Chapter 7
SAL Life Variables
Have you ever faced a debilitating challenge only to hear someone say: "You just need to have a better attitude, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and make it happen!"
On other occasions, however, this same approach could potentially be ignorant, misguided, and perhaps even insulting. Oversimplifying human problems can be problematic—just as overcomplicating, or ignoring them altogether, can likewise be troublesome.
Self-Action Leadership does not translate into human omniscience or omnipotence, nor does it exist to suggest that solving complex problems is possible by merely "changing your attitude," "pumping yourself up," or "working harder." Other variables—both internal and external—exist to produce a variety of human difficulties and problems as well as opportunities and potential. It is important that these additional variables are taken into account as part of our SAL problem-solving calculus.
At Freedom Focused, we have identified 17 SAL Life Variables that produce limitations and/or benefits to your potential as a self-action leader. SAL Life Variables are defined as: variables over which we have varying degrees of control and influence that influence the results we get in our lives.
SAL LIFE VARIABLES
SAL Variables
- Forces of Nature
- Congenital Physical Variables
- Congenital Family Environment
- Congenital Social Environment
- Congenital Intelligence & Talent
- Initial Opportunities for Education
- Good and Bad Luck
- Genetic and Mimetic Inclinations
- Choices of Others
- Time
- Structural Inequality
- Geopolitics and Macroeconomics
- Suprarational Intervention (aka SERENDIPITY)
- Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
- Desire
- Developed Intelligence & Talent
- Will Power
Before diving headlong into a discussion of these 17 SAL Life Variables, it is crucial that we make one thing crystal clear. The purpose of introducing these 17 variables into our discussion of SAL is not to give you a pocketful of excuses for why you can't achieve, grow, and earn freedom in your life. The purpose is merely to keep you grounded in the way things really are (reality) in this imperfect and often unfair world. Exploring these variables as they personally relate to YOU will enable and empower you along your journey to SELF-KNOWLEDGE. This is a good thing because self-knowledge—and the self-awareness derived therefrom—lies at the very basis of SAL.
More than two millennia ago, that great Greek philosopher—Socrates—famously encouraged and invited mankind to join him along the pathways of self-knowledge by uttering two simple words, as follows: Know Thyself. His terse injunction—so richly adorned with wisdom—is as important today as it was in 399 B.C.
"Know Thyself."
While the SAL Philosophy openly and liberally espouses hope and optimism in even the direst of situations and circumstances, its dual aim is to keep your eyes wide open to difficult and painful facts about real life. The goal of this balanced approach is to avoid both pessimism and unbridled optimism in favor of optimistic REALISM.
What do I mean when I say: "unbridled optimism?"
The following example by Tony Robbins helps to illustrate the definition of this term.
Robbins once remarked that it does no good to go out into your garden and proclaim: "There are no weeds, there are no weeds, there are no weeds!" Such is the error of unbridled optimism. Instead, he encourages us to identify the weeds and then take action to remove them, after which we can realistically report the progress our garden has made through our caring and optimistic planning and efforts.
In addressing the subject of SAL life variables, we must begin by acknowledging and recognizing that every human being is extraordinarily unique. Each one of us possesses a singular combination of genetic and mimetic variables that is unlike any other person.
Just think of that!
Among the tens of billions of people who have lived throughout recorded history, YOU are truly one-of-a-kind. The life experiences of every human being are uniquely impacted by one's own singular blend of these seventeen SAL Life Variables, otherwise known as a person's benefits and limitations formula, or one's SAL Variables Quotient.
SAL VARIABLES' QUOTIENT
A person's unique blend of genetic and mimetic benefits and limitations.
In explicating these 17 variables, it's crucial to remember that so-called "limitations" and "benefits" should be interpreted primarily as potential limitations and potential benefits. Just because a person is born (or otherwise placed) into a circumstantial or situational limitation or benefit does not mean it will always exist. You've undoubtedly met someone who has, over time, either transcended a limitation—or squandered a benefit—with which they were born or otherwise situated. So again, we introduce these variables not to provide a list of excuses for why you can't achieve or obtain. We introduce them simply to further enable and empower us to see things as they really are and thereby set goals and visions within a framework of reality as opposed to unbridled optimism, which is also known as "wishful thinking."
