The Venn Diagram of a Knowledge Theorist

Hello, fellow excavators!

It’s been a crazy, but wonderful week…even with this nasty fever!

Last week was part 1 of the 3 part series!

1. Defining discipline

2. The Venn diagram of self-mastery

3. The three ways to connect everything for your audience

Today, we’re going to dig into part 2…the Venn diagram that is also my Twitter banner…

I’ve recently re-branded as I am going along…turns out writing nearly 10,000 tweets shows patterns emerging!

As Sean Cannell from “Think Media” says, “Success leaves clues…”

Let’s get to it!

By Three They Come…

If you caught that, I hope it’s as good as it looks when it drops next month!

The diagram for self-mastery is made of three domains:

Physical - the body

Mental - the brain

Spiritual - the soul

Pretty straightforward, right?

Now about the combinations or “combos”:

Physical + Mental = Organic Intelligence

Mental + Spiritual = Self-expression

Spiritual + Physical = Physical being

The mind is composed of the combination of these three…hence the brain at the center.

Self-mastery requires cultivation of these areas.

Discipline drives the systems that are geared toward the process.

That’s why we defined it first…

Now that we’ve introduced the diagram, let’s focus on each aspect…

By the end of this edition, we’ll be ready to discuss the final topic in this series!

Here we gooooo…

The Prime Ev..uh..Domains

So let’s start with WHAT we create…

1. Physical Domain

• your body

• pure physical forms

• reality and existence of the world

This domain covers all of creation.

Everything around you that you can perceive with your 5 senses is included here.

There’s nothing that is hidden, only what is not observable to the naked eye.

From the quantum realm to celestial objects, this domain encompasses all of it!

Naturally, we reside in this domain.

We also create in this domain…but HOW you may ask?

That’s where the second one comes in!

2. Mental Domain

• your cognitive powers

• general intelligence

• thought processes

Our brains are a bag of jelly composed of 86 billion neurons…

That’s a f*ckton of these things!

It still blows my mind that we are unique because we are wired in infinite combinations.

8 billion people in the world barely even scratches the possibilities.

…and yet we are all connected in some way…

Why else do we have audiences to write to??

Think about it…

If you see it this way, there’s absolutely no reason for you to NOT succeed if you are a content creator!

With these two domains presented, now we come to WHY we create…

3. Spiritual Domain

• emergent behavior

• faith in a higher power

• acceptance of the unknown

I need to be careful here…

This is a DEEPLY personal part of the triumvirate.

We all have our ways of structuring our faith:

Christianity

Buddhism

Judaism

Hinduism

Islam

The list goes on and on. This is our way of attempting to explain our existence and our raison d’etre.

We create because we feel compelled to describe the world around us in a way that we understand.

We reach out in hopes that we find others who share in our beliefs as well.

We are social creatures after all…and the emergence of the collective behavior of who we are as a species can be more easily seen as the population increases.

OK…now that we’ve covered the primary domains, let’s dive into how they combine to create the others!

3 Killer Combos

A good friend in my high school years used to say “don’t order combos…”

He was so funny…clever guy and talented pianist.

Wherever you are, Yuji, I hope you are doing well and living and loving life!

Unfortunately…we’re going to do just that: order combos (sorry, man)!

1. Physical + Mental = Organic Intelligence

The organic intelligence is what resides in your brain…that sack of neurons we mentioned above…

I specifically make this clear because we now have the rise of AI (artificial intelligence).

AI is composed of circuits, the internet, and a vast powerful network of algorithms to leverage the entirety of human knowledge to date.

In my humble opinion, that resides in the physical domain alone…at least for now!

We’ll talk more about that in another edition…

For creation, your mind is the most powerful tool you have at your disposal.

You are generating something unique because there is only one configuration of these neurons in your jelly sack!

However, the stuff you write isn’t really meaningful without the next combo:

2. Mental + Spiritual = Self-expression

Yep. Your brain does the work to generate content, but your self-expression is what sets you apart from the masses!

Context is king in content creation!

The inclusion, and lack of, context is what grabs people’s attention!

This is where:

• powerful hooks

• compelling visuals

• viral videos and media

are born!

Everything that compels us to buy and sell our goods and services stems from our self-expression and the need to feel a sense of belonging.

This is our call to the void…our call to the masses.

However, our organic sack and need for context require energy and sustenance…

This is where the final combo comes in…

3. Spiritual + Physical = Physical being

“Mind over matter” is a powerful thing.

However, I think it relates more to the spiritual reference of the mind.

We are fully capable of achieving anything in reality:

• lifting 5340 pounds

• eating 76 hot dogs in one sitting

• holding your breath for over 24 minutes

The “why” of any achievement drives humanity forward.

We are spiritually obligated to make our marks on the world…

With these three combos presented, let’s now talk about the ultimate combo…

By Your Powers Combined…

The synergistic emergence of all three areas create three combinations.

These combinations overlap to define the journey of Self-Mastery.

I know…I know…it’s becoming more common to see people talk about it (and with good reason).

The journey is different for everyone…

and this is why I say I’m an ADVOCATE of this process.

I don’t claim to know your background or your story and say that there is only one way to do it!

What I do want to show is how my journey has progressed.

If you have been reading this newsletter (thank you thank you thank you!!!), then you can start seeing there’s a pattern emerging.

I can’t stress this enough:

Your self-mastery process is yours and yours alone!

I’m here to provide:

• guides

• context

• structure

If writing is your thing, I hope this helps…but really, what I aspire to write can be applied to any area and any discipline.

That’s what the Venn diagram of self-mastery is…

This how I see the process, and I hope that it can be of use and reference to you!

The Takeaway

Here’s this week’s actionable exercise for you:

In the Venn diagram:

1. Go through each domain

2. Go through each combination

• List out all the things that matter to you in each.

• See where the connections lie between and among them.

• Draw lines to illustrate the connections…and realize what emerges as you do!

Ok.

This is the first exercise in self-mastery.

Once again, you’ve reached the end of this edition!

Once again…I’ve got something for you:

If you want the process above as a worksheet, it’ll be up in my Livelogue!

Again, I stash EVERYTHING I dig up and create there!

As usual, it’ll be live and the goodies will evolve.

BTW, if you tried to access last week’s…apologies for having it unavailable for a period of time! (I forgot to publish it to the web!)

If you’ve completed the previous exercise, I hope this one complements it well!

You’re well on your way to seeing the bigger picture…

A Knowledge Theorist sees connections among the unrelated…

Oy oy! I’ve been here long enough! Why doesn’t anyone stop me?

Still trying to get the dosage right…

In any case, thanks for reading to the end!

Next week, I’ll share my method on content creation and the three types of writing that are key to becoming a clear and compelling communicator…both by speaking and by writing!

You stay classy, [insert your location here]!

Vince

P.S. All teh references…

P.P.S. I’m really packing them in this week aren’t I?