Core topic of this note are triggers. These are events that lead us to self-exploration and to the creation of a life that suits us personally. We are therefore at a point where authenticity in the individual begins, or a stream of events is triggered that lead to a more authentic life.
Positive triggers
Among such events, we distinguish between positive and negative ones. Difference is that negative ones are usually quite aggressive and direct in presenting us with a certain fact and making greater authenticity a necessity, while the positive ones offer this as a new, additional possibility.
The message of the possibility to build a life more according to one’s own criteria and desires, the message of this idea or vision of an authentic life, is received by individuals in different ways. It may be concretised in the form of a person we meet in real life, perhaps read about in a biography, or follow in some other way. It can take the form of theoretical learning about the idea, either in formal education or in any other form of learning available to us. It can be in the form of travelling around the world, learning about other cultures, or in the form of a closer relationship with a person who is very different from us, or a person who is very open or transparent in communication. Career changes, such as promotion or starting your own business, can also fall into this category.
All of these events, or all of the images they conjure up, have in common that they challenge our (mainly fundamental) beliefs. We see that there is the possibility of such and such a life, that there are many differences between life stories and approaches to life, that there are different interpretations of life events, and so on. Perhaps certain experiences need not stop or limit us. Maybe we can see that we do in fact have more options than the ones we usually turn to.
Negative triggers
Triggers in the second group operate differently. They confront us with a clear fact and urgency, and usually give us no alternative but to begin to know ourselves and to take account of ourselves. This group includes various (serious) illnesses, as well as the death of a loved one or a significant deterioration in a personal financial situation. Let’s take burnout as an example for the purposes of this paper; and we will use this general term, although it is further differentiated into burnout (linked to work factors) and vital exhaustion (linked to general life factors).
What is burnout all about? Christina Maslach, an internationally recognised researcher in the field and author of The Truth About Burnout, describes the essence of it as follows: it is a regular, repeated and long-lasting failure to respond to signals. This happens either at the level of the individual (in this case it is our body’s signals) or at the level of the system (the signals in this case are expressed dissatisfaction, overwork, too many conflicts, bad relationships, etc.). The signals (in both cases) require 1) acknowledgement or non-ignoration and 2) reaction or change.
What clear fact does it give us? After a long period of ignoring the signals, i.e. the various personal needs, there comes a time when we have to come to terms with reality. Burnout comes in several stages, and at its worst we are unable to perform even basic rules, nurture fundamental relationships, etc. It can bring us to the brink and simply demand that we start to take notice; the alternative is only more serious health complications. Heeding the body’s signals, both physical and mental, learning to understand or interpret them correctly and reacting appropriately – there is a term for this too when we talk about the workplace, namely workplace ergonomics (not only in the physical sense but also in the psycho-social sense of fitting in with human nature). The experience of burnout therefore challenges a set of beliefs about ourselves and, more broadly, our relationship to our body’s signals. Instead of being barriers and constraints, they become sources of information.
Conclusion
Positive triggers work by some kind of vision or image that inspires us. Negative triggers, on the other hand, work by clearly specifying the reasons why change is necessary and forcing us to change. Understandably, personal change is a big deal and we don’t go for every change that is mentioned somewhere; but I think it is worth looking into this kind of content, familiarising ourselves with it – not waiting for compulsion to teach us otherwise.
What do triggers set off? A process of self-exploration or self-knowledge: who we are, how we work, what affects us positively and negatively, what tires us or takes our energy, in which ways of working we find it difficult and in which we find it easy to achieve results, what makes us happy, what we have a lot of emotional involvement in (and therefore a lot of energy to work on). This kind of thinking is, as you know, the foundation for developing an authentic life, including a more independent and resilient life. It is also the foundation for the development of an optimal self-image, the development of personal talents, a higher perception of self-worth and more results, which will find a place in the next writings on authenticity.
Paradim 