With this introduction in mind, let's now define and dig a little deeper into the 17 SAL Life Variables by providing a definition for each variable in conjunction with examples of its accompanying limitations and benefits.
1). Forces of Nature
Definition: Natural forces that govern the physical world and universe.
Limitations: Extremities of temperature and weather and other naturally occurring incidents that cause damage, difficulties, and disasters.
Benefits: Mild, pleasant weather and ideal temperatures, and a lack of natural disasters.
Note on Natural Laws: Laws of physics, chemistry, and biology are not benefits or limitations in and of themselves; however, our understanding of and capability to harness and direct those forces can, in-turn become limitations or benefits. For example: the law of gravity is sometimes perceived as a limitation (i.e. we are stuck on the ground). But, if we understand the laws of levitation and/or flight and work with the law, it can become a benefit (i.e. we can now bungee jump, fly, skydive, etc.).
2). Congenital Physical Variables
Definition: Your atomic, biological, chemical, genetic, and physiological makeup at birth.
Limitations: Congenital disabilities, disorders, and illnesses; disadvantages of height, weight, or physical appearance; lack of athletic abilities and other physical talents, etc.
Benefits: Congenital health and well-being; endowments of height, weight, physical appearance; athletic ability and other physical talents, etc.
Note: These stated limitations and benefits are generic examples and assume said states lead to a pre-supposed outcome. However, depending on a given situation, circumstance, attitude, outlook, or perception, such assumptions could, in fact, be reversed. Suffice it to say, a limitation and/or a benefit is often interpreted subjectively based on "the eye of the beholder."
3). Congenital Familial Environment
Definition: Your family circumstances at birth.
Limitations: Poverty, abuse, neglect, malnutrition, single-parent families, absent or uncaring parents, etc.
Benefits: Love, support, safety, security, encouragement, moral guidance, etc.
4). Congenital Social Environment
Definition: The familial and social environment into which you are born.
Limitations: Growing up amongst people who predominantly exemplify negative and destructive actions and habits, such as: cowardice, dishonesty, disloyalty, disrespect, erratic behavior, ill-temperedness, impulsivity, unfaithfulness, emotional immaturity, myopia, etc.
Benefits: Growing up amongst people who predominantly exemplify positive and constructive actions and habits, such as: courage, honesty, loyalty, respect, stability, kindness, self-discipline, fidelity, emotional intelligence, vision, etc.
5). Congenital Intelligence & Talent
Definition: The intellectual and talent potential at-brith based upon your genetic makeup alone.
Limitations: Some people are born with a less-endowed IQ and TQ (talent quotient) than others.
Benefits: Some people are born with a more-endowed IQ and TQ than others.
6). Initial Opportunities for Education
Definition: The opportunities for education provided to you by your parents and/or guardians/caregivers prior to entering adulthood.
Limitations: Lack of formal educational opportunities and/or a lack or absence of parental encouragement, enthusiasm, mentoring, modeling, and support.
Benefits: Opportunities to receive high quality public or private schooling, tutoring, mentoring, coaching; the chance to participate in extracurricular activities; strong educational reinforcement and support at home; and well-educated parents, caregivers, and role models.
7). Good and Bad Luck
Definition: Seemingly arbitrary and capricious events that occur beyond the influence of your own thoughts, speech, and actions.
Limitations: Bad luck—everyone experiences it to some degree in life.
Benefits: Good luck—everyone experiences it in some degree life.
Note: It has often been said that you "make your own luck" over time. Put another way: "The harder you work, the luckier you get" is another common refrain of an optimistic outlook. At Freedom Focused, we very much support the sentiment shared in these statements. However, objectively speaking, the "luck" that we as self-action leaders create over time isn't really "luck" as we define it above because that kind of "luck" is influenced by our thoughts, speech, and actions.
8). Genetic and Mimetic Inclinations
Definition: Inborn and learned inclinations from your parents and/or caregivers/guardians.
Limitations: Addictions, bad habits, and other negative habits and practices that are either innate or learned, such as: cowardice, dishonesty, disloyalty, disrespect, erratic behavior, ill-temperedness, impulsivity, unfaithfulness, emotional immaturity, myopia, etc.
