ABSOLUTE ASCENDANCY

Anyway, during all of this festive fun, my introspective mind came up with an idea to lead this year’s series of blog posts off with.

Raising the Lower Tide

Ultimately, this concept is about trying to improve quality of life. As you know, life is full of up and downs. We try to navigate these periods as best we can, in a reactionary manner. Taking a hypothetical example of a person named Bob; let’s say his life can be equated as follows.

• Best Days: 7
• Worst Days: 3
• Overall Quality of Life Average: (7+3)/2 = 5

(Note: that this is a really simplified calculation to illustrate the points I want to make)

So Bob is your typical guy who on the whole leads an average life. Bob is keen to improve his overall quality of life average. What most people tend to do will be to try and improve the value of their best days. So they increase the frequency of having good times (we assume that an increased frequency of good times is equivalent to increasing the value of good times for the sake of simplifying the average calculation, otherwise things get a whole heap messier with the mathematics, and I don’t really want to bore you with all of that).  They party more, toxify themselves more intensely, binge on junk food and so on so forth. Now in theory what should happen is the following;

• Best Days: 9
• Worst Days: 3
• Overall Quality of Life Average: (9+3)/2 = 6

Success right? The average has increased from 5 to 6, assuming that the frequency of best and worst days is equivalent. It is not quite so simple, I’m afraid. What if I now said that when Bob has his worst days, he feels really terrible about himself, to the point where suicidal tendencies pervade his thoughts on such days. In cricket, life is the bowler, and each of us are the batsmen. The bowler can make as many mistakes in their deliveries as they like, without severe consequence. The batsman however, only has a single life line. One mistake, and their stumps are blown, and their life is forfeit.

This is why the common approach, especially in the Western world is flawed. It doesn’t matter how high you feel at your best, if you feel so terrible at your worst you end up being unable to carry on. Eastern practices are very much aware of this, and are why they will focus their efforts on ‘raising the lower tide’. Increasing how they feel on their worst days effectively.

• Best Days: 7
• Worst Days: 5
• Overall Quality of Life Average: (7+5)/2 = 6

The average is still 6 but the numbers are less swingy. Less of a rollercoaster ride; more consistent and stable. The question then becomes ‘how do you raise the lower tide’? If partying more increases good times, what helps improve the bad times?

Ultimately, it comes down to pre-emptive preparation of fortifying your mental resilience. My Mastermind series of blog posts is worth consideration for improving resiliency. Improving the hard times has much to do with setting up a strong foundation before the storm hits. Putting good practices into place and applying them consistently. Kind of the opposite to improving the good times, which can be done with much more spontaneity.  

Conclusion

My December was full of fun, but with the New Year in full swing, it’s time to revert to my standard mode of operation and re-instigate my good habits, which I admit has slipped a little over the past few weeks.

I am not saying that you can’t have good times and enjoy yourself, but make raising the lower tide a resolution for the New Year, as the concept will serve you well.

Mission complete – Overlord Drakow signing out.