So how do we discern our rules? Well, strange thing is, you still play by them. You actually can’t stop playing by them.

It’s interesting to see the way in which people make decisions inworld (Second Life) in this very freeing place where people can tap into their core being, but where so much social layering is also at play. Yes. It gets evens stranger here in Second Life, stranger and at times more wonderful, but this can be expressed in the “real world” as well.

But yes, we always play by our personal rules. We can’t help it. The problem is, as adults, we often don’t recognize them any more as our personal rules because we are immersed in the virtual reality of our social persona.

An example may clarify. People often have troubled work histories. There is a social hierarchy of supposedly optimal careers. In the meta-game everyone wants to get the highest paying job possible, no?

We’re biased to esteem them more even when we don’t know we are consciously doing so.

I was content with my profession. Excellent. Well, the troubled career hypothesis can perhaps still be illustrative. Though many try for the optimal career, they also find that their natural aptitudes sabotage their performance in the supposedly preferred career. Someone may have a powerful social inclination, and though their chosen career would involve socially isolating work, their social inclination will win out consistently, and often cost them that job.

Making them miserable at their non-social jobs? Yes, and making their work sub-par. It may take a while, but it won’t be a sustainable position, because their inner rules cannot actually be eliminated, or restricted. Breaking your own rules doesn’t mean you won’t achieve well, but you will always achieve better and more consistently when your personal heuristics and your conscious choices are in harmony.

So, this is what freedom is for? True freedom is living life according to your own rules, with the realization that you are not their author. If you have to actively invest yourself in maintenance of an attitude or frame of mind, it’s because it is unnatural to you.

Does analysis paralysis occur when we keep trying to ignore those personal rules? It does, yes.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~