Reinventing Yourself - Step II. - The Avatar (part II.)
Build Your NEW SELF step by step with this UNCONVENTIONAL METHOD
Imagine: You’re coming to your personal workroom.
You enter that sacred space and close the big two-winged door. A smell of ambition, purpose and adventure lingers in the air. Something big is about to happen.
The best thing about it?
You don’t have to own anything.
Not the big room, not a wide work-desk, not even the two-winged magnificent doors.
You enter this room simply by the means of your imagination - your greatest tool.
Wherever you’re, whenever you want to enter it, it’s there for you.
Ready to put your creative powers in use.
This room is mental, not physical.
It’s yours and yours ONLY.
You are now the artist and your mind is your sacred workplace.
Design it however you want & get ready.
We got some work to do.
Prepare Your Instruments
In the last episode AVATAR - PART ONE we pointed out which necessities you should take care of, before you dive deep into the crafting process.
First, there are requirements: Strategic Detachment & Resolute Creativity.
Secondly, there are three aspects you should be very clear about:
a) What you say YES to (what you want)
b) What you say NO to (what you don’t want)
c) What’s your ultimate goal (what exactly should the result look like)
Before you read any further it’s necessary that you understand the requirements and have firmly set, ideally written down, all these essential decisions.
If you missed the preceding episode or aren’t ready to do the work yet, you can check the first part of Avatar Creation here:
Reinventing Yourself - Step II. - The Avatar (part I.)
"The formula of my happiness: a Yes, a No, a straight line, a goal."
If, however, you’re ready, then grab your notes, re-awake your mind & let’s waste no more time.
Avatar Creation - Set & Define the Domains
You already know the overall nature of the creative process. You know what attitude you should choose to make the final product and the promethean journey as majestic as possible.
Now we get to the real nuts and bolts of the Self-Reinvention process.
By setting and clearly defining the details of what we’ll call the “Domains”, you’ll step by step turn your mental vision into a clearly formed new persona.
The Domains represent various personal characteristics of your new Avatar.
Your Avatar is shaped by the following categories:
Behavioural Domain
Physical Domain
Existential Domain
Social Domain
Let’s define each of these one by one.
a) Behavioural Domain
The reset question: How do I act/behave?
How you behave is probably almost the single most important determinant of your life.
It dictates both the active and the passive flow of your existence. Let me clarify.
THE ACTIVE ASPECT of your behaviour dictates how you deal with the “givens” (genetics, talents, physical or mental deficiencies) and circumstances (whatever you experience in life). Whatever we cannot change shouldn’t bother us too much, but what we can change - and that’s most thing in our life - we should strive to do so.
THE PASSIVE ASPECT of the way you act is that it determines how others treat you.
In the astounding book 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene one of the laws says “Be Royal in Your Own Fashion - Act like a King to be treated like one.”
Think about it.
Your behaviour is the aura you radiate into the outside world.
How you act determines the quality of your life & how others treat you.
In the end the behavioural change comes back to the all important word - ATTITUDE.
b) Physical Domain
The reset question: What does my image say about me?
Looks speak volume. It’s pointless whether it’s right or wrong, moral or immoral. Humans are visual beings. We do judge the book by its cover. We just do.
I recall a witty quote by Ryan Holiday, the founder of Daily Stoic, who in one his book The Perennial Seller wrote:
“Of course we judge the book by its cover. That’s why it has one!”
-Ryan Holiday (The Perennial Seller)
It’s the same case with our image.
It speaks for us before our tongue does.
Another rule you should keep in mind is this: The more silent the tongue, the louder the looks.
When creating your Avatar think of these aspects of the Physical Domain:
body/physique
body language (also an aspect of behavior)
fashion
community associated with your chosen image/looks
c) Existential Domain
The reset question: What do I want to live and die for & how do I want to be remembered?
Looking at the reset question you probably feel a bit overwhelmed. That’s fine. It shouldn’t be easy to define these. But it’s extremely important to do so. The answers you come up with are the true cornerstones of your new Avatar and of the new future life.
What do you want to live and die for should consist of your innermost beliefs.
Having a personal credo or mantra you return to in difficult times is a very effective tool to both cope with life’s struggles and means to clarify your existential domain.
How do you want to be remembered sounds lofty as Lichtenstein’s family names, but it can simply mean how relatives, friends, family or your spouse would describe you after you’re gone. It doesn’t have to be some worldwide known “legacy you leave behind for this world”.
When creating your Avatar think of these aspects of the Existential Domain:
beliefs & convictions
core mindset & attitude
character traits
personal credo & mantra
life mission/purpose
your service to other people & influence on their lives
d) Social Domain
The reset question: Who do I want to be like & who do I want to be associated with?
As Nietzsche says:
“He who cannot find solitude should beware of community.”
— Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On the Flies of the Marketplace”
You are who you associate with.
By the same token you should be very picky about who you call your friend.
The people you spend your time with influence and shape your Avatar in two ways.
INTERNAL - Their habits, beliefs, manners and overall attitude rub off on your character. Even when you try to consciously mitigate their influence on you.
The more time you spend with them and stronger the emotional bond, the stronger their shaping powers are.
EXTERNAL - Whom you spend your time with also affects your reputation.
Whether justified or not people judge others by their company - be it single persons, clubs, work colleagues, religious and political parties etc.
Before you befriend anyone and associate with them regularly, think of the kind of their internal influence and of the light they cast on your new Avatar.
What’s Next?
It’s a lot, huh? I know. But it’s not something you can do in one sitting.
Creating your Avatar is a life-long continuous project.
Take as much time as you need.
It definitely takes a lot of hard work.
But it’s also hard work that should be fun and make you feel more alive than ever.
Define these core Domains and their aspects, write everything down in great details and a clear picture of your New Self (The Second Nature) will soon emerge.
Once you have done that, you’ll be ready for the final step - Transformation.
Until then…
Thank you for reading & see you soon,
fellow thinkers !
YouTube: Nietzsche Academy