From Willingness to Action

You have your endeavours, and I have mine. This framework seems to demand use of the first person singular, so I will think of my personal endeavour. Remember: We are not restricting ourselves to work or employment:  we are considering anything that a human being may aspire to do or be.

Taxonomic Principle

A holistic THEE hierarchy should reveal that the psychosocial entities represented by its Levels «naturally»

1. require each other; &
2. do so in the order specified.

Exactly how they require each other is a matter for investigation and reflection: as shown below in regard to the Root Hierarchy.

Downward Transitions

The natural way for me to think of my endeavour is to start from Willingness-RL7 and move toward Action-RL1. It is easy to imagine being willing to engage in some endeavour without being quite sure as to what and how. (It is harder for me to imagine acting without any mental superstructure: but see below.)

RL7: Willingness→RL6: Purpose
Willingness is vital or I will never start thinking or stir from my easy chair. But alone it does nothing without some rationale, ideal, direction or goal that really means something for me.
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A positive disposition to act cries out for purposes to which I can be committed. At that point, an endeavour potentially exists. But only potentially, because as we know: the road to hell… is paved with good intentions.

Note that if I create a purpose, it is a self-defining act because I have to subordinate myself to that intrinsically impersonal purpose (even if it is, say, for my self-development).

RL6: Purpose→RL5: Communication
I know my values and goals, but the potential endeavour involves or affects others. I can only progress it if I articulate it well and then explain it and talk about it with others.
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A dim sense of direction is not enough: values and objectives need to be specified in sufficient detail to guide pursuit. Then they need to be discussed with others who might be involved in some way. This discussion must make sense and it must envisage something new and beneficial associated with the endeavour. Discussion is required because all endeavours have implementation issues, side-effects and consequences—all often difficult to anticipate.

My communications are not simply what I say or write. My behaviour, demeanour and specific actions often speak louder than words. So I have to pay attention to my conduct in my relationships and possibly in public too.

RL5: Communication→RL4: Experience
Rushing to pursue an endeavour as described to others—even with their agreement, support and advice—is dangerous. It's my endeavour and there are risks for me: relational, reputational, financial, physical, psychological, career-based &c.
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Having created or, more accurately, while creating my castle-in-the-air, there is a need to pause and reflect on how it feels to me and what I sense it means for others. Risks are not objective at this point: the issue is what the risk is for me and how and whether I can tolerate the stresses, all things considered. What is right for other people becomes irrelevant. This type of awareness is about my personal experience, so that I become more personally involved and can pour my energies into the endeavour. It only becomes my endeavour if I can identify with it. (Once identified, transcendence recedes or even vanishes.)

My inner sense of myself and my anticipation and mental preparation for situations generated by the endeavour is my only protection—from myself and from my goals.

RL4: Experience→RL3: Change
The moment has come to plunge in—but into what? An ever-changing profusion of interpersonal and social processes, practical and physical obstacles, political and technological forces and hazards. I cannot proceed until I can envisage an achievable stable end-state.
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Every endeavour has its relevant environment to which it must adapt and with which it co-evolves over time. Any progress involves moving through a sequence of new stable states (i.e. changes) in a dynamic and often difficult to grasp social and physical environment.

Here is where it becomes evident whether my conceptions have any practical validity.

RL3: Change→RL2: Inquiry
The multiplicity of issues surrounding the endeavour and the needed change call out for clarification and resolution through inquiry.
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Endeavours and environments are mightily complex, and inquiry is a way to get some control over that complexity. It is used to gain conviction in regard to possible outcomes. It is also required to determine the necessary resources prior to taking specific action. Of course,inquiry is also used to get knowledge while action proceeds, and afterwards.

As the process unfolds and is checked, conviction and credibility develop within you. If the endeavour is cooperative, others, who may wonder whether to participate, become more likely to join.

RL2: Inquiry→RL1: Action
Testing and inquiring now reduce the risks and provide indications as to appropriate actions in relation to problems or opportunities. Without a flow of action, no endeavour can be sustained.
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However much happens in our imagination (or in our mind, our diaries, or our spreadsheets), it is what is done that is fateful. Everything in the higher Levels has been about providing an understanding that can guide decisions and action. Most action is supportive and sustaining, and not about change i.e. realization of the sought-after goal.

The endeavour-conception is already actualized, but the flow of action that sustains the actualization depends on my continuing personal determination to deal with the daily grind. This, in turn, is based on the value of the endeavour to me. When that value dissipates, the endeavour (or my part in it) ceases.

Having reached this point, is there any further requirement for endeavour? It seems not. Is there an alternative order? If you think so, propose and explain a different order.

Upward Transitions

The upward transition does not seem so natural because personal action-RL1 without any psychosocial superstructure is so puzzling. But it is possible to create an explanation that makes some sense (perhaps).

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• Because this is the Root Hierarchy, it is a fundamental force for good. However, at the same time, it is necessarily also a force for destructiveness: should we so choose. Explore this perverse application of energies.
• The quality of the hierarchy and its Levels has now been sufficiently developed to provide a map to help handle my personal endeavours.

Originally posted: 06-Jul-2011. Last updated: 5-Jul-2012