:
At it’s core Beyond Self-Discipline is an experiment aimed at:
Helping people embody their instinctive wisdom with an ecology of practices.
Engendering friendships of virtue to help with execution.
It feels weird to market and sell instincts and friendship.
But I want to provide a place where people find both. I want to do it in a way that’s sustainable. I want to pour my time into getting it right. Truthfully, I want to generate a lot of revenue so I can make it my priority. Does that mean I need to market and sell the experience?
Maybe.
Maybe not. Maybe there are ways to create and sustain new things while going off-script. The current scripts don’t seem to be leading us in a good direction anyway.
With all that being said, BSD3 starts this Saturday and I’m very excited for it. We have a great group already.
This time around we are prioritizing practices around thumos. An old greek term for embodied spiritedness and passion. Each participant will also launch something (e.g. a book, a podcast, an album, etc).
You can learn more about it here.
— Daniel
For myself, I find that heart-centred processes are defo more friendship related. For me, it's about opening and trusting, I find it a slow journey. But there are also gut-centred processes. And I think for those it's more likely you will really need support. I agree that a lot of development stuff is marketed according to modern formulae and so can get regarded negatively, through the associating quality of our mind. But the way of marketing doesn't necessarily make a statement about the practice.
Preach! I'll join the next cohort, promise. I'm on my 3rd listen through Dr. Terry Real's book "Us" and am marinating in the relational space as my catalyst for unleashing ALL that is my/our potential. You're doing big magic--keep it up!