Choose again

Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment.

— Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor

A need to change

I can remember the first time I decided I wanted to be a better person. I was in my early twenties, and I was applying for a job as a systems analyst with a company in Wellington. I was a reasonably confident young man, and I had positive expectations of getting the job. I didn’t!

It turned out I was rejected because the psychometric tests I had undertaken indicated “selfish tendencies and an unwillingness to cooperate in larger groups”. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe I was that kind of person. I didn’t want to be that kind of person. For several weeks I felt quite depressed by the whole experience.

That was the first time I can remember wanting to be a better person. I wanted to make an effort to work on myself to develop the qualities that would allow me to feel prouder of myself. Ever since that time I have been consciously trying to live with a greater sense of mastery and authorship over my self and my life. Understanding how to do this, for myself and for others, has been a life-long passion.

A few months after losing that job I ended up getting another job with the same company. This time I had applied for a more technical role as an Analyst programmer. That was the start of my career as a technologist. Since I first discovered technology I have always loved and I feel excited about its amazing ability to augment our power, connectedness and reach.

I have since had a number of different chapters in my career including roles as a management consultant, life coach and entrepreneur, but technology has never been far away. However I think what the world needs more of today is not the artificial intelligence of computers but rather the behavioural intelligence of people.

A better difference

The most authentic way of making a positive difference is filtered through our own life experience, passion, and perceptions of what the world needs. My own sense of need calls me to supporting people to build lives in which they have more mastery in influencing the shape of their day-to-day experience and their life as a whole. A life where they are less limited by their habits and conditioning, and more inspired by their personal possibility, in environments that support their flourishing. You only have to look at dropping rates of various physical, psychological, financial and social well-being measures to realise that people need new skills to manage their lives.

I am bringing my two core passions together. I am teaming up with a talented and diversely experienced group of people to create a new organisation. It’s called IDOJO and our purpose is supporting people to flourish and grow their capability to determine the course of their own life. The word flourish means “to grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way”. It’s synonymous with thriving, prospering and being “successful, active, or widespread”. That’s what we are about; an organisation focused specifically and solely on flourishing.

Time for action

It has taken me over thirty years to unravel the meaning in the clues of my early career. I believe that the future of well-being lies in our capacity for self-mastery, developed in environments where people are respected and support one another. Together with a new generation of science and technology, we have for the first time in history, the potential to support people and groups of people to flourish in a way we never have before. Finally I have found a way to bring my two life passions together. I’m feeling pretty excited. Today is the first day of my true life’s work!