Benefits: Positive habits and inclinations that are either innate or learned, such as: courage, honesty, loyalty, respect, stability, kindness, self-discipline, fidelity, emotional intelligence, vision, etc.
Note: A better—and more accurate—way of framing genetic and mimetic "limitations" would be to employ the word "challenges." This is because human beings possess the capacity to transcend many genetic and mimetic inclinations through SAL and SERENDIPITY over time, thereby turning limitations into benefits.
9). Choices of Others
Definition: The thoughts, speech, and actions of those around you who impact or influence your life.
Limitations: Abuse, abandonment, deception, insensitivity, irresponsibility, profligacy, thoughtlessness, etc.
Benefits: Courtesy, compassion, fidelity, integrity, sensitivity, responsibility, wisdom, thoughtfulness, etc.
10). Time
Definition: The passage of one moment to the next throughout the duration of your physical existence in this world.
Limitations: It's finite quality.
Benefits: It's existence.
11). Structural Inequality
Definition: Having the "cards" stacked unfairly against you because of certain immutable characteristics such as: ethnicity, race, religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation, etc.
Limitations: Stifled opportunities due to your possession of certain immutable and other characteristics.
Benefits: Expanded opportunities due to your possession of certain immutable and other characteristics.
12). Geopolitics & Macroeconomics
Definition: The broad and complex interplay of economics and politics throughout one's community, region, state, nation, and world.
Limitations: Residence and/or citizenship in areas marked by corruption, poverty, scarcity, war, etc.
Benefits: Residence and/or citizenship in areas marked by integrity, affluence, abundance, peace, etc.
13). Suprarational Intervention (aka SERENDIPITY)
Definition: Serendipitous and rationally inexplicable events that provide you with benefits, blessings, favors, gifts, and opportunities.
Limitations: A lack of Serendipitous aid.
Benefits: A surfeit of Serendipitous aid.
Note: At Freedom Focused, we believe that Serendipity blesses us according to our needs and wants and is conditioned upon our willingness to care for others and faithfully attend to our Existential Duties. Given this paradigm, a lack of Serendipitous Aid may result from one's own failure to care for others and attend to their duties.
14). Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1)
Definition: A hierarchy of needs' paradigm set forth by Abraham Maslow in a groundbreaking academic paper published in 1943. It posits that primary needs such as safety, shelter, food, clothing, acceptance, and love must be met before one can reasonably aspire to and meet higher (secondary) needs such as self-esteem, advanced cognitive development, and self-actualization.
Limitations: If you are born or otherwise face unmet primary (lower) needs, you will have greater difficulty aspiring towards and realizing secondary (higher) needs.
Benefits: If you are born with or otherwise have your primary needs fulfilled, you will have greater success aspiring towards and realizing secondary needs.
15). Desire
Definition: An inner yearning to achieve, obtain, or become something.
Limitations: Possessing a scarcity of desire to work hard, sacrifice, and otherwise pay the price required to earn Existential Growth, Balance, and personal freedom.
Benefits: Possessing an abundance of desire to work hard, sacrifice, and otherwise pay the price required to earn Existential Growth, Balance, and personal freedom.
Note: Of all the topics addressed in this comprehensive Life Leadership textbook, human desire is perhaps the most enigmatic. This is because it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly why a given person does or does not desire something. In addition to being the most mysterious subject addressed in this text, it is also the most important, for without it, nothing else goes, succeeds, or works. It is an absolutely indispensable ingredient in everything that we do on the altars of pursuing achievement, contentment, growth, freedom, fulfillment, happiness, success, inner peace, etc.
Desire is categorized as being a variable over which we have some control or influence, but not all. While you can't control how you feel, you can control what you do about how you feel. As a result, you do have a measure of influence over your desires and feelings by virtue of what you choose to do.
16). Developed Intelligence & Talent
Definition: The intelligence and talent a self-action leader develops through discipline, focus, hard work, consistence, persistence, and determination.
Limitations: Theoretically, there is no limit to the potential development of a given person's intellect and talent. Thus, the only real limitation to this variable is your own desire and will to pursue it.
