The Most Important Skill You Lack? Navigation
Navigating People. Navigating Opinions.
Welcome to a special free edition of YouTopian Journey, a Substack featured publication. Each week I will be sharing unique wisdom that can help you in the daily battles that we must all fight in the game of life. This week we discuss why you must learn to navigate life.
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Robbed of the most important skill
“Schools serve the same social functions as prisons and mental institutions-to define, classify, control, and regulate people.”-Michel Foucault
There are many skills that are required for success in the modern world. And these skills were often not taught to us in our schools and institutions. Instead, we were fed knowledge that gave us an illusion of education. This illusion led the multitude to believe that they had what was required for a successful life and career. Yet when faced with the demands of reality, this knowledge had no part to play.
We were told that our degrees would prepare us for a rich and successful life.
They didn’t.
We were promised to be equipped for the demands of society that is in constant flux.
We aren’t.
And we thought we would have the skills that could truly make a difference.
We don’t.
So what is the most important skill? What is truly needed? What are we lacking?
It isn’t coding.
It isn’t financial literacy.
It isn’t time management.
It certainly isn’t whatever alternative credential some online bootcamp or course is promoting.
It is the ability to be a proper navigator. Not a navigator on a ship of yore, but a navigator at life. Of all the things we may have missed out on learning in our education, none is more paramount than the ability to navigate life. This navigation can make or break an individual.
Why?
Because navigation is essential for success of any kind.
You must know how to navigate people. Like hazards at sea, you need to know who to avoid and who to seek out. You need to flee from the toxic harbors and instead seek shelter where you can resupply and prepare for the oncoming storm.
You must know how to navigate careers. With the pace of technological advancement, you must be prepared to navigate between future opportunities and obsolete industries. You need to know which port is safe for you to sail to.
You must know how to navigate ideas. We are bombarded with ideas from our screens, from our peers, and from our authority figures. It is madness to adopt them all. You must navigate these ideas, following your internal compass and your own direction. Take in what you think is useful and discard the rest. This is more difficult than it sounds.
You must know how to navigate opportunities. You cannot remain still, rotting away until something extraordinary happens to you. Nothing extraordinary will happen unless you take action to make it so. Opportunities are available, provided you can navigate your way to the ones which are right for you.
You must know how to navigate the fraudsters, gurus, and influencers who attempt to beckon you with their false promises. Don’t be sucked into the latest crypto coin, stock, forex, course offering, or whatever the latest scheme is. You will save yourself the inevitable grief and financial loss you will encounter.
You must know how to navigate the endless opinions of others. People will always comment. They will always share their thoughts on your journey. They will be quick to offer an opinion but nothing else. These opinions are like the sirens of myth, beckoning you to come close, only to become broken and scattered amongst the jagged rocks.
Ultimately, and most importantly, you must know how to navigate the bullshit. With an election taking place this Tuesday here in the U.S, you must be able to navigate the narrative that is being shoved down your throat. Navigate the social media algorithms, the alternative facts, the fake news, the clickbait articles, and the constant stream of filth that awaits.
If navigating life is such an important skill, why were we robbed of it? Why wasn’t it taught to us?
Simple.
Because people are easier to control when following a path provided to them. Instead of taking action and creating their own narrative, their own path, facing danger, risking resources, it is far simpler just to remain on the assembly line of life.
Conform.
Submit.
Obey.
Know your place. Know your student number. Your employee number.
Know where you belong in the hierarchy. Know where you fit in the status quo.
“Schools teach exactly what they are intended to teach and they do it well: how to be a good Egyptian and remain in your place in the pyramid.”-John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
There is a structure to the manufactured life. Don’t you want to follow? Sure you may face doubt, anxiety, dread, and burnout. But that is the price for fitting in.
Don’t you want to pay that price?
Above all, don’t navigate too far from the beaten path.
Because if you do, you may face certain obstacles and uncomfortable truths. Stay in the light. Stay where it is safe. You don’t want to travel through the dark wood.
Who knows what could become of you?
The ability to navigate not only ignores this question, but rejects it. It allows for the formation of new thought processes and ideas that can truly change your life and the lives of others. These new thoughts and ideas could even transform society at large.
But only if you know how to navigate!
“All of your lives you have been trained to believe that your mental equipment consisted of learning how to memorize a multitude of facts. This is what I call a parroting man. To my mind, this inadequate concept of education is the crime of the age.”-Walter Russell
You can still learn
“At present we educate people only up to the point where they can earn a living and marry; then education ceases altogether, as though a complete mental outfit had been acquired…Vast numbers of men and woman thus spend their entire lives in complete ignorance of the most important things.”-Carl Jung
Whatever you do, don’t despair. You can still learn this valuable skill.
You can still teach yourself.
Train yourself.
And become a better version of yourself.
But it begins with you.
No one will be able to properly teach you this skill. If you think there is some course or class you can simply attend, you are wrong.
The art of personal navigation comes from within.
It comes from experiences and learning from past mistakes.
It comes from self-reflection and critical thinking.
Not from some classroom.
“My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself.”-George Bernard Shaw
Think deeply about your past. Reflect on your decisions. Did you make your choices as the result of your own free will? Or were you pushed into making those decisions by others?
Did you attend university and obtain a degree in a subject that truly interested you? Or were you forced into a program because the career prospects were good?
Did you avoid taking a risk because you were truly afraid? Or did you submit to the peer pressure of others?
Did you make decisions for yourself? Or to please your parents? Your teachers?
Are you happy at your present position in life? Are you pleased with the trajectory of your life?
Above all, are you able to change and engage in behavior to navigate the unknown?
I can’t answer these for you. But you can answer them for yourself.
You can reflect on everything and more importantly, you can learn, grow, and change.
Study what interests you. The world is full of free resources and communities to help you grow into the person you truly want to become.
Spend time with the books that interest you, the classics that inspire, and leave the self-help and personal growth books on the shelf.
Find a slack community and begin networking with others, you may be surprised who is willing to help.
Listen to podcasts that keep you up to date on the latest news and information.
Read Substack newsletters like this one that deliver weekly content to help you learn and grow.
Take action to go after it.
Navigate the people you will meet and the situations you will find yourself in.
Become the master navigator and captain of your life.
Charge forward into the unknown, ready to face whatever challenge you find.
Begin today!
“Instead of going to Paris to attend lectures, go to the public library, and you won’t come out for twenty years, if you really wish to learn.”-Leo Tolstoy
CAN YOU HELP ME?
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Catch you next week.
Shaun