Dear Human ... The Art of Being Meta ... Human

Ok, with that bold start, allow a brief story and how I hold this perspective...

Once upon a time, in a city far far away called Seattle, a human called Phillip created technology solutions and lived in a world of software. A term in that world that Phillip found useful is a term called "meta". This term was used to observe and describe and make sense of something called "data" (among other things) and thus the term "meta-data" was used.

In technology solutions, as framed here, we have data - something that we collect, manipulate, notice, analyze, refer to, are informed by, and interact with - the content. And we have Meta-data - the quality of, relevancy of, information about, observable nature of the data - the context.

Relating this data term to human, the human is the narrative (the data). The Meta-human observes the nature of the human in the narrative as she and the narrative occur.

The Meta of being human, then, is the one observing the human having the narrative.

Bringing in the opening statement again ... You are that, dear human, you are the one observing the human inside of the narrative and having the narrative. You are not the narrative and you are not the one having the narrative.

In software engineering this may be something we liken to an object model. Thus, imagine for a moment, by looking at the picture I included with this post. First, focus on the meta-human portion of the diagram for a moment. As you focus on the meta-human object, notice in the periphery, the object called human. It may appear slightly out of focus to you. You know it is there, however it is not your focus. It is not who you are. You are the one you are focusing on, the meta-human, knowing the human is there in the periphery.

The two objects are distinct and related at the same time. The question is, as you live your life, what is your focus? Where are you standing as you focus?

I knew this object model software engineering thingy would payoff some day and help me understand the nature of being human ... it only took a few decades and lots of drama and story telling and narratives to navigate to figure it out but hey, here I am ;-)

Today Ask Yourself …

Playfully Pragmatic …

In human coaching, the effectiveness of the coaching and the coaching relationship is directly related to a few factors. One of those factors is this distinction of my client being willing to examine where they are standing in their narratives. And to do that, they must first be willing to examine the narratives (the stories they tell themselves and others). And to do that, it means taking a look.

A consistent message in this Dear Human blog and BlogCast (podcast) is the message you hear me (and the cast) say ... "Ya gotta look, dear human".

One significant pivot, dear ones, is to examine your life (your narratives) as an observer. As the one looking. As the meta-human ... the one which is looking at the human having the experience.

Only from here, standing in and as the meta-human, will you see. And when you see, you can then intentionally create the narrative. In some realms this is called being the author of your life or "self-authoring".

So, for this "playfully pragmatic" part ... play around with curiosity by noticing what you may see as other peoples stories as you watch a movie.

Each character in a book or a movie is living a narrative that the writer intentionally created for that character. Imagine what it may be. Begin to name what that character in the movie believes and what stories they are telling themselves by observing what they say and what they do. Notice the discrepancies with what they say and do (the way they are in or out of integrity). Notice the impact the character is having on themselves and on other characters. Notice how the character attempts to manipulate their world (to seek approval, feel safe, control and be in control).

I recommend the movie "GroundHog Day" with Bill Murray as a fun way of noticing his character's journey for this exercise.

Next, pivot to examine you. Just as you played the observer of the character in the movie ... begin to be you the observer (you as meta-human) of you the character (you as human) in your own movie.

As you go through your days and weeks, take moments as the meta-human to notice the human that is thinking; that is talking; that is walking; that is feeling; that is having human experiences.

That is the journey, dear human. This journey of becoming and being you the meta-human so that you may author and transform your life to the life you want and the world you want.

My hope is, by sharing this object model from my software engineering days and translating it into what is happening in our human reality, you begin to see ... You ... Dear ... Human. And in that seeing, you create Life from the Meta-Human you are.

Please reach out with questions, thoughts, and observations by posting a comment available on these blog pages.