Benefits: The benefits are potentially endless, and are conditional on one's desire and will to pursue it.
17). Will Power
Definition: The inner resolve and determination required to carry out a given act or series of actions.
Limitations: Some people have weaker wills than others. The reason is sometimes quite mysterious and hearkens back to the enigma of desire.
Benefits: Some people have stronger wills than others. The reason is likewise mysterious and hearkens back to the enigma of desire.
As you review this list of 17 SAL Live Variables, you will notice that some limitations and benefits are congenital, meaning a person is born with the limitation or benefit. Others depend on what you do (or don't do) after your life begins. These 17 variables can therefore be divided into three basic categories, as follows:
Category 1: Variables you cannot control
- Forces of Nature
- Congenital Physical Variables
- Congenital Familial Environment
- Congenital Social Environment
- Congenital Intelligence and Talent
- Initial Opportunities for Education
- Good and Bad Luck
Category 2: Variables over which you possess some influence
- Genetic and mimetic inclincations
- Choices of others
- Time
- Structural Inequality
- Geopolitics and Macroeconomics
- Suprarational Intervention (SERENDIPITY)
- Hierarchy of Needs
- Desire
Category 3: Variables you can control
- Developed Intelligence and Talents
- Will
As you review this list, you will notice that of these 17 variables, there are only two that you can actually consistently control. At first glance, it might be deflating and disappointing to discover just how much you can't control in your life in this world.
But you should never underestimate the power of your DESIRE and WILL.
Likewise, you never underestimate the power of variables over which you have little or no control.
While it's true that some bad things happen because YOU act in foolish and irresponsible ways, it's also true that some bad things happen because other people act irresponsibly and foolishly—or because external events occur beyond your control. Moreover, disabilities, abuse, and structural inequality undoubtedly pose great obstacles for many. Such challenges can sometimes seem insurmountable, overwhelming, and disillusioning to the very best of us.
That is the bad news.
The GOOD NEWS is that no matter how bad you may have had it in the past, or how rough things might be in the present, you can always choose to make the best of what you have moving forward forever into the future. Self-action leaders continually strive to do their best with what they have wherever they are.
SAL Mantra
At any moment in you life or career, YOU can decide to create a better life for yourself and your loved ones. You can also work to enhance the opportunities that your children and posterity (and/or the offspring of your friends and loved ones) can enjoy for generations to come.
In many cases, your control over other people and things is either nonexistent or drastically limited. Your control over your own thoughts, speech, and actions, however, provides a perpetual opportunity to achieve, grow, and earn additional balance and freedom in your life. As such, your freedom to choose empowers you to dramatically improve your external circumstances over time—if you decide to take advantage of it. In the stirring words of Plutarch and Otto Rank: What you achieve inwardly changes your outer reality.
SAL Mantra
- Have I over-reported any of my limitations? If so, why?
- Have I under-reported any of my benefits? If so, why?
- What can I do to see things more accurately and objectively in my education, career, and life?
- What can I do to transcend past abuse, disappointments, disillusionments, frustrations, ignorings, rejections, etc., in a way that could potentially turn my limitations into benefits?
—Dr. JJ
Author's Note: This is the 388th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 199th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 387 FF Blog Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL QUOTES
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS
Click HERE to access the FULL TEXT of Dr. JJ's Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection
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Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.
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Chapter 7 Notes:
1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs refers to a model of human progress developed in the early 1940s by the American psychologist, Abraham Maslow (1908-1970). Maslow’s famous theory states that all human beings are motivated by a hierarchy of needs, and that lower needs must be met before higher needs can motivate. His hierarchy is often presented visually as a triangle model with basic human needs forming the base and higher human needs forming the top. His five basic needs include Survival needs (Level One), Safety needs (Level Two), Love needs (Level Three), Esteem needs (Level Four), and Self-Actualization needs (Level Five).
2. Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. New York, NY: Fireside. Pages 71 & 92.
3. I first heard a similar statement to this by my friend, Dr. Nathaniel J. Williams. Dr. Williams' own SAL story is featured in BOOK the SIXTH, Chapter 6.
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